Hughie NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (147)
See it if if you're really into set design, this has the most beautiful set on Broadway.
Don't see it if if you're looking for entertaining theater or great developed acting.
See it if most expensive nap I ever took!
Don't see it if nothing grabbed me at all.
See it if you want to fall asleep. Not even the wonderful Forest Whitaker can keep my mind from wandering off while watching this!
Don't see it if you are interested in watching an engaging, thought-provoking play. It was really disapponting! :(
See it if You just want to see a "movie star" on stage. Or an O'Neil completest.
Don't see it if you don't want a 50 minute nap.
See it if Nobody
Don't see it if Even if your are a Forest Whitaker fan.
See it if you are a masochist. This is 60 minutes of listening to a narcissist grieve. And the actor was being fed lines at the water cooler.
Don't see it if you have literally anything else to do with 60 minutes of your time.
See it if This is the only ticket you can get for a Broadway show.
Don't see it if You are a huge O'Neill fan. I personalluy found it boring. I could not even fall asleep. It seemed to go on forever.
See it if You want to see Forrest Whitaker. You have Nothing else you want to see.
Don't see it if You don't like monologues. You dislike shows that hit you over the head with its theme.
Critic Reviews (50)
"If you want to see one of the world’s great film stars take on live acting, hurry to the box office because Whitaker’s performance is deft, subtle and as comfortable as a pair of old sneakers...The performance is what you expect from a master of the theatrical arts...I really wanted to love this production, but sadly, O’Neill’s work isn’t on a par with his more famous plays...Whitaker deserves a better result here, but the early closing isn’t his fault. I blame Eugene O’Neill."
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"Whitaker is infinitely faithful to the sad emptiness that is Erie and gives a remarkable performance, true in its multiple layers, extraordinary in fashioning O’Neill’s difficult language and its punctuation into a verisimilitude of human speech...Even the 'greats' cannot be great all the time and 'Hughie', no matter how beautifully produced, performed, directed, remains a minor note."
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"It's a kick to see Whitaker take on this 1920s New York charmer. He's a true pleasure to watch in the role, showing a lot of heart and humor...Wood is perfect...Under Grandage's direction, 'Hughie' is a robust production of a slight play. As a portrait of a raconteur realizing that he may be losing his touch, it is compelling during its slim 60 minutes...To be transported to this bit of old New York is a nice treat but still may not feel like a completely fulfilling evening of theater."
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"The play was directed by Michael Grandage who attempts to capture the meaning and feeling of O’Neill’s script...
Mr. Whitaker downplays the character to a point of nothingness. Mr. Wood spends most of the show listening to the long monologue of Erie. This is a show which could have been more dramatic if [Whitaker] had played Erie like his Oscar-winning role in 'The Last King of Scotland.'"
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"Whitaker plays a very generalized Erie Smith almost entirely on one note, a genial rube who thinks he’s wise, with a very generalized need to talk, never quite making the Broadway patois of the day fully his own. The aimless halting phrasing becomes tiring, without the flashing intelligence and sensitivity Whitaker has brought to so many movie roles so unforgettably. We get a vivid walk-on’s worth of character."
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"Well worth seeing, thanks to its extremely talented, multiple award-winning cast and creative team. It is a definite star vehicle that provides an opportunity for Whitaker to transfer his formidable cinematic talents to the New York stage...Whitaker has a natural warmth and charm that serve his character well. His Erie is both believable and touching; as sympathetic as he is pathetic.."
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"He gives an impressive performance as the sketchy Erie...The production is directed by Michael Grandage with a dream-like quality...The play is drawn out and repetitive leaving you wondering whether you have fallen asleep and are in a dream. Dare I question one of the great contributors of the American theatrical canon?"
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"Whitaker imbues Eerie’s showboating with impressive understatement. He has a lovely physical refrain, a kind of shuffled pirouette of a jig…The night I saw it, there was that sense of every consciousness in the auditorium merging into one rapt and receptive cell. It was a moment of magic, of palpable pure attention. That kind of spellbound state cannot be forced, so it’s curious that Grandage would have chosen to intersperse the play with several heavy-handed interludes.”
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