Les Liaisons Dangereuses NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (295)
See it if you enjoy intelligent straightforward classical theatre. This also requires an emotional investment with characters who may not deserve it.
Don't see it if you are looking for a light entertaining evening of feel good theatre. Three hours with these difficult characters is no walk in the park. Read more
See it if you want to see superb acting. This is the 3rd version of Liaisons I've seen and by far the best. Set is awful, but everything else is great
Don't see it if you don't like good acting.Set and some of the choreo between scenes is overly theatrical.Play itself works very, very well despite that. Go
See it if you love Liev. He's so strong and great on the stage as is Janet McTeer - the real star of this show.
Don't see it if classical play with little theatrics isn't for you. It's a great story and brilliantly acted. You should love to see it!
See it if a war-of-the-sexes via sexual combat, inappropriate conquests, and dry wit appeals to you.
Don't see it if you're not a Liev Schreiber fan? Though I'm not per se, he's pretty good here.
See it if you enjoy period pieces that have a certain bite to them. This is a well-acted show that tends to be a bit talky, but is overall engaging
Don't see it if you don't like plays that you actually have to pay attention to and think about. It is not action-based. It is a dialogue period piece. Read more
See it if You like a fun, period drama with great acting and witty dialogue. Liev and Janet are wonderful.
Don't see it if You're looking for a short, simple night at the theater. It requires some concentration to keep track of the characters
See it if you want some great actors performing on a classic story.
Don't see it if you are not into plays. It was a very long show and can be a little slow at times. Read more
See it if you're interested in an intelligent production with masterful performances & exquisite design (you'd think a Vermeer painting came to life).
Don't see it if you need something fast paced and easily accessible.
Critic Reviews (63)
"The casting of Schreiber as slinky, high-styled sexual predator Le Vicomte de Valmont in 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' threatened to be an uneasy fit...Director Josie Rourke’s celebrated revival from her Donmar Warehouse was hardly a sure thing. It is one now...Schreiber finds another way, an increasingly irresistible way, into a character generally expected to exemplify the exquisite, unrepentant boredom of the pre-Revolution French aristocracy."
Read more
"A significantly more confident and sexier iteration of Josie Rourke's production. Janet McTeer is joined by Liev Schreiber as her co-conspirator in sexual mayhem; together they capture the characters’ supreme vitality as well as their vulnerabilities. There's a faster heartbeat – and darker heartache – to their tangled dance of deceit, but Rourke’s production breathes easier on a larger head-on proscenium stage where it is not as crowded as it was on the three-sided Donmar stage."
Read more
"Where’s the thrill: theirs and ours?...Janet McTeer at least has oodles of fun, and we with her...She is wonderful, malevolent company....Schreiber seems hangdog, not sneering, low energy and cautious when he should, at least early on, be surveying rooms with beady, acquisitive eyes and lascivious intent...The pile-up of self-awareness, contrition, tragedy, and regret at the end happens so quickly its impact feels fleeting. Ultimately, these liaisons seem more tedious than dangerous."
Read more
"The evening doesn't have the smashing impact you expect...Schreiber has powerful moments, but he's not the most subtle boulevardier on the rue...McTeer is her usual persuasive, interesting self, and in the late scenes, when Merteuil and Valmont have their long-delayed showdown, she and Schreiber together produce some extremely volatile theater. It's a shame this revival doesn't get in touch with that urgent dramatic tone more consistently during the evening."
Read more
"Promiscuity no longer carries the same mortal taint it did in the 18th century. And fallen women certainly don’t get packed off to convents any more...But in every other respect Janet McTeer brings Laclos’s original vision of a consummately two-faced anti-heroine to thrilling life in this revival...As Valmont, Schreiber is clearly and rightly the junior partner. But he too delivers a commanding performance, full of wry comic touches, even if an extra touch of menace occasionally seems lacking."
Read more
"Regretfully, McTeer and Schreiber elicit no fireworks...Instead of lusty magneticism, he appears bored and disengaged. The two banter with clever flirtations but any fire between them has been long extinguished. After almost three languorous hours, the vicious guiles of Merteuil and Valmont become tiresome. Directed by Josie Rourke, the play has entertaining moments seesawing between sharp wit and cynicism. Rourke elicits sharp portraits from the supporting cast."
Read more
"The Donmar Warehouse has imported a production worthy of Christopher Hampton’s text. The stage is both lavish and dilapidated, the walls peeling and the floor littered with paintings as if the French aristocracy were already preparing to flee the Revolution—and indeed, by the end of the play, most of the set has disappeared. Director Josie Rourke has flawlessly choreographed the action so that at moments we forget we are watching a devastating tragedy rather than a bedroom farce."
Read more
"Rourke's new revival does many things right...Yet this 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' has a fatal flaw—a miscast and uncomfortable-looking Liev Schreiber...Without a compelling Valmont at its center, the first act of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' never sufficiently heats up...The second act proves a little too bitter...This may very well be what Rourke is after—a 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' more horrific than satiric—but it doesn't quite seem true to the spirit or complexity of Hampton's play."
Read more