Long Day's Journey into Night NYC Reviews and Tickets

"What you do doubt is that they are members of the same family, bound by blood ties that will ultimately strangle them. That, unfortunately, is an omission that can make 'Long Day’s Journey' feel even longer than it is…Mr. Byrne gives a beautiful performance — a haunted and haunting incarnation of fraying majesty…His character, an emblem of squandered potential, paradoxically turns out to provide this disjunctive production with its one memorable instance of great potential fulfilled."
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"Jessica Lange brings stunning colors to the role of a woman clawing her way through fog. You can’t take your eyes off her…The other actors orbit around Lange’s blazing star turn in painfully believable patterns of resignation...Although 'Long Day’s Journey' is nearly four hours long, and deals centrally with stasis it passes quickly...You’re grateful for every minute you get to spend in the beautiful, miserable company of a family whose abiding devotion is hopeless."
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"Kent's starry production, led by a transfixing Jessica Lange, invites us to see reflections of our own closest relationships in the haunted Tyrones…Shannon puts such a unique spin on so much of his dialogue that the play's final act takes on invigorating new life…But the production belongs to Lange…Lange inhabits those unearthly spaces with fragility but also with the fierce narcissism and cunning of the addict."
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"Kent’s new production feels weathered instead of raw, hollow instead of potent…Jessica Lange has a masterful grasp of her character’s fragility...There is a surprising distance and disconnect — between the actors and their characters, between the actors and the audience...Do the actors admire O’Neill’s words and feel honored to be saying them, but don’t necessarily believe in them?...This might be the first major Broadway production that feels old."
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"As staged by Jonathan Kent, the outstanding revival has a lighter tone and softer edges that, paradoxically, impart a deeper sorrow onto this classic domestic tragedy...Lange brings both grace and gravity to Mary’s futile efforts to deny reality…Byrne’s performance as James Tyrone, Sr., is quietly commanding…Michael Shannon delivers a strong performance as Jamie…As Edmund, the focus of so much of the family angst on this terrible, terrible day, John Gallagher, Jr., is likely just miscast."
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"Kent’s direction and Ms. Lange’s performance really keep the character’s descent under choreographed control...It is a portrayal that sustains the audience in rapt voyeuristic attention almost to the end…This ensemble makes for a compelling evening. If the impression doesn’t last much longer, the fault is partly O’Neill’s. For all the careful choreography of spiritual descent, you don’t watch this play to see characters evolve (or devolve). There is nothing really to be surprised at."
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"The revival is transfixing. It may sound like no fun at all to spend nearly four hours with the Tyrone family, but by the time this journey was done, I was completely given over to the dark and dangerous spell of O’Neill’s masterpiece. It was as though I was seeing it for the first time. This would have been impossible without one of the rarest convergences on Broadway: an all-star cast and director that works as well on stage as they promised on paper."
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"I found it hard to believe that the characters were even related...The effect of this shifting character balance is a smaller play about addiction and its repercussions in the home. O'Neill knew alcoholics the way Wordsworth knew daffodils, but he didn't write a 12-step drama…If great ensembles are a credit to their directors, ineffective ones point to where the blame should be laid.…This O'Neill outing felt like an endless exercise in Beckettian waiting."
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“Lange applies a relatively light touch here...The show simmers at a low, but effective, boil. It’s striking to consider how minimal it is and how epic it feels...Byrne fares best whenever he’s opposite Lange...Still the stage belongs to Shannon and especially Lange, who slowly builds to Mary’s operatic aria of desperation — few actors can express vulnerability so achingly. You don’t need shock tactics to rivet an audience in its seats.”
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"Even a perfectly tuned production can be an endurance test. Performances aren’t all equal in Jonathan Kent’s staging...Jessica Lange maximizes her meaty role’s potential…And when she’s not onstage, Lange is missed. Actors playing the Tyrone men—each in love with the bottle—have varying degrees of success. As the tightwad James, Gabriel Byrne has the presence of a matinee idol...John Gallagher, Jr., fails to summon much grace or gravity."
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"A strong revival of the four-hour tragedy staged by English director Jonathan Kent and led by a powerful quartet of actors…This is an extremely difficult play to pull off, relying on rich prose instead of overt action and featuring miserable characters basking in overwhelming despair. The performances here are exceptional all around, but the production is likely to grow smoother and more engrossing as the run continues. The stylized and spare set design is distracting and looks incomplete."
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"Jonathan Kent’s immaculate production starring Jessica Lange leading a glorious ensemble, is riveting from start to finish…Our hearts bleed for Lange's Mary Tyrone...She is hauntingly radiant. The beauty of this production is the perfect balance - both in the writing and performances - that speaks to the emotional interdependence defining so many American families. Like the scarred Tyrones, we fight, we cry, we love and amid all the sadness, we manage to survive."
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"A magnificent production…Director Jonathan Kent and an extraordinary cast led by Jessica Lange and Gabriel Byrne have achieved a masterful staging of the undisputed classic…It's Shannon, though, with a growling New York accent, who torches the stage in a blistering fourth-act tour de force…Kent's production runs three hours and forty-five minutes, yet his nimble pacing mostly dissolves all sense of time right through to the last word."
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“I've seen several fine productions of ‘Long Day's Journey’, but never have the characters' savage emotions percolated so close to the surface....At the American Airlines these nights, the characters' fury is red hot, their sorrows so corrosive that of course they grab desperately at anything to dull the pain. This may or may not be the best version I've seen, but it is certainly the most immediate. These Tyrones know where each other's scar tissue is, and they aren't afraid to probe it.”
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"You're catapulted on less of a roller-coaster ride of feeling than is sometimes the case, and because that can be a major source of exhilaration, the final product may not satisfy everyone. But everything is here and, within these strictures, just about everything works. This is especially true of Lange, who's superb as Mary...It's a testament to both the play and Kent's treatment of it that these stumbles cannot stop this production from landing with full hurricane force."
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"Not only has director Jonathan Kent assembled such a dynamic cast and achieved titanic performances from them, he has staged everything with geometric preciseness…For a play of such length the pace is as swift as possible utilizing overlapping dialogue and overall seamlessness…The Tyrones’ unhappiness is specific yet timelessly universal. That’s why the play enduringly resonates and this revival magnificently affirms that."
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"Revisiting the unhappily chained together by their familial bonds Tyrones has enthralled me again and again. Happily, that was the case with my latest visit...At almost four hours it's long, but somehow never too long...Lange's current portrayal is one of the best and most moving I've seen...When she makes her final descent down the cottage's steep staircase carrying her treasured wedding dress, it's gut-wrenching...Fortunately the other actors impressively support Ms. Lange."
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"I felt nothing. I wasn’t moved, not once, either to laughter or tears...Part of the problem is that the actors have been allowed to get weepy pretty often, and we are unconstrained to join them, but a larger part of the problem is the director’s failure to connect them, in any meaningful way, or to pull them together into any semblance of a real family. With the exception of John Gallagher Jr., the actors do fine individually, but they are acting in their own vacuums."
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"The major issue with this production is precisely that it allows each of the main actors to act in their own unique little world. When the four leads are onstage, it’s as if we’re watching four elaborate performances trapped within individual snowglobes…If director Kent’s intention was precisely to alienate each of the Tyrone family members as further apart as he could, he forgot that there would eventually be an audience having to endure this disjointed exercise."
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"My mind started wandering about three hours into this one, but soon enough, the words, and those reciting them, pulled me back in…A quartet of excellent actors is bringing the Tyrone family to vivid life…Jessica Lange and Gabriel Byrne are outstanding and the ones who most remain with you…This is tough going, but when it’s over, you will feel either that you have been beaten up but survived, need to call your mother, or go out for a very stiff drink."
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"For those who saw the 2003 Broadway production, the new production is likely to feel in some ways disappointing. All three men in the current production are terrific actors, who have done better work elsewhere...Lange makes Mary the center of attention for the audience as well. She is not just a fading ethereal figure, but a robust woman whose entire life unfolds before us—alternatively innocent, skittish, coquettish, sneering, full-out furious, resigned. It’s a memorable performance."
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"If Jonathan Kent’s production sometimes suffers from low spirits and the script – with its repeated exclamations, recriminations and long quotations – can sound confoundingly circular, it remains a visceral and poetic evocation of familial tenderness and injury…At its best moments – and there are many – this 'Long Day’s Journey Into Night' shows us life as it is and also the clarity and fog, the darkness and light, that surround it."
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"Brevity and subtlety are not among O’Neill’s strengths…The fourth and final act seemed endless...The first problem for me was that Shannon is so much bigger than Byrne that he literally and figuratively overshadows him. In a restrained performance, Byrne is not convincing as a former matinee idol. Lange’s Mary, on the other hand, is much too theatrical for my taste...Jonathan Kent’s direction does not produce a unity of approach from the actors. "
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"An above-average—but merely 'above-average'—revival...Shannon and Lange, with a partial victory by Byrne, are not quite enough. John Gallagher, Jr simply doesn’t work out as stand-in for the playwright...Even so, this is a welcome opportunity to see the play, and the chance to see a top-flight performance by Jessica Lange. But when you leave 'Long Day' enthusing about the actress playing Mary Tyrone—well, that doesn’t seem to be where O’Neill was heading."
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"Byrne’s portrayal stands out for its understatement…Under Jonathan Kent’s direction, Byrne and Lange handle the sharp changes in tone adeptly to create a mesmerizing dance of death… Kent is not as fortunate with Gallagher. Those shifts are jarring, sometimes risible, when he attempts them…Even though Shannon tries to recede into the background, his immense presence pulls focus…He’s a force of nature, and Byrne’s James Tyrone, especially, could never be his father."
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"Jessica Lange has here written the dictionary on various forms of nuanced, nervous laughter, fluttering hands, darting eyes, and erratic vocal change. The actress embodies power, desperation, and fragility with equal conviction…Much of this play has the Tyrone family staring at each other or brooding in a corner. There’s also a great deal of anxious, aimless walking and hapless gesturing. Kent successfully holds tension and guides focus during these evocative parentheses."
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"It's Lange's nuanced, quietly wrenching performance that anchors the new revival…This staging, by British director Jonathan Kent, doesn't pack the emotional or theatrical wallop of its predecessor, but its bleak naturalism remains compelling for 3 ½ hours (excluding a 15-minute intermission). Though the venue is large, Kent keeps the performances relatively intimate, and painfully accessible...The striking Michael Shannon brings a flush of earnestness to Jamie."
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"The temptation is to talk all day and into the night about Jessica Lange as Mary Tyrone...This really is, with perhaps one miscalculation, a stunning revival of this churning family exorcism...Nothing gets in the way of O’Neill’s emotional rhythms, which come in waves and mood swings of lumbering honesty, outbursts and apologies, litanies of accusation and self-recrimination. Everyone has betrayed everyone else in this great play, but O’Neill makes us believe in them all."
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“Rarely do audiences get to witness a performance so rich and fully realized that it’s hard to imagine anyone else has ever played the part. Jessica Lange is delivering just such an indelible, knockout performance...Director Jonathan Kent’s revival of O’Neill’s ode to regret otherwise has much to recommend its nearly four-hour run time...Whether Lange’s performance feels too close to home or helps you realize your family isn’t so effed up after all, it’s not one you’re likely to forget."
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“Jessica Lange gives one of the most transcendent stage performances seen in years...What this production, beautifully directed by Jonathan Kent, lets you see is the deep love that's shared in American drama's most famous dysfunctional family...The acting company isn't perfect. Gallagher is a bit too modern, and the mostly very good Shannon is occasionally an awkward fit...Byrne, though, makes a compelling James, an ideal companion for Lange's haunted Mary.”
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"Roundabout’s first-rate take on O’Neill’s 'Long Day’s Journey'…Director Jonathan Kent guides the simple and elegant, nearly 4-hour-long production…Leads Lange and Byrne share an effortless chemistry…Lange is magnetic as the family matriarch…This is a solid production of a canonical play. The actors inhabit their characters with as much truth as can be mustered: Lange, for one, seems so immersed that we feel as if we were watching some real Mary Tyrone.”
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"Just under four hours long, I’ve always felt the play could use a little weight, but I don’t really question Mr. O’Neill’s decision to pound his points home...I do know I was held spellbound throughout, and I don’t think the playwright himself could have wished for a finer ensemble than the one assembled here...This production, under the very tight direction of Jonathan Kent, will send you out into the night after a nourishing and provocative theatrical experience."
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"The three hour and 45-minute production is a long sit, not for the ADD or 'Bright Star' crowds. But the actors are committed (if occasionally too actorly) and Lange effectively captures the woman’s isolation, loneliness, and regret. The second half amps up the booze, emoting, incriminations, and dark humor. Mary disappears for a long time, then comes back, dementedly, as a little girl (her old self) desperate to be a nun. She’s Blanche DuBois again, after the breakdown."
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“Lange is masterful here...When she's onstage, no one's as compelling. When she's not, however, the show drags...John Gallagher, Jr. is miscast...never fully connecting with anyone else on stage. That lack of connection is actually a problem for more cast members than Gallagher. Under Jonathan Kent's direction, this show, particularly in the second act, feels more like an excuse for showboat acting than an organic portrait of a family in decline."
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“Some may be wide-eyed at its 3 hour and 45 minute marker, but time flows like water as you enter the crumbling world of the Tyrone family...This play carries actors that can portray the humanity of a broken soul...Jessica Lange is riveting as Mary...Michael Shannon’s Jamie will leave anyone in an emotional puddle...Gabriel Byrne is dastardly...Minifie, in particular, is hilarious and her few moments are like breaths of fresh air...Director Jonathan Kent has done a stellar job.”
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"Jessica Lange dominates the production...Actors Gabriel Byrne and John Gallagher Jr’s grip on one scene seemed almost tenuous at times, but that’s the weakest patch in this formidable, searing production. Director Jonathan Kent’s impeccable pacing is most evident in Act 1...Shannon as the older brother perfectly conveys anger’s acid-drip...In the final soliloquy, when Mary concludes, 'and then I met James Tyrone,' well, that’s what theater’s all about."
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"Such rich convergence of dramatic past and future is missing from the accomplished yet slightly vacant production...The Roundabout's virtuosic cast more than meets these demands...Rising to the challenge of the mammoth text is an accomplishment worth celebrating. But it's hard not to long for a little bit more from this production...The performance doesn't feel theatrically durational — just long."
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"Director Jonathan Kent has assembled an all star cast. It's great watching stage and screen veterans Byrne and Shannon go toe-to-toe...Tony winner Gallagher is terrific…But it's Jessica Lange who is, unsurprisingly, the stand out. Watch as she dances around the stage while Mary dances around the issue...Listen as her voice changes on a dime, betraying the confusion and fog that keeps Mary in her own world. She is mesmerizing."
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“You’ve not truly seen Jessica Lange perform until you catch Roundabout’s revival, for this is probably her best performance in years, if not ever...Michael Shannon gives a solid depiction of a man overcome by his demons...Unfortunately, John Gallagher, Jr. is less effective...In a season of unorthodox revivals, it’s refreshing to see one that’s simple, straightforward and free of gimmicks, allowing audiences to appreciate everything that is great about an American classic.”
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"Lange gives a Tony-worthy performance as morphine-addicted matriarch Mary Tyrone. Jonathan Kent’s direction of this star-packed revival is substance to those who love great drama and acting…The actors bring to life the Tyrone family’s dysfunction but enable the play to be a compelling evening...Overall, 'Long Day’s Journey Into Night' is a masterpiece which should be seen and will hold your attention throughout the night."
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"This titanic masterwork is so closely observed and carefully structured by O'Neill that it stands up to new meanings…In Jessica Lange’s masterful hands, we have a very intimate long day’s journey into the terror and soul robbery of mother Mary Tyrone’s addiction…This production is crystal clear…When she stares uncomprehendingly at her aged hands, we believe her disbelief. What a wonderful, wonderful piece of work…What concentration. What a privilege to see it."
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