Long Day's Journey into Night NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Member Reviews (436)
See it if you like classic Amer theater. An arresting (but overlong) script w/rich characters. Nice to set it in its period (take that, Ivo).
Don't see it if you can't find 4 hours in your life to visit w the tormented Tyrones. Very talky, repetitive. Imperfect performances (Lange/Bryne best).
See it if You enjoy seeing a classic play brought to life by some of the best actors gathered on one stage. Jessica Lange is magical!
Don't see it if You have a short attention span. It's long but worth it.
See it if You like a grand poetic work of literature, that makes you think about the human condition. Jessica Lange is amazing.
Don't see it if You are not up for a nearly 4 hour play.
See it if you're a fan of O'Neill, like great acting, enjoy Jessica Lange, like epic family stories, see good perfs from Byrne and Shannon
Don't see it if you can't endure a 3 hour 45 min play, don't enjoy O'Neill's verbosity, don't like scenes that get extended too long or played in darkness
See it if /for sublime Lange, fine Michael Shannon/ James Jr., brilliant portrayal corrosive effect booze/drugs, set evoking characters' ghostly lives
Don't see it if /since John Gallagher ineffectual Edmund Tyrone; admire performances without always being moved by them
See it if You want to see a major revival of a major American classic with incredible acting.
Don't see it if You can't fathom sitting through a four-hour family drama.
See it if you enjoy shows with themes of family dysfunction or alcohol/substance abuse. I drew parallels with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
Don't see it if you're looking for something light and fluffy--or short (this behemoth of a show runs 3 hours 45 minutes).
See it if you're a big fan of the play or of any of the performers, particularly Michael Shannon and Jessica Lange.
Don't see it if a running time of 3 hours and 45 minutes is daunting to you, particularly when it feels like there are plenty of extraneous moments.
Critic Reviews (41)
"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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