Long Day's Journey into Night NYC Reviews and Tickets

"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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"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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"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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