M. Butterfly NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (333)
See it if you enjoy well-paced presentation that is clear and enjoyable. This retelling of the story is a great production-do not expect the original.
Don't see it if you do not like be spoken to by the main actors or if you want an original staging of this play.
See it if You're intrigued by stories that explore the tension between Western and Asian culture, and the line between fantasy and reality
Don't see it if You are uncomfortable with full, male nudity
See it if you want to see star performance by Jin Ha in a solid show; your expectations going in are not overly inflated because of the creative team.
Don't see it if you are distracted by clunky sets (great idea but poorly executed) or are expecting a profound experience (not as impactful as it once was).
See it if you’re interested in a non fiction version of Mme Butterfly or if you’d enjoy an east meets west, thought provoking play w/ complex issues.
Don't see it if you only enjoy light hearted themes or dislike complexity of human minds & sexuality and may be offended by nudity on stage.
See it if mesmerising staging and great performances. I loved the chinese opera and Maoist opera sequences.
Don't see it if not for homophobes. not for people who have trans gender issues. also, chinese opera sequences are very dissonant.
See it if you have always liked the play. DH Wang's writing is still relevant today. Poetic.
Don't see it if you don't like plays where you need to listen to an actor telling you the story or hate oversimplifications of historical facts
See it if you like good acting and an intriguing story. Clive Owen is terrific and Jin Ha is also excellent.
Don't see it if you loved the original. Although I didn't see the original, apparently people who saw it liked that version much better.
See it if Good acting, profound themes
Don't see it if Sexual themes
Critic Reviews (53)
"So much revision has been done to the 30th anniversary production and first Broadway revival of David Henry Hwang's Tony Award winning 'M. Butterfly' starring British film star Clive Owen that it is a bit of a misnomer that the play retains the same name. While the themes of East and West relations may be even more relevant now than in 1988, the play seems to twist itself out of shape to retain the element of surprise."
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“The script additions and deletions and Taymor's staging innovations work quite well...Owen and Ha both give vivid new life to the diplomat and the object of his fantasy...Both are best when alone on stage...since the sexual sizzle between them never rises above a simmer...Go to this ‘M. Butterfly’ with an open mind. Even if it doesn't add up to quite the 'wow' you saw or heard about, you'll find it to still be an intriguingly unusual and enormously theatrical story.”
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"A stunning production. Playwright David Henry Hwang has made some minor revisions, but the play still packs the dramatic wallop it did in 1988...Hats off to Taymor, who peppers the play with vivid pageantry bursting with color...Yet Taymor’s sense of spectacle never gets in the way of what, if rocky and ultimately tragic, is a tender love story...Taymor, Owen, and Ha make major contributions to this exciting production, but it’s Hwang’s tight, toned and fluid script that is the star."
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“The original production enjoyed a distinct advantage over the current one...Its shocking denouement sent shivers down the spines of unsuspecting audiences in a way that the current incarnation couldn’t possibly aspire to achieve...While not much is wrong with this production, we couldn’t help but yearn for the magical theatricality of its first version. Not until the final, beautifully acted and very moving scenes, did we feel true, dramatic energy fill the stage.”
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“Taymor’s onslaught is straight on powerful and direct, energetically engaging, and dramatically concise. It doesn’t seem to want to mask this tale in a romantic or mysterious mist, but to shine a more harsh, realistic light on the story...A bolder and less gauzy attitude is being presented in this production...A powerful and well acted revival. The big reveal does lack surprise, but Hwang’s factual altering of this story brings it forward into the present world.”
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"The production unfortunately leans towards flatness and simplicity which dulls the power of the play and muddies the play’s intentions...It’s a pleasure to watch Hwang disassemble and disabuse the audience of archaic orientalist, colonialist notions. If only this production were worthy of Hwang’s creativity...Taymor’s stark, severe approach chills the dream-like elements of the play...Owen is too handsome and suave to be fully believable as a fumbling, socially-inept fool."
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“The stunning albeit straightforward play about fantasy, deception, espionage, and betrayal seems to have lost its way...What did work for this production is the casting of Ha as Liling and Owen as Gallimand...Working against the performances, unfortunately, is Steinberg’s cumbersome and oddly unimaginative set. The constant movement of stage hands (and actors) pushing, pulling...distracts from the needed grounding of the plots and subplots driven by the conflicts of the characters.”
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"Hwang’s explorations of these themes in the play remain timely, shockingly so...All these added details may make the play feel more realistic; they certainly complicate it. But those of us acquainted with the original may feel that in the process of grounding the story in fact, there has been a loss of some surprise…resonance…mystique...The new 'M Butterfly,' for all its changes, remains provocative, enlightening and entertaining."
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