M. Butterfly NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (333)
See it if You are looking for a different type of Butterfly. As I watched this play fold out, I was wanting more.
Don't see it if If you think it like musical and dancing for not alot of sing.
See it if I saw the original Broadway Show and it was riveting. This production directorial and design wise looked like a budget bus and truck tour.
Don't see it if If you was dramicic effects and accurate chiness opers. See it at the Met museum next year in the Astor court . That is amazing. Read more
See it if you love Owen or new talent. If you're new to the story. Clever... with political and gender and machiavellian overtones.
Don't see it if you find stage manipulation distracting..hands turning panels v high school. If you adored 1st production this might disappoint (didn't see)
See it if I had never seen M. Butterfly before. I definitely could see Julie Taymore's influence. Clive Owen was great. Jin Ha was amazing. It is
Don't see it if very worthwhile. See it, if you can suspend belief that this man could have been in love with this "woman" and intimate for 20 years Read more
See it if you haven't seen this very good play staged before; you are interested in exploring the East vs West dynamic in a ever relevant way
Don't see it if you think Clive Owen is too "attractive" to play an awkward character; you dislike nudity
See it if You like a well written, well acted, racy and, in parts, humourous play.
Don't see it if Easily offended by nudity and some crude dialogue. Read more
See it if You're interested in seeing a great revival of a classic play. Excellent performances all the way around. Great dramatic content.
Don't see it if You want a less serious, more musically oriented experience. Also avoid it if you are uncomfortable with gender bending themes. Read more
See it if You are looking for well acted thought provoking theater with interesting set design.
Don't see it if You dislike stage nudity, or need a fast paced lot. Read more
Critic Reviews (53)
"To his infinite credit, Owen does everything in his power to overcome this central bit of miscasting...Taymor adds some unusual visual elements to the production...Still, the production feels a bit skimpy, and one can’t help but wonder what Taymor would do with a larger budget. Try as everyone might, this 'Butterfly' never really soars; but it rarely crashes to the ground either."
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“This butterfly doesn't soar…It's…clear that…Taymor's strengths are mainly visual and rhythmical; the acting in her work is too often geared toward the theatrical…The performances in 'M. Butterfly' tend to be colorful but overripe and lacking in subtlety. Too many speeches, especially in the play's closing moments, have the feel of message-laden rhetoric…Without a believable, much less moving, connection between Gallimard of the West and Song of the East I doubt that ever the twain shall meet.”
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"A play that uses the tools of theater to both celebrate and question how we give ourselves over to fantasy. Nearly 30 years on, it’s still clever, tender and formally daring. But Julie Taymor’s staging and Hwang’s rewrites unbalance the delicate poise between illusion and truth...Owen is a captivating presence, even playing a man without allurements. Jin Ha makes a nicely spiky Song...This new version is more grounded in fact, which leaves one hungry for particulars of the real story."
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“The revival lacks chemistry and plausibility...I never believed that either was infatuated enough or in lust enough, to make this story real. You also must believe that Song can pass as female and sadly I never believed that...Owens performance is lacking in any kind of substance. At times it felt like he was reading the phone book...I found myself feeling nothing for Gallimard...This revival of ‘M/ Butterfly’ just lacks humanity and all those things that make us feel and are human.”
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"Hwang has so much going on that it’s difficult to say for sure what’s going on, and sometimes that includes the plot. What does come across in the new 'M. Butterfly' is that Gallimard never has much sexual interest in women. Owen’s riveting, tortured portrayal makes that clear...Julie Taymor is better known for directing sets than actors, but her success here isn’t limited to Owen’s performance."
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“I found ‘M. Butterfly’ 2.0 to be a fascinating, provocative series of boxes and surfaces, constantly shifting and reconstituting itself to beguile our senses and sympathies...Taymor’s intense, painterly staging complements the shifting perspectives and cinematic quick cuts of Hwang’s script...Taymor creates a dazzling series of tableaux that mesh perfectly with Hwang’s heightened, poetic lines...Owen is unexpectedly vulnerable as a Frenchman undone by his cultural prejudices."
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"I was prepared to enjoy the production on its own terms and, to some extent, I did. Owen...unconventional choice to play the socially awkward Rene Gallimard, carries it off well...The complex story remains fascinating even though the playwright’s revisions...may have added too much information at the cost of mystery. There are occasional moments, particularly at the trial, when it becomes too much like a geopolitical lecture. Nevertheless, there is much to admire."
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"Occasionally striking but ultimately disappointing...Taymor focuses on visuals and neglects the human connections. The opening is gripping...But the subsequent staging consists mostly of actors running on and off...There is little spark between Owen who is miscast, and Ha who is intriguingly feminine...The first version was infused with mystery and sexual longing, but both playwright and director have clipped the play’s wings, leaving us with an earthbound 'Butterfly.'"
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