See it if you're looking for an electrifying performance. Bryan Cranston is outstanding, the show is captivating.
Don't see it if with young children
See it if you are looking for an unusual theatrical experience with some very familiar faces and trust me, you will NOT be disappointed.
Don't see it if experiencing a Master class in the art of acting administered by no less than Bryan Cranston himself doesn't interest you. SHAME ON YOU!!!! Read more
See it if Masterful stage adaptation that transforms the Belasco into a fully functioning TV studio. Career defining performance by Bryan Cranston.
Don't see it if Network is wild, busy, and loud. Some might not go for its style. Lee Hall’s play is a copy and paste job of Paddy Chayefsky’s screenplay. Read more
See it if you are a fan of Bryan Cranston, but even without him this show has masterful staging with state of the art sets and phenomenal acting.
Don't see it if you don't like period piece dramas and have trouble following complex stage directions with layered performances.
See it if This show grabs you from the beginning and takes you on a brilliant roller coaster ride. Cranston is brilliant! The production is amazing.
Don't see it if you want something light and fluffy or a musical. But you should see this show. It's so well done and relevant to today. Read more
See it if you want to be completely absorbed and confronted with big picture questions. utterly masterful.
Don't see it if you want leave feeling good about the world.
See it if Relevant to feelings of today.
Don't see it if if angry is an issue, then don't go see it.
See it if Cranston rocks but great ensemble and what a set.
Don't see it if So entertaining most should enjoy. Not for kids.
"And if you’re a glutton for great, high-risk acting, you owe Mr. Cranston the courtesy — and yourself the thrill — of watching his self-immolation...If the bravura dementia of his Howard makes much of the rest of the show seem as two-dimensional as a flat TV screen, it’s a trade-off I’m willing to accept, albeit with a sigh...As a portrait of a displaced man unraveling, Mr. Cranston’s wrenching performance stands on its own."
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"Bryan Cranston has a hell of a mad scene in the middle of 'Network'...It’s riveting stuff, because Cranston is an extraordinary actor, and also because, for an extended moment in this tech blitz of a show, there appears to be a human being onstage. Paddy Chayefsky’s Oscar-winning screenplay was a satire of the values of the television age, but humor has never been Van Hove’s strength, and this 'Network' has virtually none of it...'Network' isn’t galvanizing, it’s numbing."
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"There’s something flat about van Hove’s production. It’s got all the requisite external flash, and Lee Hall’s adapted script is clear enough in its outlining of the story’s heightening stakes — the problem is, we recognize those stakes intellectually, but we don’t really feel them...van Hove has only one actor who’s truly on fire. Bryan Cranston’s Beale is a ferocious performance...Other than Cranston, the people feel stuck, sometimes overwrought and often stiff."
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"Chayefsky’s predictions having long since come to pass, 'Network' is thus a musty period piece...Cranston overcomes that obstacle by putting a personal spin on the part...Not so his colleagues...which has the unintended effect of turning 'Network' into a one-man show...If you’re willing to pay Broadway prices to see Cranston give a tremendous performance, there’s a chance you’ll go home happy. Otherwise, you might as well rent the movie."
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"My late-arriving discussion of the production seems justified for a play so completely dominated by a single performance. In most other respects, 'Network' is something of a let-down, and certainly no improvement over the film...The adaptation by Lee Hall sticks close to Chayefsky’s original script, with mixed results...Cranston comes damn close to matching the power of Finch’s Beale, focusing more than he predecessor on the character’s desperate sadness."
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"Cranston has some truly stunning moments...The central directorial conceit is a measure, of course, of van Hove's genius...Not all of the personal scenes are as strong as Cranston's astonishing solo spots...But while you might wish for more depth in some scenes, that's just not the point of the production. This is one profoundly clever show, the rare conceptual masterwork that puts all the current railing against fake news and cheap network theatrics in a much broader temporal context."
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"Chayefsky’s diatribe, which played as satire almost a half-century ago, takes on fresh fury in a sizzling stage production, directed by Ivo Van Hove, that feels less satiric but more urgent — and frightening — in today’s times...The depth of Chayefsky’s cynicism is so breathtaking, so full of existential despair that it makes today’s critical pundits look like weepy whiners. Although Cranston never pushes Beale over the edge into madness, he brilliantly nudges him to the outer limits of anger."
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"The satirical sting may have been blunted by time, but the prescience is indisputable...What hurts the writing at 40-plus years' distance is that by remaining locked in the 1970s, it arguably doesn't go far enough...Still, as a real-world horror show about the profits to be reaped by accessing popular anger, 'Network' remains gripping, largely because Cranston makes his character's tragic trajectory a white-knuckle ride, and van Hove infuses the drama with dizzying kinetic energy."
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