Sylvia NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (410)
See it if you like great acting (except Matthew Broderick) great writing, great directing. It's fun and funny and endearing.
Don't see it if If pets aren't your thing, if you can't stand ex-machina changes of heart.
See it if You like light fun comedy's, are a dog or animal lover or fan of Ashford who delivers a wonderful performance!
Don't see it if You prefer heavier thought provoking plays or don't like dogs
See it if you love dogs. Without a devotion to furry friends, Sylvia's charms are elusive. Broderick was bland; Ashford too spicy. I didn't laugh once
Don't see it if you want an intelligent, insightful evening of theater. Sylvia is entertaining drivel. Closing doggie pix was a cheap bid for approval. Read more
See it if you can get the tix for $5, which I did
Don't see it if you have to pay a lot.
See it if you enjoy inoffensive satire of male mid-life crisis and hilarious display of physical comedy by Annaleigh Ashford embodying a dog
Don't see it if you'd be disappointed by production that never rises much above level of a sitcom and the soporific acting/non-acting of Matthew Broderick
See it if You love dogs and anything having to do with them.
Don't see it if You don't like very quirky comedies.
See it if you're in the mood for something generally light with heart, but also has some depth to it.
Don't see it if you're turned off by the idea of a woman playing a dog.
See it if you want to see an actress play the part of a sexy dog. Matthew Broderick was so weird in the show that nothing could save it for me.
Don't see it if you are not a "dog" person or like intelligent theater.
Critic Reviews (49)
"'Sylvia,' despite being one of Mr. Gurney’s more popular plays — the woman-plays-dog conceit probably helps — feels tediously overextended and repetitive at two hours and two acts. Although it has a certain silly charm, a sweet message about making connections both human and non- and some nicely turned jokes, ultimately the play has all the heft of a teacup poodle."
Read more
"Broderick, perkier than he’s been lately, gets crucial voltage from Ashford and White, both endlessly inventive comedians. Ashford has the showier role, dashing about in fanciful doggy couture and keeping up a sassy stream-of-consciousness. She sniffs strangers’ crotches with impunity; she butt-scoots on the carpet; she swears viciously at cats. What a joy to see Ashford unleashed."
Read more
Unfortunately, this fantastic comic challenge is a dramaturgical disaster... A play that already seemed 20 years behind the times in 1995 now seems not just tired but icky... I left the theater — after the sappy post-curtain slide show — feeling pretty much like Kate, peeved and disapproving but unable to suppress a smile over the adorable doggy proceedings."
Read more
"What makes the one-dimensional play even more annoying, however, is its questionable sexual politics... The natural conclusion is followed by an unnecessary coda that goes on to spell out the obvious, turning it into pure schmaltz. No one would blame even the most nonmilitant feminist from snarling both at self-absorbed Greg and his manipulative bitch."
Read more
"Just as quickly as a puppy can forget its mission du jour (be it bone or ball), so can a cynical audience member dither between delight and dismay at a 125-minute play about a man’s mutt-borne midlife-crisis. Eventually, the dog wears you down... Even to the most pessimistic, 'Sylvia' is innocuous and zippy, surprisingly foul-mouthed, and perhaps the very definition of disarmingly funny."
Read more
"The shrewdest thing about this Broadway revival of 'Sylvia' was the decision not to update the comedy to the present day, when it would probably be stoned to death by feminists. Not because the title character, a dog, is played by a woman, but because the villain of the piece is the wife of the dog’s besotted owner. If you can put such thoughts out of your head, it’s a perfectly charming show."
Read more
"'Sylvia' is one of the very best small-cast comedies of the past quarter-century, and this revival, directed by Daniel Sullivan, is so funny that I can’t see how it could fail to ring the box-office gong... Mr. Sullivan’s production may not get everything there is to be gotten out of 'Sylvia,' but it’s totally successful on its own broad-brush terms. It’s been a long time since I heard a matinee audience laugh as hard. I laughed, too—and so will you."
Read more
"Think too hard and the whole thing falls apart, or into a kind creepiness as Greg’s affections turn obsessive and just this side of sexual (I hope)... Robert Sella plays three increasingly annoying characters whose comic relief is vulgar, unnecessary and overdrawn. So leave the deep-thinking cap at home, and settle in for some pleasurable laughs. A lot of them."
Read more