Take Me Out (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"It’s not the kind of work that benefits much from postgame analysis, which reveals flaws in construction and logic. But in performance, now no less than in 2002...it is mostly delightful and provocative. Perhaps especially for gay men, it is also a useful corrective to the feeling of banishment from a necessary sport...But as Lemming and Marzac form a bond — not romantic but not untender, either — the ideas that Greenberg is juggling, about integration on the ball field and integration of the psyche, fully pay off."
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"Nearly 20 years after its Tony-winning run in 2003, Take Me Out has returned to Broadway at Second Stage’s up-close-and-personal Helen Hayes Theater. Directed by Scott Ellis, it remains provocative, intelligent and engaging. [Richard] Greenberg likes big words, big themes and messy complications."
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"Under Scott Ellis’s direction, the clownish characters go extremely silly and broad: the Spanish-speaking ballplayers in particular ask for easy (and ugly) laughs...Ferguson as Mason breathes in the smell of the grass at the stadium, and his face transforms, blissing out, starting to shine. He does a lovely job with the role, and Greenberg’s lyricism is at its strongest in his scenes, but he’s playing against a ghost runner...Luckily, there is Dirden. He appears in only two scenes, rolling into them with a low-rider gait that establishes his dominance over the others."
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"The play’s resonance goes beyond the enduring invisibility of gay men in pro baseball; it hits harder in a post-Trump America where homophobes, racists, white supremacists and other bigots have been emboldened to own their toxic prejudices...Director Ellis expertly navigates the play’s shifting moods...Ellis digs into the more sobering developments with equal skill, and his experience with musicals gives him a nimble grasp of the tricky rhythms of Greenberg’s loquacious dialogue. His sharp eye for casting helps him coax incisive performances from a terrific ensemble without a weak link."
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"You might not be familiar with the ins and outs of the sport, but it'll be hard to walk out of the Helen Hayes Theater after two hours and fifteen minutes without caring about the story you just watched unfold onstage...The production team's minimalistic approach to set design smartly serves to elevate and highlight the strong performances of 'Take Me Out,' acknowledging that this is the kind of play whose success and engagement hinges on sharp, nuanced relationships and emotions between the eight racially diverse cast members."
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"Directed by Scott Ellis, this revival, too, is a solid hit, despite a few grounding errors...Despite some new tweaks, Greenberg’s ambitious script still has a pile-on of themes, dealing with gender, race, sexuality, celebrity and spirituality, not to mention major league sports. But the playwright and this production still manage to bring it home in the play’s ninth inning with a graceful, bittersweet denouement that leaves characters still searching, still discovering and still in play for another season."
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"Mr. Ellis, a veteran Broadway director here at the top of his form, has in fact fielded an entirely terrific all-male cast, almost a dozen actors who, as with the best pro sports teams, work smoothly together even as they shine individually."
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"Scott Ellis’ grounded staging spotlights and underlines the conflicting emotional subtexts in Richard Greenberg’s profound script, in a production of Take Me Out that is an alternately tense, funny, and heartrending toast to America’s favorite pastime."
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