The Cherry Orchard (Roundabout) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (360)
See it if /4 top cast including Diane Lane, John Glover, Celia Kennan-Bolger & Joel Gray, updated script/production make accessible 2 modern audience
Don't see it if in playing up humor & spectacle, dumb down play, sacrificing transcendent poetry & heartbreak of original script; left w/ is this Chekhov?
See it if Innate love for Chekhov allows you ability to put up with dreadful productions ---which this is
Don't see it if Horrible, inept adaptation by Karam & arty, over-conceptualized direction by Godwin ultimately defeats able cast
See it if you're interested in seeing some great performances by a Grade A cast, or you enjoy seeing new productions of classic works.
Don't see it if you've previously seen a production of this play that you enjoyed. This version may not live up to your standards. It's largely forgettable.
See it if you don't have too many preconceptions about what The Cherry Orchard is "supposed" to be and want to discover this production's take on it.
Don't see it if you have strong opinions about what The Cherry Orchard is "supposed" to be.
See it if you want to see hard working actors do all they could with a bizarre production of Chekov.
Don't see it if you don't want to spend a few hours wondering why this revival was produced and what Roundabout could have been thinking.
See it if You want to see this classic play adapted by Stephen Karam (The Humans). Fun to see so many actors familiar from TV, movies & theater.
Don't see it if You don't like Chekhov and/or have seen this play too many times. If not this is a great version to see. Read more
See it if you love Chekov. This is a flawed production, missing the heart and pathos of other productions. Acting was excellent, but directing wasn't.
Don't see it if you are used to feeling deeply at the end of the play or if you like to really think about the class issues involved. This misses the mark Read more
See it if You have to see all classic theater, no matter how poorly acted. Weird how the cast deliberately fumbles and trips etc.
Don't see it if Slow, sleep inducing, totally miscast and bizarre show.
Critic Reviews (45)
"This frenzied, flashy take on one family’s mortgage crisis may be the most clueless interpretation of Chekhov I have seen. And, yes, that includes high school...It’s impossible to discern a coherent point of view...From the get-go, people are forever falling down, tripping over furniture, breaking things, and, it would seem, forgetting their lines. Yet there’s no spontaneity in their clumsiness, nor any sense of the cast members sharing a common approach."
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“The only question is whether a new frame or filter works on its own terms. And with this thoughtful but often schematic and disjointed 'Cherry Orchard,' the answer is: only in spurts...Godwin works well with several excellent actors…All the actors' bodies are in uncommonly strong dialogue with each other…By stylizing Chekhov's world, the human stakes and basic relationships are drained of power. ‘The Cherry Orchard’ can survive harder ax blows, but this attempt is just so much peeled bark.”
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"No one sets out to under-serve Chekhov. The problem is that all hands must be seeking to serve in the same way. Here that does not appear to be the case...The large Roundabout cast often does well enough giving sharp physical life to individual characters...But, lacking a coherent group style, the ensemble nature of the play feels ragged, as if drastically under-rehearsed...The result feels more like an engaging gloss of 'The Cherry Orchard' rather than the thing itself."
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“In 'The Humans,' Karam balances humor and melancholy with exquisite naturalism. The subtly shaped text is light on narrative but alive with a compassionate sense of very real people...What could be more Chekhovian? That makes the thudding failure of Karam's new version all the more deflating. The bulk of the blame should be apportioned to Godwin's production, which is clumsily directed and unattractively designed...What's missing, primarily, is the fundamental element of pathos."
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"From the start, the Roundabout Theatre Company’s loud, broad revival makes no attempt to find a tragicomic balance...Not everyone seems to have received director Simon Godwin’s go-big-or-go-home memo. Joel Grey is indescribably endearing, and quietly funny. Celia Keenan Bolger is giving a beautifully understated performance. As for Lane, her performance, still a bit tentative, falls somewhere in between...Perrineau just looks uncomfortable. As do too many other people on stage."
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"Diane Lane takes her shot in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway revival of Chekhov’s most beloved play—and proves to be engaging, if not remarkable. Not that anyone really has a chance to shine in director Simon Godwin’s shapeless production...'The Cherry Orchard' normally brings tears and laughter to the coldest of hearts. But there is surprisingly little emotion stirred by this production."
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"The most pointless production of a Chekhov play I’ve ever seen, a stylistic mélange whose ill-fitting parts give the impression of having been hammered together out of three or four different jigsaw puzzles...Karam’s workmanlike new adaptation recasts the play in an unpoetic English that is scabbed over with modern-day slang and given a vulgarizing shot of progressive politics...The acting is noisy and superficial."
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“It takes Chekhov at his word in classifying it as a comedy. Too much so, as it happens, in a mixed-bag of a production that despite some high points, struggles but fails to achieve a consistent tone…Much as I admire Karam’s work, he and Godwin conspire to score some contemporary political points while setting the action in a vague anytime…Too much of the show has a devil-may-care antic quality that not only leaves Lane at sea but also misuses other good actors."
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