The Cherry Orchard (Roundabout) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (360)
See it if You like Chekhov and you want a different take on a classic or if you want to see great acting and beautiful staging.
Don't see it if You think classics need to be presented in one way and one way only. If you didn't like Annie Baker's UNCLE VANYA, don't see this.
See it if you are a fan of Chekhov. The new translation is bracing and modern and effective, even if it's not fully supported by the direction.
Don't see it if you're not in the mood to sympathize with wealthy people who made unwise choices and are in danger of losing everything. Read more
See it if If you love Chekov or the socio-economic, waning aristocracy and class warfare themes associated with Russian Literature from the 1900's.
Don't see it if You want breezy.. It kind of has a high barrier for enjoyment that you'll need to work for with focus, patience & a little imagination. Read more
See it if you're up for a flawed if fresh take on Chekov that harks back to his original, pumping air, contemporaneity & modern relevance into it.
Don't see it if you're expecting the usual serious often tragic, dry-witted very Russian Chekov, lacking farce or comedy; don't like fresh takes on classics Read more
See it if You enjoy Chekhov's work, period pieces, and a diverse cast in a dark dramedy. Optimism and nievety blind the mistress from the inevitable
Don't see it if You have a short attention span, want something light or expect to be entertained by a standard musical or comedy. Read more
See it if you enjoy a new take on an old work, bringing relevant themes to the forefront and reworking the material for a contemporary audience.
Don't see it if you have a very specific idea of what a production of the play should be when you walk in.
See it if you love Joel Grey, Diane Lane, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Tavi Gavinson.
Don't see it if you're picky about interpretations of The Cherry Orchard.
See it if you would like to see a classic tale re-told in a new, modern take. A well acted play that updates the "lingo" and sensibilities of 1908
Don't see it if you are a traditionalist. The modernization of the play leads to a great deal of comedy. John Glover especially shines in this regard.
Critic Reviews (45)
"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."
Read more
"Chekhov’s final play and a timeless tragicomedy about how people choose whether or not to respond to a changing world proves to be less powerful than usual in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s disjointed and flat revival...Godwin’s production is disjointed and wholly ineffective...It’s nice to have three live musicians but their featured presence can be distracting. Performers in smaller roles work too hard for laughs, adding to the inconsistency."
Read more
"Stephen Karam would seem to be the ideal translator of the angst and sorrow that’s befallen a declining family, but his adaptation, with director Simon Godwin, over-reaches and underestimates the subtle brilliance of Chekhov’s drama. Their attempt to update the story essentially strips the play of its particular context...Though talented, the cast lack cohesion...I don’t begrudge the effort to modernize Chekhov. It’s just that this vision failed to bear any fruit."
Read more
“Despite bold design choices and solid performances, there's something a little too precious about this version, leaving us cold and yearning for a stronger perspective. Chekhov's prescience only politely brushes against us rather than punching us in the gut, as it should...Unfortunately, this approach has resulted in a series of half choices that only serve to dilute the play and keep the audience at arm's length.”
Read more
"The production seems to be struggling to pull 'The Cherry Orchard' from the 20th to the 21st century as much as one of the play's main characters struggles to pull the others from the 19th to the 20th...A production that appears to be full of ideas that don't quite blend into a unit...A fine company of actors gives individual performances that rarely seem fully connected to one another."
Read more
"In a staging device that has proven to be controversial, these feckless souls are visibly dragged into modernity. This choice, and a few others, may divide audiences...Godwin orchestrates a parade of telling moments from the rest of his cast...The production tries to maintain a foot in two different centuries, but the execution of this idea should be stronger, even more daring, to work fully. Nevertheless, the center holds as this production has its share of telling moments."
Read more
"The play unfolds everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Paradoxically, this does not make it easier to absorb; rather, it imparts an air of desperation, as though no one watching could be expected to follow the action if it were done without the adornment. It probably could have passed itself off as acceptable if Godwin had ensured that the actors were all in it together...Well meaning, maybe, but lacking any sense of what is truly necessary, what is not, and what anything it's saying means."
Read more
"Director Simon Godwin’s production remains hopelessly misguided in many ways...Godwin directs too many of the early scenes as if he were helming a sitcom on ABC’s Wednesday night lineup...Stephen Karam further muddies the waters with his new translation. Not only is it too contemporary in its language, but he takes a surprisingly unsubtle approach in bringing Chekhov’s underlying theme of class differences to the forefront."
Read more