The Cherry Orchard (Roundabout) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (360)
See it if You enjoy Chekhov's work and know what you're getting into. It's a weird play and even good actors can't make it less confusing.
Don't see it if You have to a have a firm story, and characters with firm resolve. The characters are unmotivated and unrepentant. Which is frustrating.
See it if you like Chekhov and try and see any adaptation of his plays. are interested in seeing any of the actors in a live performance.
Don't see it if you are looking for something absorbing or seat gripping.
See it if you want to see a fine, it not outstanding production of a classic; you want a take on the play that tries to keep it relevant to today.
Don't see it if you're expecting a life-changing or very exciting production
See it if You like Chekov or anyone in the all star cast.
Don't see it if You don't like modern adaptions of old scripts. It takes a lot of liberties and loses some substance
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 Diane Lane and Joel Grey are actors you wish to see live. This orchard travels through time costume wise. The concept is a bit jarring.
Don't see it if you like a more traditional approach to the classics.
See it if you like new visions of classic plays.
Don't see it if you dislike modern adaptations of classic work.
See it if you enjoy Chekhov plays with beautiful design. The directing is a little all over the place but it's very much like any of his plays.
Don't see it if you want something that is less dense and more put together.
Critic Reviews (45)
"A gray, dramatically underdeveloped affair that makes a poor argument for rethinking classic plays...The production gives a meager sense of time and place, leaving the actors in a kind of theatrical void...It ends with perhaps the most famous concluding sound in theater: the chopping noise as the trees in the cherry orchard begin to fall...If what’s led up to that moment has affected you, it’ll be a touching finale. In this case, the sound was just a signal that it was time to go home."
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"Backed by some impressive dramatic pedigree...Alas, it all falls flat. The problems begin with Karam’s version, which veers awkwardly between demotic American vernacular and stilted transliterations of the original Russian...Everyone seems to be reciting lines rather than actually talking to each other. Lane is particularly disappointing and on this evidence just doesn’t have the muscle for classical theatre...When Karam and Godwin’s intentions do reveal themselves, the muddle only deepens."
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“An alternately despairing and giddy production…Roundabout’s 'Cherry Orchard' is visually in the past, but aurally in the present. The result is a mixed bag lacking symbolic resonance: The audience gets neither the tragic grandeur nor the comedy of the aristocracy seeing its dominance end. Rather, this is a portrait of one clueless family losing their fortune because they don’t know how to save a buck.”
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“The new revival is one of those well-intentioned projects that sounds great on paper, but quickly goes nowhere on stage…The show never finds its footing, and Karam, director Simon Godwin and the cast frequently seem to be working at cross-purposes…’The Cherry Orchard’ fails to sustain our interest for more than a few minutes at a stretch, much less manages to capture the proper anomie and heartbreak of an entire way of life plunged into sudden and steep decline.”
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"Karam tries something interesting here. Working off a literal, word-by word translation, he adapted Chekhov's archaic words into something resonantly contemporary...The lustrous cast all seasoned professionals, nonetheless flail around, acting in different versions of the same play, searching for some commonality to unite them. But they never find an emotional connection with each other or with us. And when the cherry orchard is chopped down, we feel nothing."
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"Two things this Roundabout production had going for it were a new version by Stephen Karam, whose own play, the Tony-Award-winning 'The Humans' is far better than anything Chekhov ever wrote, and this production's stars...This version didn't seem any more interesting than the original to me. If you don't already know the plot, it is a bit difficult to follow. Lane seems lost up on the stage as characters seem to be wandering around at times without direction from Simon Godwin."
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"Karam’s adaptation of 'The Cherry Orchard' is one of wit and freshness...Director Simon Godwin fumbles things, staging the first act as farce, the characters mugging as if they know they’re in a Chekhov play. It muffles Karam’s writing. When the production slows down, breathes, and lets the performances speak for themselves, it’s powerful. Diverse casting brings a present-day sharpness to the play’s critique of a ruling class reaping the benefits of slavery and inequality."
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"Godwin and Karam put an American spin on the Russian staple, making it vital and relevant. (Oh, and funny.)...Though she's doing fine work, Lane seems too young to be Lyubov...At the act break, I was most eagerly awaiting Perrineau's take on Yermolai's big moment and Keenan-Bolger having something to do other than fret. They delivered in spades...It's a vibrant, meaty production, one that feels just as urgent as the original 1904 Moscow Art Theatre production must have felt."
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