The Father (MTC Broadway)
Closed 1h 30m
The Father (MTC Broadway)
85

The Father (MTC Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

85%
(325 Ratings)
Positive
92%
Mixed
7%
Negative
1%
Members say
Great acting, Absorbing, Thought-provoking, Intense, Intelligent

About the Show

Manhattan Theatre Club presents the American premiere of a new play by Florian Zeller about an elderly man dealing with dementia; starring Frank Langella, who won his fourth Tony Award for this performance.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (325)

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148 Reviews | 36 Followers
92
Ambitious, Great acting, Masterful, Profound, Thought-provoking

See it if Frank Langella is magnificent. Beautifully written to viscerally experience the confusion of alzheimer's. Intense but entertaining.

Don't see it if you want to miss a great show

181 Reviews | 25 Followers
91
Great acting, Clever, Intelligent, Relevant, Masterful

See it if you like dramatic structure that surprises and a tour-de-force performance (almost over-acted)

Don't see it if you do not like to see drama about dementia or any life-threatening illness

80 Reviews | 30 Followers
91
Absorbing, Great acting, Great staging, Great writing, Original

See it if Brilliant tony-winning performance by Langella.If you relate to parental care and dementia issues.Playwright develops fascinating structure.

Don't see it if Stories of loss, dementia, abuse will affect you negatively. If flashing bright lights may trigger a migraine.😕

52 Reviews | 12 Followers
91
Gripping, Heartbreaking, Great acting, Great staging, Impactful

See it if you are curious about dementia from the sufferer's perspective, must see Frank Langella's funny, poignant, and heartbreaking performance!

Don't see it if you find the subject matter difficult to watch, but go anyway!

63 Reviews | 18 Followers
91
Resonant, Great acting, Clever, Absorbing

See it if you like your theatre to make you think about the human condition: about yourself, your family, and those around you.

Don't see it if you're looking for something light-hearted

MD
65 Reviews | 10 Followers
90
Absorbing, Great acting, Masterful, Intense, Resonant

See it if You want to weep and think about aging.

Don't see it if You want to keep your mascara on your eyelashes.

61 Reviews | 7 Followers
90
Absorbing, Great acting, Intelligent, Profound, Relevant

See it if If you appreciate a great actor in his prime in a performance that runs the gamut of emotion. The play is brilliantly constructed.

Don't see it if If you do not like to become too emotionally involved in a play.

137 Reviews | 24 Followers
90
Absorbing, Great writing, Relevant, Powerful, Great acting

See it if you want an engrossing story of decline, Watch the sets. Rivals the Humans as a great play for the 2016 season

Don't see it if you don't want to see a man's decline, beautifully written and wrought

Critic Reviews (43)

WNBC
April 14th, 2016

"Langella’s mercurial performance surely will be relatable to any audience member who has spent time around a person with dementia...Much of 'The Father' is a delusion, and so we work to form our own conclusions about what's real or not, even as André’s shifting reality guides us toward a foreshadowed ending. This is an intricately constructed drama depicting a phenomenon few can identify with—what it must be like to be a capable person slowly losing his mind."
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DC Metro Theater Arts
April 16th, 2016

"The device the author and director Doug Hughes have chosen to present this difficult material to us is elevated by the superb work of Frank Langella. The material itself is somewhat inconsistent in that the supporting characters are not nearly as interesting...As this play is conceived from the father’s point of view, it is in the end saved by the richness of Mr. Langella’s work...The final moments are as moving and heartbreaking as the old gent."
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Out Magazine
April 18th, 2016

“The play has a lot of short scenes punctuated by blinding flashes of light...I found that approach a tad irksome, and though the play is initially innovative and is touching throughout...it becomes a slow march...The best asset is Langella, who’s commanding and moving (except for a couple of semi- whimsical moments that I felt could have been better directed). He’s such a gem, you can definitely set your watch to him.”
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T
April 18th, 2016

"There’s one towering reason to see 'The Father.' And that’s Frank Langella...Without Langella's nuanced performance, ‘The Father’ would be just another drama in the ever-growing field of Alzheimer stories...Zeller’s mixture of absurdity and reality is certainly a mainstay of French theater. But the suffering of individuals living with Alzheimer’s and those who love them does not seem to fit well with existential drama or its critical observations of society.”
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Broad Street Review
April 24th, 2016

"Under Doug Hughes’s meticulous direction, we feel trapped together with AndrĂ© inside Scott Pask’s severe set, a frightening landscape that constantly changes before our eyes as the play draws to its inexorable conclusion. As one who has watched a close relative suffer the indignities of dementia, I found this powerful but merciless play devastating in its impact."
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Off Script with Dan Dwyer
April 19th, 2016

"Manhattan Theatre Club’s production is all about AndrĂ©, more specifically all about Frank Langella, who plays the title role, who, more specifically, overacts the title role...The play could use some simple adaptation to an American stage...I’m familiar with aging and mental decline. I wanted to be moved, but wasn’t. Even André’s pathetic, lonely lament 'I want my mommy' sounded trite, and played like cheap sentiment. That’s not credible drama."
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Act Three - The Reviews
April 14th, 2016

"There is brilliance in Mr. Langella's performance, but perhaps more importantly there is brilliance in Doug Hughes' direction of Mr. Zeller's work. The vignette blackouts, the shocking strobe light, the stark lights up on the next, often conflicting scene - all effects that heighten the impact of the material...Mr. Langella does most of the heavy lifting here, and his performance is transcendent. This is one play you won't soon forget."
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American Theater Web
April 15th, 2016

"It's a scary, fractured ride, and also one that, despite two first-rate performances, becomes somewhat wearisome...'The Father' initially intrigues, but as it moves forward, Zeller's strategy to disorient while also evincing André's mental decline becomes increasingly gimmicky...There's an indubitable pull to the material and the performances, but one can't help but wish that it had been offered up in a less distancing manner."
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