See it if You're interested in a dark, compelling interpretation of the play.
Don't see it if You're not willing to see the play transformed.
See it if if you liked Tiffany's "pretty to look"-yet more superficial-version of the show. This show finally approaches the text as a memory play.
Don't see it if If you want to see big set, a realistic production and a feel good. This is not it. Read more
See it if you like T.Williams and love Sally Field. I also loved the use of a real physically challenged actress.
Don't see it if you do not like dramas.
See it if ..you want to see a new interpretation of the classics with some bold, breath taking director's interpretations
Don't see it if ..you like cliches and don't want to be provoked
See it if You love to bold new and inventive interpretations of Tennessee Williams Memory play. Sally Field gives one of her best performance ever.
Don't see it if you expect to see a full set filled with period furniture, the fire escape and the St Louis dancehall or if you are a traditionalist. Read more
See it if a beautifully stripped interpretation of the great classic that reveals a far more nuanced look at Amanda Wingfield. Great perfs esp Fields.
Don't see it if if you disliked stripped down productions. Read more
See it if you want to see a masterful performance
Don't see it if you want something lighter and happier
See it if you want to see Sally Field, a theatrical treasure, accompanied by an excellent supporting cast in a beautifully written T. Williams play.
Don't see it if you don't like plays with zero scenery and if you can't sit for two hours with no intermission.
" In a bold experiment that's often riveting but seldom wholly satisfying, director Gold rips away illusion like a bandage off a wound...Despite some fine work from the actors, you end up being moved more by the sheer resilience of the writing than by the intrusive presentation...The result is one of the most hauntingly lyrical dramas in the American canon transformed into a blunt dysfunctional family play in which indelible melancholy gets trampled by anger and bitterness."
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"Stripped of its poetry, the rich lyricism of America’s greatest playwright is reduced to the rubble of words...With inconsistent and careless direction, the actors are rudderless...What’s missing is a clarity of vision and control of tone that would give this dark, depressing revisionist rehauling a reason to be different. Eventually the surfeit of pretentious clutter is overpowered by the writing of a master craftsman, and you realize the music in the language of Williams excels on its own."
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"No epiphanies at all are permitted by director Sam Gold during his relentlessly contrived 'Menagerie'...Ungenerously stripped of scenery, poetry and continuity, Williams’s 1945 drama is also here devoid of emotional clarity...It does seem the height of arrogance to think that every play can be gutted like a house on HGTV...The choices are sometimes cosmetically clownish...In other cases, they’re misguided...and at still others, so distracting you’re taken completely out of the play."
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"Starkly unforgiving, mostly unafraid and surely unforgettable revival...Stars an extraordinary young newcomer, Madison Ferris...That first entry is an act that clearly taxes and costs Field and Ferris, immediately bonding them in a different way than you've seen with this play...There will be some who argue that Gold's production fundamentally alters Williams' play...I'd say that Gold should have gone further."
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"Gold applies an innovative yet back-to-basics take on an old standard, and the result is a stunning, emotionally rending production. It doesn’t hurt that he has stacked the deck with acting talent...The minute Tom delivers his opening narration with the house lights up, it’s obvious that this is a much-needed fresh perspective on the show...Though Gold's vision might not be for everyone, there’s no arguing that it’s a bold, creative one. The rare revival that breathes new life into a classic."
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"The winning streak of Sam Gold comes to a screeching halt with a misconceived Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ 1944 breakout drama...Gold, who apparently wanted to remove all artifice or period flavor, uses a bare, exposed-looking theater space, with just a metal table and a shelf of props...This all results in a painfully self-aware production that is devoid of Williams’ trademark lyricism....How about a simple production devoid of any self-conscious directorial concepts?"
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"A bizarre conceptual take on the great memory play that, despite some strong performances, may be best left forgotten...Gold's directorial decisions are so radical in some cases they take the audience out of the play's poetic reverie...Individually, Field, Mantello and Finn Wittrock do excellent work, but stylistically the cast doesn't mesh all that well..This production never got beyond the experimental stage, and should have been left in the rehearsal room."
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"Gold makes some baffling choices to undermine the power of Williams' story...Such stripped-down productions have the benefit of allowing the playwright's words to soar above stage wizardry, and that occasionally happens here, despite Gold's best efforts to bring it all down. Much of this has to do with the dynamite performances of our two lead actors...The whole thing leaves us feeling flat..It's an awfully contemptuous take on one of the most enduring dramas of the American theater."
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