The Glass Menagerie (starring Sally Field) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (530)
See it if You are willing to accept change in a classic or are excited by unique casting..
Don't see it if You must have TW done as the original version.
See it if you like The Glass Menagerie in general, straight plays w/no music, great acting, very simplistic staging, a compelling ensemble.
Don't see it if you like fancy sets, musicals, don't like to see people w/challenges acting in a show, don't like The Glass Menagerie or no intermission. Read more
See it if you're ready to have your heart opened and your mind blown by some really smart casting that serves up an essentialist's view of the play.
Don't see it if you thought that the Cherry Jones revival in 2013 was the be-all, end-all and you're afraid to mess with that memory.
See it if You don't want to see just another "Glass Menagerie," but want to see a bold, striking well-acted version that exposes the emotional core.
Don't see it if You don't want to see a bold directorial and acted take on a classic play.
See it if You want to see this play done in a stunning staging. You will enjoy each word of this play in this sparse setting. Cast, director = A+!
Don't see it if You are expecting a set. You are given a bare stage with very few props. You may get the spooks being in the Belasco with only candlelight!
See it if you want to see a masterclass of great acting. Beautifully written memory play by Tennessee Williams. Thought provoking family drama.
Don't see it if you are a traditionalist and only want to see the play as previously performed.
See it if you want to see a high-quality, beautifully done revival of the play. Or if you're a fan of any of the actors or Williams!
Don't see it if You despise Williams. But even then you might want to give it a try...this production surprised me and I'm not the biggest Williams fan
See it if You are open to a new bare bones yet fully emotionally realized interpretation. Love Sally Field but the shoe was much more than just her
Don't see it if You want to see what you expect from a Tennessee Williams play. I challenge you to see this production though. It is beautifully human.
Critic Reviews (59)
"Audiences walking in to see director Sam Gold's exquisite new production may think they've stumbled onto a run-through in the middle of the rehearsal process...While Gold does work a bit of stagecraft into the production before the final blackout, the evening's brightest spotlight is on the words of Tennessee Williams, as played by an excellent ensemble. This grounded version of 'The Glass Menagerie' is fully absorbing and thrilling in its simplicity."
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"What confounds about this production is the many seemingly arbitrary directorial decisions that are at odds with Williams' text...At times, Gold seems determined to thwart Field's best efforts...Mantello gives by far the most successful performance...yet even he gets upstaged when forced to stand in front of the neon sign that stands in for the ballroom next door...In trying to strip away decades' worth of assumptions about this classic work, Gold has stripped out its essential qualities."
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"A colossal disappointment. Here, the decoration, the artifice, and the gimmickry aren't just most of the thing, they're the whole thing...Choices that don't serve the play extend to the acting as well. Only Mantello comes close to bridging the gap between Williams and Gold...'The Glass Menagerie' can and should be shattering, to the Wingfields and, even more so, us. Alas, in building up rather than breaking down, Gold has ensured that nothing about this one is."
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"Gold seems to have decided to try ideas out that had not been attempted before with this script. However, if you love the play, you will want to give this production a miss - unless you wish to see it in a form you never imagined possible. Stripped of its poetry, 'The Glass Menagerie' loses most of the magic that Williams' play embodies and simply becomes an acting and director's workout like in a scene study class. It seems to have been attempted simply for the sake of trying something new."
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"Intriguingly different and never boring. The problem is that this Van-Hovization-à-la-Gold is so extreme that the directorial vision has upstaged the author's poetic magic. While even Gold's most mouth-agape choices couldn't assail this virtually indestructible play, what ultimately held my attention was seeing just what bizarre business he would come up with next, and how the actors dealt with it...This cast fails to merge into a satisfactorily coherent and cohesive production."
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“Minimally staged with bold performances to great effect...A thoughtful and creative staging of an expertly written work that transcends time and place…This production will no doubt prove a benchmark for new audiences, eliciting impossible comparisons down the road, particularly for both Sally Field and Finn Wittrock’s stellar performances...The hollowness we feel at curtain is evidence of a production that conveys the story perfectly.”
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"Gold is interested in only one thing, really. People...I think in his effort to understand the humans in front of him, Gold has taken them out of context and lost them, and the audience in the process...Mantello and Wittrock both give excellent performances...I think in fact that Mantello’s Tom is the best I’ve ever seen...Field does a masterful job of trying to reconcile the irreconcilable, but in the end, we’re confused by the character and the play through no fault of hers."
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"The effervescent Sally Field as the desperate mother is astounding in her simplicity, frustration, and frailty...Unlike any other production I have seen before, the true power of this unique production is placed firmly on the shoulders of what are usually considered the secondary characters: The sister/daughter Laura and the gentleman caller...It’s a gorgeously powerful story, and here, Gold has managed to give us more view of it from a unique vantage."
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