"A collection of every cozy cliché to be mined from the deep catalog of stories about powerful intrigues and human deceit...The setups are unlikely, the payoffs banal. Call it 'Dangerless Liaisons'...Things we need to know are posted baldly in dialogue like a weird Tinder profile. But then nothing in this play — not one line or ginned-up plot turn — feels real. That some of the cast members nevertheless do feel real is a tribute to the great mystery of stage performance."
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"Willimon seems stymied by his project. A political thriller stuffed into a sex comedy’s dress, the play bulges in all the wrong places. To be fair, it is hard to assess 'The Parisian Woman' on the basis of Pam MacKinnon’s enervated Broadway production...Thurman is a milky dud. She has no chemistry with either the waxy Lucas or any of the other actors; it’s like watching people try to snap their fingers with wet hands...The play totters idly forward without finding sure footing."
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"In attempting to walk the line between classic sexual intrigue and contemporary political resonance, 'The Parisian Woman' falls flat on both counts, delivering yet another lamely apologetic, latently self-satisfied slog through the worldview of an ostensibly liberal white dude...Thurman and her castmates are battling their way through dialogue that feels surprisingly monotonous and frequently stilted...A dull complacency weighs down the whole play."
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"Why does the play have such trouble finding its angle on the enraging political scene? Despite being self-knowingly au courant, 'The Parisian Woman' feels as creaky as an old boulevard entertainment...While the play informs us of Chloe’s allure, it’s not much in evidence...If people are drawn to Chloe, it’s not because Thurman has injected her with charisma...Thurman is a blank, swanning and sighing as if impersonating the leading lady of an old drawing-room comedy."
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"A weightlessly slick piece of politics-flavored confectionery...It bored me to the point of squirming in my seat, packed as it is with boo-hiss-cheer lines so predictable that I caught myself mouthing some of the comebacks a half-beat ahead of the actors. As for Thurman, her performance is technically competent but devoid of the red-hot star quality...MacKinnon is famously good at staging naturalistic dramas, and has done her best to disguise the limitations of the star and script."
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"Peppered with newsy references that suggest not so much keen-eared timeliness as a script in flux right up to curtain time. Which may explain why 'The Parisian Woman' is such a train wreck...The dialogue is stilted and delivered haltingly even by the pros in the cast...The amateurism defeats both the director and the more experienced actors onstage...The zingers don’t zing, the flings flop, and 90 minutes pass like the first year of the administration of One Who Must Not Be Named."
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"Chloe, we’re often told, is fascinating. But the script does little to show why...But Thurman’s striking presence...goes a long way to making Chloe attention-getting...How will Chloe reach her goal? That’s burning question the play posits as Pam McKinnon’s assured, well-acted and handsomely designed staging unfolds...That makes for dishy entertainment...At times the dialogue is too stiff to sound natural. But politics are in Willimon’s wheelhouse."
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"Entrusting this captivating character to a star from another artistic solar system proves an unkindness to both character and star...It gives no pleasure to watch the star struggling to keep up with Chloe...Willimon has updated his play to reflect players in the current administration....But he fails to draw on any of the many issues bedeviling the president, missing his chance to turn this mannered trifle into a substantive political drama."
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