Arthur Miller’s The Price NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Sympathetically directed and ardently acted, there’s much to enjoy in this Roundabout Theater Company revival...Yet it shows 'The Price' as a smaller, more stolid work than it wants to be — still just a little out of style...Mr. Kinney’s quieter, more faithful style emphasizes the fine roles for actors but doesn’t make a strong case for the play itself...If the debate is involving, it’s not especially consequential."
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"It requires a level of focus that Roundabout Theatre Company’s production, directed by Terry Kinney, only sometimes delivers...The play winds up in the pocket of Danny DeVito, making his Broadway debut as a charming old ganef of a furniture dealer...After dominating the first act, DeVito mostly disappears for the second, and the revival’s energy flags without him. Only when he’s onstage does 'The Price' seem right."
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"Gripping if slightly muddy revival...'The Price' doesn’t so much advance as turn like a screw, deeper and deeper into the soft wood of memory...The actors, though already powerful and moving, sometimes look as if they need more time to figure out where they are...You’d think that a play so wordy and rangy would be unwelcome in today’s theatrical environment, which favors large, uncomplicated, single-minded action. But that’s why it’s so much needed."
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"Kinney doesn’t so much direct here as organize traffic, and most of the show takes place in a bottleneck: one watches listlessly because the script doesn’t seem to matter much to the actors, or, when it does, they’re using it to their own aims, as in the case of DeVito. Ruffalo is dead on his feet, and Hecht, ever needy, feels entirely lost. It’s as if she and Shalhoub, whose insinuating sexiness fails him in this role, are waiting for the show to be over."
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"Bolstered by a first-rate cast, director Terry Kinney's carefully considered production shapes all sides of the arguments into compelling drama...The writing is far from black and white on either side...However, in the fractious second act, Miller's play shows its dramaturgical weaknesses, becoming circuitous and repetitive...Still, the strong cast ensures that the drama remains riveting...A very solid, sensitively directed production of a flawed but rewarding play."
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"His unforgettable performance in Arthur Miller’s 'The Price' is a serious reminder that DeVito belongs in the pantheon of greats. His supporting role completely steals the spotlight in this wobbly revival...Shalhoub succeeds most at suggesting a real life behind Miller’s verbal firecrackers. Ruffalo, flat and terribly miscast as a schlub...The playwright’s big mistake was in focusing the material on three other dullard characters when Solomon is obviously such an original creation."
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"Still reverberates with meaning for the 2010s. Let’s just say that the dramatic themes and human conflicts are timeless. Kinney directs a superlative cast consisting of Ruffalo, Shalhoub, Hecht, and DeVito, who make this revival a treasured experience...Under Kinney’s measured direction, the recriminations really heat up in the galvanic second act, when kind Esther and adorable Solomon fade into the shadows and let the brothers fight their old quarrels until one or both of them falls over."
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"Miller’s best play—the only one, in my opinion, that is totally successful as a work of theatrical art...The highly charged naturalism of Ruffalo’s acting is terrifically impressive...Shalhoub leaves nothing to be desired...On the debit side, DeVito is effective enough in an obvious way, but he’s using Solomon as a star turn...This revival isn’t perfect, but it works—the play comes through clearly and strongly—and Ruffalo and Shalhoub are more than good enough to offset its forgivable flaws."
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"'The Price' is, at best, a master’s second-tier work – Miller lite. Many of its qualities and all its flaws are thrown into relief in Terry Kinney’s damask-heavy revival...Kinney is unable to establish a coherent ensemble out of these four spectacular actors, each of whom seems to be performing in a different production...They are all entertaining in their own worlds, but only Hecht brings the touch of believability."
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"Under Terry Kinney’s stewardship, a gold-plated cast fulfills its mission in grand fashion...Kinney treats with respect both the text and the audience — and thereby delivers a perceptively embroidered portrait of a family rife with mercenary and other resentments...The play too transparently shows its hand...But the actors are all adept at embodying and drawing out the countervailing traits and motivations in themselves and one another."
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"DeVito is offering a spectacularly funny performance in director Terry Kinney's resonant if not wholly satisfying Broadway revival of, to my mind, one of Miller's bleakest and most personal plays...I think Kinney's direction fundamentally understands the currency of this play. Hecht clearly gets the quiet trauma of what is being bought and sold, and both Ruffalo and Shalhoub have individual vulnerability, even if you don't always believe they are in this, for better or worse, as brothers."
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"A new Roundabout production at the American Airlines Theatre that can’t mask the play’s weaknesses but compensates a bit with some strong acting....The first act is a slow-mo slog...Terry Kinney guides an atmospheric, period-rich production. Acting is uneven. Ruffalo gives a lived-in, believable performance...But Shalhoub’s mannered performance jars and gums up the works...DeVito emerges as the show’s MVP."
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“A solid, unexpectedly compelling production…‘The Price’ can easily come off as slow and hokey today, but director Terry Kinney achieves a fine balance between Ruffalo, Shalhoub and Hecht’s raw, accusatory battling and DeVito’s spirited, minutely detailed character acting.”
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"It's not quite Arthur Miller's best, but given the playwright's tremendous gifts, 'The Price' is still a compelling drama and one that's, uncharacteristically for Miller, loaded with humor...The production, directed by Terry Kinney, is not entirely successful. It feels under-rehearsed and over-acted in spots, and structurally, the play is rather lopsided...'The Price,' even with its flaws, is well worth a visit."
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"Director Terry Kinney keeps us constantly pondering the connection between the past and the present in his straightforward production, which allows the playwright's words to come to the fore...Everything is highly realistic, especially the performances...'The Price' only begins to feel draining in its operatic second act...It all could easily become tedious coming from lesser actors, but it never does here. Instead, Hecht, DeVito, Ruffalo, and Shalhoub lead us in an emotional workout."
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"The power of 'The Price' lies in how a psychologically cogent conflict about love, family, and duty is folded into a larger debate about how to live one's life...Kinney has welded his four fine talents into an impressive quartet...It's long past time that 'The Price' be recognized as one of Miller's finest plays, one that stands next to his acknowledged masterpieces. In no other work of his are the battle lines so fairly drawn, the conflict so well-armed on both sides."
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"Subtlety is no great hallmark of Arthur Miller's plays...This affliction is seldom more pronounced in his oeuvre than it is in his 1968 effort 'The Price,' something you're keenly aware of throughout Terry Kinney's otherwise fine revival...'The Price' feels less like a finished drama than a staged reading of a sketchbook...Good though the members of this cast might be, they fall short of that ideal and don't register as either an integrated family or an integrated ensemble."
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“The first act of director Terry Kinney’s ultimately solid-as-oak production struggles to find a consistent tone…DeVito lays the cute-old-guy shtick on a little thick…Once the second act begins with the surprise arrival of Victor’s long-estranged brother Walter (a mesmerizing, sure-footed Tony Shalhoub) the production truly starts to cohere…In the late-in-play scenes, as Victor defends the choices he made (foolish or not), Ruffalo’s performance vividly comes to life.”
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"Though 'The Price' is really and primarily about the strained relationship between two brothers, Danny DeVito, playing an outsider, hijacks this production and makes it his own. Perhaps Arthur Miller's most comedic character, Solomon was a vaudevillian 'acrobat' ('I was on the same bill with Gallagher and Shean in maybe fifty theaters,' he tells Victor), who delivers his every line with stereotypically Jewish shtick."
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"Dated, but always relevant portrayal of family discord, resentment, disappointment and frustration...The hearty laughs in Act I belie the pain and sorrow of what’s to come...These are award-winning performances by a stellar cast–Ruffalo filled with an unrequited resentment; Shalhoub digging deep to hide his emotional void; DeVito offering the perfect humorous relief, and Hecht as the discontented but compliant wife, as Arthur Miller forever seeks truth."
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"While lacking the poetry of Miller's masterwork, 'Death of a Salesman,' Terry Kinney does bring it off as a fine theatrical string quartet. His players hit the right keys to reach the big climax this sort of well-made play calls for...Terry Kinney has given 'The Price' a solid production without any attempts to intersperse trendy 'now' touches. While Mark Ruffalo's Victor is a bit too stiff as the play's most conflicted character, he does well with the wordless moments."
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"DeVito is determined and brilliant. This is a performance that crackles. In comparison to him, all the other actors seem like they are once removed, as if they were under water. It is a startling contrast...Hard to say if it is the writing or the performances, but everyone felt out of sorts...For this writer it was uneventful bordering on confusing–this is the part where the actors felt out of sync and the blocking was awkward."
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"Mark Ruffalo returns to the Broadway stage in a part that seems tailor made to his physicality, his vocals, and his persona...Danny DeVito, coughing and hacking his way up and onto the stage, almost steals the show away from Ruffalo and Shalhoub...Hecht somehow manages to hold her own when paired with him...Roundabout has pulled out all the stops creating an atmospheric story with history, literally, hanging over their heads. It’s a solid revival of a less than solid play."
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“Not one of Miller’s best plays…Fortunately, Miller threw a modicum of humor into this dark and rather repetitious work...There are powerful passages. But this is slow and often ponderous going…The performers often seem to be playing at different speeds, on different levels…Miller’s plays are less malleable, and it takes a lot to either make them resonate today, or help us understand how they felt at the time of conception. This production, unfortunately, doesn’t do either well enough."
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"DeVito’s character is the most enjoyable but not a central one in Miller’s sober family drama in a cast that also includes Ruffalo, Hecht and Shalhoub. If none are at their absolute best here, that only means that all of them at one time or another have given performances that have left me in awe...The play also feels dated...People of any era should be able to respond to the themes, but the particulars, at least in this production, make it feel too distant to strike home with full force."
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“Ruffalo does his best Brando imitation. DeVito breaks the tension with his savagely hilarious portrayal. Hecht is perfectly needy...It is Shalhoub who you cannot take your eyes off of. His vulnerability in admitting his failure and wanting to make this relationship right are at the heart and soul of this play. Director Kinney’s doesn’t manage to bring this play forward. There are moments that the show seems overly long, and he doesn’t manage to bring the actors all into the same play.”
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“Shalhoub is superb as the smooth-talking Walter...The role of Esther fits Hecht like a glove and she gives one of her best performances in years. Casting DeVito as Solomon was a stroke of genius…Ruffalo does not seem entirely comfortable in the role of Victor, although his performance improves as the play progresses…Kinney has taken the play at face value, rather than attempting to force his stamp upon it. Miller doesn’t need gimmicks.”
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"Scintillatingly bristling revival...It reinforces how incisive Kinney is as a director...DeVito is a marvel; if the evening weren’t as good as it is, we might recommend it simply so you can see what Danny can do with a boiled egg...I’ve never seen the play with four equal performances. Mr. Kinney has taken his actors—all of whom are accomplished—and mixed them together in such a manner that the play always comes through."
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"'The Price' may mark DeVito’s Broadway debut, at age 73, but there’s no doubt about it: He’s a real stage animal. He even takes focus before he appears on stage...As for 'The Price,' it’s difficult to say what director Kinney means to tell us about the play with this production’s four diverging performances...DeVito’s sheer presence quickly fills the void that has been Ruffalo’s performance in the play’s opening moments. It also throws 'The Price' off-kilter, but who’s to complain."
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"Heady and dense...The whiz-bang company unfailingly balance one another. Shalhoub is so forceful and charismatic when quick-changing tacks, uncertainty about his intentions never abates. Hecht’s portrayal makes the backbone of her marriage believable...Ruffalo’s naturalistic performance is immensely nuanced....DeVito’s Solomon captivates...Director Kinney does a masterful job in regulating the ebb and flow of emotion...This is an extremely satisfying production of a superb play."
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"This production honors Miller's text readily, proving this antique will never go out of fashion...'The Price' is a play that talks in circles with purpose. It's a captivating character study...'The Price' has a resounding relevance. Kinney keeps the play in period, yet sprinkles hints of a modern sensibility. 'The Price' is an emotionally gripping play...No doubt about it, this was an immensely talented company...It may not have been the most remarkable piece of theater, but it was riveting."
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"The Roundabout Theatre has put together a splendid cast for director Terry Kinney’s straightforward and loving revival...After radical, dazzling director-driven revivals...it feels almost novel — at least, quietly reassuring — to have a lesser-known Miller work presented with down-the-middle sensibilities and expert care...Miller, whose parents lost everything in the crash, knew these lives’ sore spots. And this production knows how to make them still hurt."
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“It’s a stilted work that spells out what should be implied and then does it again and again…I imagine it wasn’t their best night, making this post-opening performance feel more like an early preview. It didn’t help that the direction of Terry Kinney felt particularly flat and random…I truly had trouble understanding each of the characters…None of the actors made much sense of their parts but I have to think the blame lies equally on the play and this staging.”
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"'The Price' is not a fast play. Nor are its stakes as abyss-facing as Miller at his most unsparing...But it is, at moments, a piercing study on familial devotion, betrayal, and disillusion...DeVito, playing the kind of irreverent, hilarious, irritation-generating dynamo that he also does so brilliantly on film—steals the audience’s attention...The play comes to feel a little stilted, its action as arrested as the characters’ emotions."
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"A perfect example of how superb actors can make good theater out of a less-than-wonderful play...The brothers' confrontation, which takes up much of the second act, is more diagrammatic than dramatic...Crucially, though, we feel connected to the characters, or at least to the performances...'The Price' has more than a whiff of contrivance, but its resourceful actors manage to humanize it to a remarkable degree."
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"I can see why 'The Price' isn’t staged as frequently as the Miller classics. The second act spins into an exhausting cyclone of old slights and misunderstandings to justify the silences between siblings. Director Terry Kinney does his best to keep things reeled in, but some of the interaction between the brothers borders on tedious...In the hands of a quartet as skilled as this, what we’re left remembering finally is not Miller’s art, but something of a master class in great performing."
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“An entertaining but also long-winded slice of life...It is to Miller’s credit, as well as to the credit of director Kinney, that this very human but agonizing play succeeds not so much with crafty intensifications but more with its subjective implications…There is an ever-increasing poignancy in Ruffalo’s performance…Kinney has invested this soul-searching play with the patience that it probably deserves even when our patience with its issues wears a bit thin.”
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"A powerhouse family tale that, in the hands of Kinney and a superb cast, proves to be one of Miller’s masterpieces...The nimble Hecht, the ever-elegant Shalhoub, and the brusque Ruffalo form an intimate trio, three pros at the top of their game...DeVito makes an impressive Broadway debut...Kinney gets right to the heart of the play, examining the choices we all make and the costs, visible and hidden, that come with them...In this glorious revival, money, of course, is never the answer."
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"It is still topical and relevant, for it deals with how the past catches up with all of us...Mr. Miller is a master at confrontational dialog and he’s in top form in this outing. He’s helped enormously by the beautiful work of Mark Ruffalo and Tony Shalhoub...Ms. Hecht...turning a supporting role into a star turn...Danny DeVito is a revelation...I’ve only seen one other production of this play, the original one, but I found this outing far more fruitful."
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"Under Terry Kinney’s direction, Ruffalo projects a sort of Brandoesque brooding, until exploding with a riveting fury. Jessica Hecht gives a typically quirky and credible performance as his wife...Shalhoub comes off slick as a man who says he had a breakdown, but is now happy...Best of all is DeVito who, despite an accent that comes and goes, is priceless as the man who takes out an egg and eats it (a hilarious scene)."
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"Director Kinney's extraordinary new revival of the show makes the convincing argument that the play deserves as much attention as any in the Miller canon...There are no avant-garde bells-and-whistles here, no jarring or subversive flourishes. Instead, McKinney insists upon the primacy of Miller's crackling dialogue, and the playwright's peerless grasp of the often twisted dynamics of American families...The actors are everything you might hope for with such a starry cast."
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"With contrived accents and mannered performances, Terry Kinney's production of Arthur Miller's 'The Price' lacks genuine dramatic punch. The tension in this family drama does not accrete, with each performer working against each other in tone and approach...Even as brothers on different paths, Shalhoub and Ruffalo show no chemistry or kinship...DeVito starts too hammy and cannot pull back when gravitas is needed."
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“It doesn't leave you eviscerated. Instead, it's a warmly wise portrait of a family that is on the edge of getting torn apart forever…It's an unexpectedly funny story, thanks to DeVito and Ruffalo's crack comic timing…Miller wrote beautifully, and ‘The Price’ is no exception. There are profound lines here…It's a plea for understanding, for empathy, that Miller wrote during the Vietnam War. It still resonates now in the midst of our own political troubles.”
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“Shalhoub just keeps getting better with age…When he is onstage, the play is electric; but he doesn’t come on until the end of Act I. However, in Act I you have DeVito...Thank God for his arrival early on to lift the tedium that is known as the exposition or set up of the play…What a joy to have him on stage supplying the lighter moments. In the drab and thankless roles of Victor and Esther Franz, Ruffalo and Hecht make a valiant attempt to bring life to their characters."
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“'The Price' digs complexly, if perhaps a little abstractly, into what's good and bad about people...Terry Kinney's new production manages to dodge, as some earlier revivals haven't, the earnest, schematic streak that weighs the play down. Coaxing a vital, personalized eccentricity from each of his four equally strong actors, he's come up with the best rendition of ‘The Price’ since John Stix's 1979 version."
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"The acting, with a few quibbles (Ruffalo is heart-tugging but overdoes the mumble, DeVito’s accent comes and goes, Hecht fades into the scenery, but that’s more Miller’s fault than her own, and Tony Shalhoub is perfection) is great, but the play can sometimes feel clunky, and raises questions that threaten to derail the story...Despite the quibbles, there’s pure joy in watching such skilled actors take us through the ins and outs of a meaty family psychodrama."
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"While this has the classical elements of a well-made play (fidelity of time and location), those elements don't necessarily translate into riveting drama...The entire first act is exposition...The second act has more meat to it; this is where Miller gets into family drama, which is his bread and butter. It's certainly more interesting, but it still doesn't grab you...I've seen great actors elevate sub-par material, but that's not happening here."
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"The team of four players does impressive work, under the perceptive direction of Terry Kinney. Ruffalo’s Victor clearly expresses the disappointment of a man who feels he’s been cheated. Shalhoub’s outer bluff conceals the shame of a man who has perhaps finally admitted he took advantage of a situation...The play may not be as clear-cut as Miller’s other works...But 'The Price' is imbued with richness and humanity."
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"Under Terry Kinney’s insightful direction, this revival is, most importantly, comedic...While the arguments are obvious...the issues drive to the heart of so much of Miller’s oeuvre...But there is also something very simple at the heart of the dialogue between these family members about what it takes to be a man...The entertainment is Coliseum-style, with Roman gladiators fighting for their lives."
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"Shalboub and Hecht are Broadway regulars and can do no wrong. They’re excellent, as expected, and they’re there to keep the boat afloat. They do more than that. You can’t take your eyes off of them. But it’s Mark Ruffalo and Danny DeVito who we’re looking at. 'The Price' offers a bit of comedy in the first act, and DeVito delivers it as if he’s a little cherry bomb...Terry Kinney directs, sharply as ever. There will be lots of awards talk for everyone involved."
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“One of Miller’s most obviously resonant plays…Kinney’s production is blessed with four excellent actors. Mark Ruffalo is exceptional…Ruffalo and Shalhoub are in scintillating form as they dance around each other…They are marvellous to watch…Kinney’s production is detailed and absorbing, and it is difficult to imagine better performances. Funny and moving, occasionally startling, ‘The Price’ is well worth its price, both in time and cash.”
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"There are no shortfalls in Terry Kinney’s new production, which perhaps takes the play to its hottest level ever...In all, this is 'The Price' the way it ought to be done, which is to say thoughtfully but also with the exuberance that invites making bold choices, taking big risks and thus, keenly balanced, taking what might otherwise be a decent 'talking heads' play to the heights of great and meaningful American drama."
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"DeVito is more than the comic relief of the show, he’s the life of it...Jessica Hecht is delightful as Victor’s wife...Shalhoub...plays the hard to read character perfectly...The brothers' eventual confrontation does seem undercut, however, by its fits and starts...What 'The Price' does so wonderfully is show how the facts, when applied to personal history, often matter less than the emotions tied to those memories."
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