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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"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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"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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"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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