Three Tall Women (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"A torrentially exciting production...Joe Mantello’s chic, devastating staging was worth the wait...'Three Tall Women' is rigorous but also generous, even loving, to its characters — and audience...That doesn’t mean this is a perfect play...Still, time has been good to 'Three Tall Women,' and Mantello’s production further burnishes its insights and confirms its originality...A play that despite its frailties and wrinkles has aged beautifully, into a burning, raving classic."
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"Glenda Jackson gives a towering performance in the exquisite new revival...Jackson tears through the grandeur and pathos with ferocious command...In the central coup de théâtre of Joe Mantello’s scalpel-sharp production, Miriam Buether’s gorgeous set opens up to create a new space of phantoms and mirrors...What makes Albee’s play so moving is not that all three are the same woman; it’s that all three of them are us. Together, they create a singular experience at the theater."
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"This revival of 'Three Tall Women' really is a staggering example of precisely what a dramatic actor does onstage. Actually three examples...Since there’s very little action, the play is exceptionally dependent on the expressiveness of the three actors...Jackson has done a lot of smart comedy as well as classical dramatic roles, and she makes the most of the laugh lines that Albee sprinkles throughout the dialogue."
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"Mantello draws on Jackson's staunchness, but her characterization, like that of the other actors, comes not from inside...but from previous performances...A production that favors the flash of show biz over the complications of the flesh...They parade around Buther's overdone set like angsty marionettes, which the director uses to distract us from a story that Albee wrote from the heart."
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"Stage acting doesn't get any better than Glenda Jackson's performance as the autocratic nonagenarian in Edward Albee's 'Three Tall Women'...It's an almost ridiculous luxury that in Joe Mantello's crystalline production of this brittle but moving play about death and self-knowledge, two such accomplished actors as Laurie Metcalf and Alison Pill become supplementary dividends."
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"Far from an easy evening of theater, despite being a swift, intermission-less hour-and-a-half...Many of the hallmarks of great Albee — pitch black humor, verbal takedowns, delightfully indulgent cynicism — are initially in short supply here...It is an imperfect play, but there are two excellent reasons to see 'Three Tall Women': Jackson and Metcalf."
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"Watching Glenda Jackson in theatrical flight is like looking straight into the sun. Her expressive face registers her thoughts while guarding her feelings. But it’s the voice that really thrills...This is a punishing play. The sentiments are cold and steely, and even though the language is beautiful, it is fierce...If there is one thing Jackson is not, it is sentimental. There are lines that some thesps would milk like a cow. But not Jackson, with her commitment to truth in performance."
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"It’ll be a long time before 'Three Tall Women' is performed by a better cast...A conversation piece set in the bedroom of a rich, senile woman...That’s all there is to 'Three Tall Women,' but it’s enough. Mr. Albee has given his three women fascinating things to say about the character whom they collectively embody...Ms. Jackson gives an acrid, wised-up performance that is as pointed as you’d expect from so celebrated an actor. It’s no better, though, than that of Ms. Metcalf."
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