Time and the Conways NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (388)
See it if you enjoy family dynamics
Don't see it if you only believe what you can see
See it if You like period pieces and shows about relationships
Don't see it if You do not like period pieces, shows about relationships all conversation, and English accents Read more
See it if you enjoy a classic British drama by the brilliant Priestley and staged magnificently by Rebecca Taichman. Time waits for no one.
Don't see it if you don't like plays that are set in upper-class British households. The play takes a bit to warm up but second act it's terrific.
See it if are willing to slow your 2017 pace to accommodate another world and to really listen to what is being said. Splendid production.
Don't see it if you only like fast-paced plays with a lot of drama and are unable to adjust yourself to a different sensibility. Read more
See it if You are willing to overlook shrill British accents, and spotty acting for an interesting combo of drawing room drama and exploration of Time
Don't see it if Not interested in either family drama, upper-class Brits, dated material, or metaphysics despite some excellent acting particularly Boyers. Read more
See it if You like a classic play that involves big family drama and money issues. I had seen it twice. Desperate situations... Amazing casts.
Don't see it if You prefer something lighter or more contemporary. Hope the show will be revived soon.
See it if You like time period pieces with a message. You like good acting by a talented cast.
Don't see it if You prefer musicals. Play is somewhat slow to build but is nonetheless gripping.
See it if you like British period plays, and you would enjoy watching Elizabeth McGovern in a drama, with an English accent no less.
Don't see it if you don't enjoy British accents, or period pieces.
Critic Reviews (54)
"A thoughtful revival of an ambitious, vexing, multilayered drama. Still, there’s a reason it has not appeared on Broadway since its 1938 premiere. Too often it feels like an elaborate mechanism for deploying once-fashionable cosmological ideas...Taichman’s lovely staging does what it can visually to correct this problem...All this loving attention to the play’s philosophical superstructure does little to alleviate the stiffness...Priestley and the production are working too hard."
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"J.B. Priestley’s 1937 drama is about time, and its current Broadway revival, if nothing else, makes you aware of time passing...It’s unclear why the Roundabout has chosen to mount this play, except perhaps that director Taichman has staged it before and McGovern was available to play the mother...The production features solid work from most of the actors...But 'Time and the Conways' requires a stronger gravitational force than McGovern’s airy performance provides. The center does not hold."
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"'Time and the Conways' rarely pulled me in. Instead, it allowed me to sit comfortably — too comfortably — observing its highly polished exterior...If only the play itself lived up to the extravagant — and admittedly powerful — visual metaphor that Patel and Taichman have created. But despite intermittent moving moments, the text often feels clunky, dated, and more than a bit sentimental...Ends up feeling like a Masterpiece Theatre 'Cherry Orchard' — a little dumbed-down and a little dolled-up."
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"A fine play, one whose Ayckbourn-like time-travel premise is no longer innovative but remains effective...It would have profited from a small-scale off-Broadway production...The Roundabout’s revival rattles ineffectually around the 40-foot-wide stage...Taichman’s staging is notable mostly for its predictability of characterization. Save for McGovern and Boyer, everyone in the cast mostly sticks to shallow caricature. 'Time and the Conways' deserves better—much better."
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"'Time and the Conways' feels stitched together in a hurry, a costume drama with no coherent point of view and performances so at odds with one another as to screech like chalk on slate. McGovern is the chief victim of this; her shrill performance lacks the conviction necessary to make this monster mom compelling or even much more than a vague annoyance...'Time and the Conways' should be unnerving, but here it’s simply undone."
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"While McGovern heads the Roundabout revival, the brightest star is an eloquent and evocative set that underscores the themes of the 1937 drama...Without the time-leaping construction, the play is pretty conventional. It also has an annoying habit of overexplaining itself...While ideas are underlined and highlighted, characters tend to be fairly one-dimensional. But under the sensitive direction of Rebecca Taichman, a first-rate ensemble breathes vibrant life into the adult Conway children."
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"Even an imperfect Priestley play offers food for thought, and McGovern is always a pleasure to watch...Nobody looks good in the gracefully written but too-broadly acted first scene of the play...Priestley best articulates his faith in that soothing belief system in the last movement of the play…It’s a great scene, but first we have to get there, and the erratic directorial style makes that rougher than it needs to be."
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"The plush Roundabout revival demands patience, withholding payoff for its haunting final moments...This is not the subtlest of plays, and Taichman allows half her actors to wade into over-emphatic melodrama...A funny old play, interesting more for its structural adventurousness than its thematic trenchancy. And while Taichman and her uneven cast can't obscure the writing's weaknesses, the production closes on a forceful note that makes it retroactively quite satisfying."
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