Time and the Conways NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (387)
See it if You enjoy character driven period piece dramas. This one moves rather slowly but has an exquisite payoff in my opinion.
Don't see it if You need a lot of action. You barely realize what the real point of the play is until almost the end of the first act.
See it if This one misses the mark. It has some decent acting for sure, however, it gets slow at various points .The show can be moving and thought
Don't see it if provoking. With all the great stuff on and off Broadway, you can miss this one. it is slow at times, loses it way at times, not my fav.
See it if When the future brings decline of a family, is the passage of time just cruel or is there any solace? Intricate character dynamics.
Don't see it if You are not interested in slowly developed characters set in Britain 1919-37. You don’t want to reflect on time, hopes and disappointments. Read more
See it if tests interesting idea: how react if could see into future: how upper class Brit. life destroyed in 20 yrs; inventive set; strong cast
Don't see it if all machinations moving back 'n forth in time results in no more than a clunky critique of British upper class rot; characters stereotypes Read more
See it if Great set Scene change is special), Great costumes. Great role playing by same actors 18-19 years later from one Act to the next.
Don't see it if Sound at American Airlines still needs work. Accents vary. Score is average of partner's 80 and my 70. Speech may need time to adjust.
See it if you enjoy a “thinker” with a healthy dose of British charm. The performances and staging are terrific.
Don't see it if you’d rather leave the theatre with a smile on your face, or you have trouble with British accents.
See it if You like drawing room plays with family drama and time travel. Elizabeth McGovern is the matriarch. Gabriel Ebert is the son.
Don't see it if You fall asleep easily Act I is 90 minutes. You expect fast action. You do not like early 19th century England.
See it if you enjoy slow-moving drama with an historical perspective; how the war effected the lives of upper class people from another era.
Don't see it if this type of drama bores you; you need action, music, dancing; you aren't interested in lives of the rich and formerly rich effected by war Read more
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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"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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"This forgotten gem of a play pushes the boundaries of its well-heeled drawing room setting into a metaphysical dream world...As deftly handled by director Rebecca Taichman, Priestley’s metaphysics are poignant where, in less able hands, they could come off as annoyingly mystical. And while its 'Downton' connection might fill seats, 'The Conways', despite some superficial period similarities, reveals its own complex pleasures — just give it time."
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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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"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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"Dredging up a creaky old warhorse from 1937 like J. B. Priestley’s ossified 'Time and the Conways' does seem a bit like digging for fossils in the La Brea tar pits...The play is talky, complicated and second-rate...It’s mechanical and contrived. The current production fails to disguise old weaknesses. It has a creaky fascination when viewed from a curious historical perspective, but no new magic happens to give 'Time and the Conways' the freshness it desperately needs."
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