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See it if you feel $35 is a small price to pay to see what's on the mind of a respected and loved prize-winning playwright.

Don't see it if you don't think some good writing, some entertaining and thought-provoking ideas, and some laughs are enough to make up for a slack story.

See it if you like serious drama with an exceptional cast, and are intrigued when you're resigned to stereotypes and miraculously they don't happen.

Don't see it if you're looking for something light-hearted that doesn't deal with the problems of our world.

Also The paucity of roles for African-American actors has yielded this bounty of excellent performers, totally polished in their roles early in the preview performances. David Alan Grier was pure energy as the WWI veteran, and NNamdi Asomugha formidable as a young hard man coming of age in 1944.... Read more Read less

See it if you enjoy seeing two great actors, Kristine Nielsen and Aidan Quinn, play characters struggling to keep alive their reasons for living.

Don't see it if you're uncomfortable not knowing exactly what's happening, who's lying and who's telling the truth, what's self-deception and what's hope.

Also The concerns of losing one's job and of confronting a child's possible homosexuality seem like old news in this 1995 play set in 1950 Houston Texas.... Read more Read less

See it if you can be quiet and listen to strikingly distinctive actors embody hope and joy, prideful ambition and submissive desires to please.

Don't see it if you need action and changes of scene to pay attention, rather than voices full of melody and Irish lilt telling you a darkening story.

Also The variety of language and drama moves from airy to dense in the two acts, in the end reminding me of nothing so much as Mary Tyrone's ending monologue in Long Day's Journey into Night.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to laugh (a lot) while being engaged with the questions of how we make a living, loyalty, pride in one's craft vs celebrity status.

Don't see it if food and conversation about food leaves you cold, even when it's funny and what's really going on is more like "Other People's Money."

Also Raul Esparza is worth watching every second, and keep an eye on W. Tre Davis too; they're making every expression, gesture, and nuance count. Thank heavens ,no issues of addiction or harassment. A play about working, making a living, how to live with others.... Read more Read less

See it if the pleasure provided by instrumentalists, singers, and dancers makes up for the book's still needing a LOT of work.

Don't see it if the tone of woe-is-me gets you down.

See it if you want to watch two fine actors show you what it's like to lose a lifetime partner, what it's like when you can no longer keep promises.

Don't see it if you're aggravated when one character asks another "What are you talking about?" and not even the character can get a straight answer.

See it if you can forget the real-life Caesar and Cleopatra, and instead enjoy watching an avuncular Caesar mentor the young queen in statecraft.

Don't see it if the love of language is not your thing, and you need to cry or cringe to be entertained.

See it if you can relate to any artist's endeavor to bring his best to a role while working under a director who's clueless, demanding and vain.

Don't see it if you don't like 90-minute no intermission shows and you prefer points made very clearly and with no repetition.

See it if you enjoy paying attention and being glad that you did, because there's something worth watching going on every one of the 90 minutes.

Don't see it if your pleasure in a Chekhov play comes from hearing the familiar lines, watching the familiar characters, and seeing the plot as you know it.

Also This show is fast-paced and physical without feeling frantic in the way some shows do. Chris Perfetti's Masha makes me want to see this actor in any role. Solyony, a character fairly described as pernicious by some, has been cast so to allow him to be called a freak (an epithet Feiffer added) without the audience's being mystified. His status is a puzzle: he's clearly not a servant, presumably not an officer--a landowner perhaps?... Read more Read less

See it if you like seeing good actors perform, dealing with issues of loyalty, caring for others, self-deception, and concern for how others see one.

Don't see it if you need action instead of talk, you don't like having to keep track of what an actor's wearing in order to know what year it is in the play

Also Early on I said to myself "Who's Adam?" did I miss something? I wouldn't mind reading this play now, with some idea of who's who, in order to see if it holds together better dramatically.... Read more Read less

See it if you like to pay attention because you don't want to miss a thing in this 80 minute show and the reversals are coming fast and furious.

Don't see it if you can't put up with silliness in the first act, and angst in the second act, to set you up for the deft, hilarious and eye-opening third.

Also Notice the taxidermy deer's head on the wall as you listen to the insects and birds before the play starts, a sign of bad things to come.... Read more Read less

See it if you're ready to see the classic struggle once again, with stylized violence to add interest to the static quality of the second act.

Don't see it if you don't share Shakespeare's concerns about how free people can govern themselves.

Also There are some traditional depictions of violence, such as Mark Antony's front and center strangling of an enemy, but more often there is violence without body contact: we see the body being attacked without seeing the attacker. This abstraction of violence is more moving than the imitation of violence.... Read more Read less

See it if you like an excellent, fast-paced, production of a play that's all surface and no depth, very little humor, and few sympathetic roles.

Don't see it if your cup runneth over with Jacobean revenge dramas.

See it if Shakespeare's words, loud and clear, are enough to make you happy, in spite of time wasted on showy sex, thunder, lightning, explosions.

Don't see it if length is a problem (3 1/2 hours). If Jackson's affecting acting isn't reward enough for her lack of vocal strength in this iconic role.

See it if you like to hear stories unique to an author's history, bringing the perspective of her youth and idealism to race relations in the sixties.

Don't see it if you don't care about knowing the varied experiences of people dealing with racial strife in the midst of clashes of opinion and faith.

See it if you have never seen "Marvin's Room" or "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" and you want to feel what it's like to watch a loved one suffer.

Don't see it if you think highly of "The Glass Menagerie" and find it suspicious when a young narrator fills you in on the story.

See it if you like political satire (eased by being Reagan-era, not Trump-era) smoothly delivered by five top actors in musical revue-skit format.

Don't see it if you don't like watching people sing, dance (a little), and impersonate recognizable (as types) political and media personalities.

Also The five Equity actors are almost always all on stage together, and do a great job of singing and swinging as a team, with a couple of numbers featuring outstanding solo singing as well. The dialogue's smart, and the actors are fun to watch. At the same time, there's the impact of thinking about war, thirty years ago or now.... Read more Read less

See it if you love the way Pirandello makes you think about things you never thought about before: what literature, acting and life mean.

Don't see it if you don't enjoy dialogue-centered drama, or aren't willing to sit through the rather overplayed comic segment.

See it if you're willing to enjoy stage business, marvelous physicality and a little lovely singing without your comprehending half the meaning.

Don't see it if you want to understand everything you see.

Also I had the feeling that many of the skits and references (luckily I knew Bunuel's work) might have had meaning for someone versed in Latin American history and in other works by Aristides Vargas.... Read more Read less

See it if Kristine Nielsen's brilliant acting and the myriad modulations of her voice are reward enough for a problematic script, as they were for me.

Don't see it if you don't like to see the obvious pushed too hard and too long.

Also When I saw this, I guessed it to be an early play of Tennessee Williams, in which he was feeling out characters for the future. Not so, he was 68. It plays like a well-structured draft in need of a lot of cutting and polishing.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to leave the theater physically happy from having laughed so much.

Don't see it if you don't take pleasure in the nuances of language.

Also You begin with Gurney's last short play, fun but mild, then wake up to a perky self-help guru in an early work, and finally revel in a wacky woman wielding literature like a sword, with pacing as deft as any Marx brothers scene.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see England, France, and the Papacy duke it out , to feel grief, betrayal, and nobility of spirit through Shakespeare's verse.

Don't see it if three hours of uncut Shakespeare is too much for you and stage combat doesn't make up for it.

See it if you want to see people looking at their lives, trying to see why they're unhappy, and grieving to see others falling into the same traps.

Don't see it if a display of out-of-balance human relationships, and talk about human relationships, doesn't appeal to you.

Also A powerhouse Uncle Vanya is trembling and distraught from the beginning of the play, which extends over a four-month period. The choices of casting and directing draw our eyes always to Vanya and to Chekhov's intentionally attractive Astrov. Elena is a nubile innocent--the cynical observations seem wrong coming from her mouth. Sonya is deliberately non-reactive. To me, the result is off-balance, although still very effective.... Read more Read less

See it if you find Sarah Bernhardt's life intriguing enough to enjoy a slice-of-life view of her anxieties about taking on the role of Hamlet.

Don't see it if you don't want to wish you were watching this cast do Shakespeare instead of Rebeck: she inserts a few excellent "Hamlet" scenes.

See it if you want to see a bare-bones version of what Pushkin dealt with in his last years, writing amid political repression, racism and slander.

Don't see it if you care more for bright lights and fast pacing than for a sympathetic portrayal of an artist in the midst of troubles.

See it if you like the world that surrounds theater, the history of places like this fabled restaurant and its portraits, talking to an in-house host.

Don't see it if you have no interest in the lives of theater people past, or of theater people present when they're off the stage.

See it if you like Brecht songs that tell a story, well done by eight actors and a pianist, plus a pot-pourri from poems, statements and plays.

Don't see it if you want some sense of Brecht's life, politics, or theatrical genius, or a narrative arc to the evening.

See it if you thrill to Churchill's boisterous and funny satire that belies its 40 years; sit through the tone-deaf Barker shorts, or arrive late.

Don't see it if you don't like to laugh and then realize you've been shown what dire consequences a naive action can have.

Also I'd like to rate the first half 40 and the second half 100, so I've compromised at 79.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to step away to a kinder, gentler world and revel in the pleasure of watching Bernadette Peters doling out witty physical comedy.

Don't see it if you don't think it's theater if there's no tension or drama.

Also In this 1938 fairy-tale, a tight-fisted gentile is improbably enlightened to love of life and the most humane of Jewish values.... Read more Read less

See it if you enjoy seeing a versatile singer and actor, accompanied by guitar, gradually win you over with tales of his life and of Leadbelly.

Don't see it if you need variety and action.

See it if you like a story well told, with believable people who are a joy to watch.

Don't see it if you don't like being emotionally moved at the theater.

See it if you enjoy good actors playing out intense moral and emotional dilemmas; you are interested in what audiences paid to see 400 years ago.

Don't see it if you don't like to work hard to find the good kernel inside the hard nut.

Also I saw June 13, the first preview, so I trust that cuts will be made to bring the two-hour play down to its intended 90 minutes.

What were the actors saying? The combination of a noisy air system, poor acoustics and in-the-round staging made it sometimes hard to know.

Best to read the plot synopsis online first: otherwise it's hard to recognize that a major character has become a minor character (actors play multiple roles) with no more clue than a costume adjustment.... Read more Read less

See it if you like learning what religion meant in the lives of show-business people in New York City in the 1920's and later, and what's changed.

Don't see it if you need a lot of visual stimulation and moving around, rather than listening to a welcoming rabbi and seeing photos and precious objects.

See it if you want an engaging guide to walk with you through the Met and make you notice things you'd never noticed before.

Don't see it if you want costumes, stage sets, etc., rather than paintings that let you see how artists addressed theater and acting over the years.

See it if you enjoy paying attention to word-play voiced by articulate virtuosic actors, with impeccably timed physical comedy thrown in.

Don't see it if you want to see people bare their souls and plumb the depths of human emotion. This is French farce, not sturm und drang.

See it if you want to see an exquisitely expressive actress do it all without speech

Don't see it if you're impatient with a second act that loses its way a bit dealing with big issues

See it if you are interested in how to preserve the performing arts for future generations.

Don't see it if you need vivid, hit-me-in-the-face; this is a chance to reflect on the past, and to consider what should be preserved and how.

See it if you enjoy seeing actors take the ball and run with it, you're okay with being tense, you love language.

Don't see it if you have a short attention span, you want to preserve a high opinion of the human race, you don't like talk about sex.

See it if you want to see characters you care about

Don't see it if you can't tolerate coarse language