A Better Place NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (29)
See it if You like a light comedy. If you like a good sit-com this is the show for you.
Don't see it if You're looking for a show with a lot of substance. The acting was fine. It was the writing. Too often I found it unbelievable.
See it if you like silly plays with silly jokes and watching professional actors in a bad show.
Don't see it if You want a show with substance that gives you something to think about.
See it if You are open to something that tries, even if it doesn't fully succeed.
Don't see it if You're expecting something thought-provoking or consistently amusing.
See it if your TV is broken
Don't see it if you prefer a show with characters who have some depth and some humor
See it if you get free tickets.
Don't see it if you can afford to see anything else.
See it if You like silly TV sitcoms, don't care if the story has holes, you think getting turned on by real estate descriptions is a funny concept.
Don't see it if You can't sit for 90 minutes without intermission, you want a coherent story, you are offended by seeing simulated sex with clothes on.
See it if you're interested in a play about New York real estate written by someone who clearly knows nothing about New York...let alone real estate.
Don't see it if you want to see a good play.
See it if Can't really recommend seeing it. Silly story with poor staging. Actors struggle to make sense of what little they have to work with
Don't see it if you want any kind of intelligent story, or design elements that make sense
Critic Reviews (13)
“David L. Arsenault’s set is what’s memorable...Beckett, who has nothing in common with (sur)namesake Samuel when it comes to dramaturgical inspiration, is mocking the prominence that real estate has in Big Apple mindsets. She just isn’t very funny about it...Beckett has her own secret that some patrons may get on to and some may not...Just another element that isn’t especially amusing.”
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"The show is sold as a comedy about New York real estate…What I got instead was a rather repetitive, snooze of a show that simply plotted poor rent-controlled brownstone renters in Brooklyn situated across from a modern, all glass and steel high-rise…Casting seemed a hodge-podge of mix and match talents…There were several scenes that were absolutely out of left field...Waaaay too long, waaaay to repetitive…A hot mess of a show with little entertainment value."
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"Maitner delivers a first-class performance, and FitzGibbon matches him well despite having a less interesting role…There is definitely something here, and the idea of New Yorkers watching the lives of the people across the way is a good one...The trouble is that there is one too many clever twists to the plot and characters that are not quite as polished as one would like. Less is more, and here there is more rather than less. The show has great potential, which is not entirely realized."
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"There is nothing in Evan Bergman’s direction nor the merely adequate performances all around that adds any type of amusement or tenderness…The multitude of scenes, one of which has Les just tidying up magazines, are endless and all prove innocuous…Somewhere in this languid mess of a play there indeed is a sharp satire about the have and have-nots. But you have to look mighty deep to find an ounce of that. As for 'A Better Place,' it was when I left the theater."
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"Bergman has a thrust stage as her personal canvas...Maitner conveys Les as the self-limited middle-aged waiter faced with his own past. His character was funny and relatable...Fitzgibbon created a mirror for Maitner’s character and offered the comic relief and introspection. The two had good chemistry...The play was introspective (yet somewhat predictable) and showed the inner turmoil that many of us all face in our search for the next beginning."
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