A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (142)
See it if I liked it more than I thought. Thanks to the ladies in the hospital beds!
Don't see it if You get offended easily.
See it if you enjoy down to earth plays. Very realistic characters in an awkward time in their lives. Lots of laughs
Don't see it if you are sensitive to shows dealing with cancer.
See it if you like Halley Feiffer's work. Maybe not as GREAT as her last play at the Atlantic - but very worthy for its observations about death.
Don't see it if you'll be easily offended at strong language - or if you're easily offended by looking at serious situations comedically. Namely cancer.
See it if I was pleasantly surprised by this. I always worry when I TV or movie star tries to act on stage but she did great. She was matched with a
Don't see it if great actor and held her own. My only issue is she did not hold for laughs. Very funny and now what I expected
See it if You're willing to suspend disbelief at the set-up and understand that there are many ways to experience pains and loneliness.
Don't see it if You're squeamish about language, women's attitude towards themselves, or dealing with illness.
See it if You like funny plays w/ heart. It's a well constructed & acted. You understand why the characters are the way they are. Emery is excellent
Don't see it if You are looking for something serious or deep. While the show does tackle some serious themes it's done with a joke or a smile.
See it if this is less a dark comedy than snapshots of those moments when we, despite ourselves, laugh nervously in the face of impending tragedy
Don't see it if you don't appreciate lightheartedness around the issue of terminal illness and parent child disfunction.
See it if you like dark comedy, wonderful ensemble acting, finding love in the most stressful of times and circumstances
Don't see it if you are offended by death jokes or rape jokes, raunchy comedy; may be difficult if someone close to you is dying from cancer
Critic Reviews (20)
"As smug and heavy-handed as its title. Ms. Feiffer’s rudimentary characters communicate by the sledgehammer approach to comedy. Until the mawkish finale there is a barrage of zingers, one-liners and vulgarisms…Director Trip Cullman’s staging is straightforward but he has the leading actors overplaying to the point of desperation…With its stock characters, deficient writing and shrill presentation,' A Funny Thing...' is a superficial and grating take on the subject."
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"It's not easy to brighten a death watch situation with laughs and romance. But Feiffer does make the romance she's concocted blossom in full view of two dying women...The humor is often so over-the-top that it tends to overwhelm the darker subtext. Still, Feiffer, Cullman and the actors do manage to let that darkness ultimately surface."
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"The progression of their relationship is somewhat impalpable but for the fact that here are two major lonely, dysfunctional people, who are thrown together grieving and feeling sorry for themselves...Life can be very inappropriate and people say the weirdest things in the most unusual circumstances. 'A Funny Thing' is just such a time and place. Trip Cullman is a genius at directing this ensemble of top-notch actors who really know how to throw a punch."
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"The throat-grabbing writing of Halley Feiffer was raw, risky, really hilarious and pushed me hard into the fear and grief that is cancer…Feiffer mocks the powerful thief that is cancer, but never loses respect for what is required of our humanity when cancer breaks in…Lochtefeld is absolutely precious as Don...Lochtefeld and Behrs are a delight to watch as they dance through the embarrassing tears and inappropriate laughter in their interrupted lives."
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“Ms. Feiffer’s script allows the characters to engage in repeated volleys of assault and disarmament that result in millennial bravura being transformed into an intergenerational truce...Under Trip Cullman’s judicious and incisive direction, Mr. Lochtefeld and Ms. Behrs both deliver convincing and authentic performances each capturing the complexities of their characters’ lives...Halley Feiffer’s new play is worth the visit."
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"There are no great revelations or glorious resolutions, no startling insights, but the path we see them taking as the play unfolds, and the past that we learn along the way, feels largely credible...There is much humor in the play; what works best is what feels earned rather than imposed. Trip Cullman directs at a brisk pace, getting fine, honest performances out of the four-member cast...The funny thing that happens at 'A Funny Thing Happened…' is not just laughs, but life."
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"Feiffer...strains mightily to create an offbeat rom-com about a mismatched pair of losers who meet cute in a hospital room where their mothers are being treated for ovarian cancer; it’s a heavy lift...Feiffer’s black comedy, which tries to wring comedy out of the dire misfortune of a loved one’s suffering by laughing in the face of death, has noble intentions. The characters she creates to navigate the situation, however, are neither interesting nor amusing enough."
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"Feiffer’s distinctive if uncertain play is a romantic comedy on the surface only. Underneath, it is about how anyone copes or doesn’t with the everyday traumas and tragedies of life...It’s as though Feiffer wanted to write a comedy, but keeps being drawn back to drama...What the play does best is to show the varied ways its characters mask difficult emotions, mostly unsuccessfully...Under Trip Cullman’s direction, Behrs is perhaps somewhat too eager to prove her stage bona fides."
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