A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur NYC Reviews and Tickets

“None of the performances from the ensemble here seems to match up with any of the others in terms of style, temperament, scale or audibility...O’Toole looks perfect for the part. Yet her performance is strangely spasmodic...Nielsen isn’t a natural fit for a Williams play. But her extravagantly eccentric performance does manage to hint at the wounded center of a boisterous character...Though indubitably a lesser Williams work, 'Creve Coeur' does sparkle now and then."
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"Pendleton understands that great comedy is always grounded in real stakes and truthful performances. Executing knee-bends for dear life, Lichty is every bit the Williams Southern belle...Pendleton wisely presents 'Creve Coeur' in 105 uninterrupted minutes, revealing the play to be one brilliantly constructed and completely continuous scene. The comedy and drama build in equal measure, often feeding off each other. All of that springs from the truth at the heart of Williams's writing."
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"Very fine La Femme Theatre production of the lesser-known Tennessee Williams drama...Excellent work by Nielsen and O'Toole makes Bodey and Helena's conflict a comical highlight...Expanded to and hour and forty-five minutes (Pendleton has removed the intermission) the play does seem a bit slow and overstuffed. Still, this is a fine opportunity to see a well-mounted rarity by one of the great masters performed by an exceptional company."
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“Everything about this revival is busy...The action is nonstop...And yet, the play is, from the first line to the last, stuck in idle...Watching each of these actresses go her own stylistic way, one wonders exactly what sort of oversight the director, Austin Pendleton exercised over this production. If there is a workable play here this company is incapable of delivering it...A better, more nuanced approach would have allowed one to enjoy the script's occasional beauties.”
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"'Creve Coeur' did escape the scorn that met some of Williams’ other later works, leaving it ripe for a safe, sensitive revival, which is what director Austin Pendleton and his accomplished cast deliver here...There’s little to cackle at in this production, though the players gently stoke the piquant comedy Williams could always inject into the bleakest of circumstances."
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"A handsome if uneven revival...The chief pleasures of this production are the always terrific Kristine Nielsen and Annette O’Toole...A very funny play...But there’s an undeniable undercurrent of tragedy...It’s a delicate tonal balance, and this production almost strikes it. The main problem is Lichty. She has the precise look—beautiful, thin, wispy, high-strung—that her character requires, but her speech is strained, almost manic, and, unfortunately, barely audible."
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“Even a cast led by…stalwarts…can do little to make this comedy splashed with pathos bring mild laughter to your lips or moisture to your eyes...Too little of the acting reveals the hearts, broken or otherwise, of these potentially interesting characters…[The] repetitive emphasis on the same basic conflicts comes to seem, over…an intermission-less hour and 45 minutes, increasingly artificial…Fails to convince that, other than because of its author's name, it's a treasure waiting to be found.”
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"I jumped at the chance to see this rarity by the great dramatist...Unquestionably, Williams' fortunes, both personal and professional, had peaked by the time this play appeared. But genius will out and in this instance shows him as remarkably perceptive...Williams lovers will delight in the contentiousness of the brittle and baiting conversations/confrontations. That he is able to make us laugh and feel deeply at the same time is a credit to his genius."
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"The cast seem to spend more time navigating the narrow passageways watching out for corners and edges to avoid, instead of finding their way through the complex text...Such a shame, as there are a few strong and provocative ideas and performances shuffling about on that short trolley ride to the park...Rarely achieves the same level of poetic descent that we have learned to expect of Williams. It’s beautifully spoken, but unfocused and flat, at least with this awkwardly staged production."
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"The women counterbalance each other and each adjustment in one causes a responsive adjustment in the others. This structural back-forth-and-sideways is captivating at times, but bloats the play...Here, in an intermission-less evening, the extraneous material is especially apparent...Nielsen and O’Toole spend much of the play sparring while Dottie hides in the bedroom. These two gifted actresses are alert and connected, feeding each other to great effect. "
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"All the women in 'A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur' are cultivating complexes and obsessions and coming to terms with that cultivation is the enduring theme of Tennessee Williams’ play...Pendleton directs with a steady hand and keeps the action moving forward at a brisk pace...'Creve Coeur' connects deeply with all suffering the malaise of loss or lack of identity and the quest for independence that sometimes results in broken hearts."
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"Contains a familiar dose of heartbreak, and reflects the playwright’s poetic sensibility and deep compassion. But 'A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur,' despite its precious title, is also wickedly witty, Williams creating smart-mouthed characters and letting them loose on one another...Though it might not be a masterpiece, 'Creve Coeur' has a relaxed humor and even, winningly, a kind of optimism that is hard to find in Williams early, more popular work."
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"Nielsen, O’Toole, and McKie all play their roles like caricatures of women and it doesn’t always work...Pendleton brings some umps to this play, but it really is a one-act and it seems to drag on just a little bit longer than it should...This is a play every Tennessee Williams fan will and should see...It could be highly interesting to see the evolvement of women in society and how circumstances have changed."
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“A sterling, masterful presentation...Adroit performances and direction. Pendleton’s nuanced and gradual unfolding of Williams’ dramatic climax at once captivates with its beauty, delicacy, and plaintiveness. Delivered with a less astute balance in shepherding the actors’ portrayals than Pendleton’s, Williams’ complicated play would not deliver the power and heartbreak that this production evokes at the conclusion.”
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“Williams reveals his trademark understanding of loneliness and the needs of life for friendship, support and perhaps occasional accommodations. With poignancy is humor, the emotions combining with a gentle charm by four actors who understand and communicate William' sensitivities. In a smooth flow, director Austin Pendleton brings out the unique eccentricities of each woman, linking their individual delusions and anxieties with universal humanity.”
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"Despair, desperation, and loneliness are key themes in this work...A tragicomedy with four meaty roles for actresses to play. The meanness of women is certainly on display here but with added layers of fear, dreams, self-protection and gut instincts...The performances are mixed...'Creve Coeur' is a long one act piece and the tempo dragged a number of times. Austin Pendleton directed these ladies to play the scenes fairly bluntly."
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“Not one of Tennessee Williams's masterpieces, but it still deserves a better production...Pendleton seems to think that 'Creve Coeur' is a farce. It is not; it's a slightly hopeful tragedy with some humor. Pendleton does manage to get some laughs, but at the cost of the play's soul...Lichty does a decent job as Dotty...Nielsen's two-dimensional Bodey ignores the character's savvy and backbone, much to the detriment of the play. O'Toole plays Helena as though she is a sitcom bad guy.”
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“More than a mere curiosity for Williams enthusiasts: it is a stylish and enjoyable, though flawed, production, which shows that there is real power in Williams’ largely comic play, even if this staging is ultimately unable to fully capture it...Nielsen is a pleasure to watch...making a full character out of what could have been a caricature...Pendleton’s direction is on point...The main problem is Lichty’s uneven and uncertain performance, a not insignificant portion of which is nearly inaudible.”
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“In ‘A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur,’ La Femme Theatre Productions’ all-female cast hands in excellent performances. This lesser-known work of Tennessee Williams serves as a welcome reminder of his skill as a playwright. Lichty’s accent takes a bit of time to understand and there is one scene that is ultimately too difficult to decipher. That aside, the performances on the whole are engaging and the play lingers in the mind long after the telling.”
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