"Ms. Breslin’s self-conscious, underdeveloped performance...At 20, she still comes across as older than her years, so casting her to portray a 14-year-old is a puzzling decision — one that knocks the production badly out of kilter. The cumulative impact of the play hinges on Jenny, so it is no small thing that she never seems real...The play is smarter and more deliberate on the page than it seems in this world-premiere production."
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"Schmidt's raw one-act drama juxtaposes the first sexual encounters of a pair of 14-year-old BFFs...While this is hardly virgin territory, there's a stinging authenticity to their awkward interactions that's alternately hilarious and horrifying...Organized into a series of two-person scenes, 'All the Fine Boys' falls into a predictable rhythm, though a few necessarily stomach-churning sequences jolt. You'll probably know where these ladies are headed long before they do."
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"It’s the one where Little Miss Sunshine loses her virginity while eating a slice of pizza. If this contrived play, written and directed by Erica Schmidt and presented by the New Group, is remembered for anything, it’ll be that creepy doozy of a scene. That’s not nothing, but still...Like the script, the acting rarely rings true in a work that can’t pick a point of view—satire, dark comedy, cautionary drama, Lifetime tale? Who knows."
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“More exploitative than illuminating…Schmidt doesn’t do this play any favors with her sluggishly paced direction…From its trivial opening scene to its melodramatic conclusion, ‘All the Fine Boys’ feels shallow and superficial. What seems clearly intended to be a haunting examination of lost innocence instead comes across like a cautionary made-for-television film from the '80s, the era in which the play is set.”
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"Schmidt's contrivance leaves little doubt as to where we are headed. Luckily, she is skilled enough as a director to build ample tension in a play mostly lacking suspense. The result is an engrossing bit of sensationalism...This stellar cast is able to turn their broadly drawn characters into human beings...Unfortunately, Schmidt's treatment of these subjects feels as nourishing as the Pringles Jenny stuffs in her mouth...While it's fun and tasty, you know you'll be hungry again in an hour."
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"Schmidt keeps both plotlines moving in tandem, but this parallel structure results in a distinctly unbalanced drama...One narrative feels honest; the other is hopelessly overwrought...Nevertheless, all four cast members expertly bring to life these two ill-fated courtships...The most interesting thing about 'All the Fine Boys' is that neither Jenny nor Emily is a victim, although things go very badly for at least one of them...Still, it often feels like two plays stitched together."
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"The point seems to be that, under the wrong circumstances, girls can grow up too fast—and too dangerously—but the scenario as constructed here stretches credulity past the breaking part, and doesn't engage our sympathy at all...Despite adroit isolated moments throughout, the play as a whole is richly unsatisfying; the men simply can't compete with the women, and are given far too many opportunities to prove it...'All the Fine Boys' is monochromatic at best."
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"All four actors give solid performances...Unfortunately Erica Schmidt also wastes the potential to make 'All the Fine Boys' a compelling modern 'American Tragedy.' Instead the situations she has put her characters in are way too predictably developed, and except for a few scenes, more unpleasant than absorbing to watch...'All the Fine Boys' does fit the The New Group's taste for venturing into dark, provocative territory. Too bad it's dark but not provocative enough."
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