See it if Amazing performance. Simple staging, great lighting. Great writing and clever storytelling.
Don't see it if Themes of child abuse/statutory rape bother you. In a 55 min play, there was plenty of room to develop a few of the threads a bit more.
See it if You want to see an excellent Judith Light give an absorbing monologue that makes you consider a long standing lie from her perspective
Don't see it if You don't like a solo show and justifications for very bad behavior
See it if you enjoy a well told story.
Don't see it if you expect traditional theater with characters who react to each other.
See it if you want to see fabulous acting by Judith Light.
Don't see it if you are easily bored by a one-person show.
See it if you're a Neil LaBute or Judith Light fan
Don't see it if you don't like one-woman shows
See it if you're okay with an uncomfortable subject of student-teacher affair and enjoy Judith Light's subtlety on stage
Don't see it if you're expecting a powerful plot and seamless problems addressing throughout the monologue
See it if You want to see the work of a great playwright and great actress not quite coming together.
Don't see it if You expect to be surprised.
See it if you're a J. Light fan - she's amazing & had the audience enthralled, which is quite a feat for such an unlikeable "heroine."
Don't see it if you're bothered by trivializing statutory rape. I left impressed with the performance but feeling like I needed a shower. Read more
"Though the play lacks one of LaBute’s signature shocker twists, it still has a few smooth curves and pivots in its plot...The biggest unanswered question hovering above 'All the Ways,' though, is 'Why?' Why has LaBute chosen to write this play now?...Why is this character speaking now, and to whom?...Judith Light and Leigh Silverman’s sensitively directed production provide compelling reasons to listen, but the story being delivered doesn’t convince quite so strongly."
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"LaBute’s play begs for a striking performance and it receives one in the brilliant and emotionally exhausting performance of Judith Light...Under Leigh Silverman’s astute direction, Ms. Light gives her character’s infatuation with Tommy a remarkable level of authenticity and honesty...There is not a wasted movement in Judith Light’s action nor an unnecessary amplified outburst in the thunderous claps of grief and sadness that erupt from this actor’s soulful bravura performance."
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“The takeaway is not the play but Light’s bravura performance, which exposes feelings of love, lust, anxiety, and guilt. Under Leigh Silverman’s precise direction, Light’s constantly shifting emotional trajectory keeps you glued to every word...At times, Light’s passionate expressiveness makes her seem more a victim in a classic tragedy than the character she’s playing; on the other hand, without her mesmeric acting there’d be little reason to visit the Lortel.”
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"As expected, Light is the best thing about it. What’s less expected is how slight the play is...This is not one of LaBute’s most substantive or satisfying efforts. Still, the playwright is skilled in using language to reveal character, and Light makes the most of it...The attitudes towards Mrs. Johnson that LaBute’s play evokes in the audience are not as clear-cut nor as interesting, despite best efforts by director Leigh Silverman. But Judith Light is never less than watchable."
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"While LaBute has written an unusual scary piece, he's also put together a powerful one-woman show that two-time Tony winner Light shapes as a tour de force. Under Leigh Silverman's seamless direction, Light meets the requirements of moving from Mrs. Johnson's assured teacher to a wife in love with her supportive husband to a woman recalling the thrill of physical passion to someone attempting to deal with guilt that won't be assuaged...We're lucky to have her back again."
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"Light's elegant authority is used to fine and sly effect, elevating a mildly sensational monodrama into a reasonably compelling character study...Despite LaBute’s gifts for ordinary speech, the iterations and tangents and dead-ends, much of this would seem factitious or possibly even silly, were it not for Light’s finely calibrated performance and Leigh Silverman’s assured direction. Silverman charts emotional terrain like an expert geographer."
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"Judith Light is the consummate actress who can make even a narcissistic, self-absorbed women seem civil...The content feels like purgatory and if not for Ms. Light’s commitment, I could have easily tuned out to this soulless human being...Leigh Silverman’s does the best she can with this script, which lacks any kind of remorse that is not self-afflicting. Funny, the one thing missing here is any kind of love."
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"Since his promising early works, LaBute has gotten increasingly skimpy with his considerable talents...There used to be a time in the theater when short one acts were put on a double bill...Let’s just say that it is a LaBute play, meaning that someone is going to get spanked really hard for having some pretty terrific sex. As paddles go, LaBute’s is much bigger than even Arthur Miller’s. Light, wearing an exceedingly stiff wig, is appropriately overwrought under Leigh Silverman’s direction."
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