Final Follies NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (169)
See it if you want to see 3 short plays in one evening; you enjoy seeing the same actors in very different roles; you love A.R. Gurney's plays
Don't see it if you only enjoy musicals; you don't like Gurney's poking fun at the WASP culture
See it if You're familiar with Gurney's work and enjoy his duels with WASP society. His humor is intelligent and sharp. His writing is insightful.
Don't see it if You do not want to think at a show or comedy. You have no clue about literature or WASP society that ruled America for years.
See it if you are a fan of A R Gurney or just enjoy wonderful telling of stories. Very funny especially the first and last story. Very well cast.
Don't see it if you like serious drama. Read more
See it if 3 satires full of little twists. Gurney punctures your expectations while tickling your funny bone. Romantic yearning triumphs.
Don't see it if You don’t want to go on a journey outside the cultural norm. The second play drags a bit, and wasn’t as funny as the first and third.
See it if you enjoy some light, comedic, and funny storytelling, with a brief display of an actor in his underwear.
Don't see it if you do not like small productions with three short stories told in 2+ hours
See it if you want well acted Gurney plays. I liked the first and third, not the middle play as much.
Don't see it if you don't like Gurney, who pokes fun at WASP culture.
See it if You like initimate theater experiences that deal with a variety of topics that range from hilarious to very serious.
Don't see it if You want a big, dazzling, Broadway style show. Or if you don’t want to see a show that talks about rape.
See it if three different one act plays - satirical looks at WASP culture, suburban pretenses & academia; strange scenarios but very funny
Don't see it if want plays that are more developed, have a problem with highly unlikely scenarios no matter how funny. Read more
Critic Reviews (16)
“The three plays...allow Gurney fans a rare chance to compare the playwright at the beginning and the end of his career. They have been directed, broadly but affectionately...’Final Follies’, which was finished only weeks before his death...is a charming benediction and farewell to the caste whose demise he chronicled so faithfully. The other offerings, first published in the 1960s, suggest a writer still clearing his throat in the process of finding his own voice.”
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“’Final Follies’s' ap1peal is limited to those who enjoy watching male establishment types engage in vigorous back-slapping about questionable behavior...Saint plumps the program with two chestnuts from Gurney’s under-heralded salad days...Gurney makes the most of his deep knowledge of procedural folderol and preening male ego—themes that show no signs of falling out of date."
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"I must truthfully confess I found this compilation the second-rate output of a talented man on an off day with nothing better to do...A disappointing compromise, and not his finest work...The evening is a triptych of need, desire and stupidity that underscores the frustration of an author who unwisely surrendered to the charge of being 'passé' when he had nothing to prove, improve, or apologize for."
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“Served like a loosely themed sampler platter intended to add up to a meal. In terms of both quantity and quality of the performances, the evening is a perfectly satiating experience. Mustering an appetite for this kind of menu, however, is another matter...’The Love Course’ is by far the most entertaining of the three...You can't help but wish ‘The Love Course’, along with the rest of the fare, were slightly meatier.”
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"If 'Final Follies' proves anything, it is that the one-act form wasn't the playwright's métier...These offerings consist of thin premises, lame jokes, and nothing much in the way of payoff...'The Rape of Bunny Stuntz': The saving grace of this smug, predictable piece is Deborah Rush, who makes Bunny into a solid satirical portrait of an upper-middle-class matron, complete with a melodious voice, come-hither-but-not-too-close expressions, and velvet-over-steel manner."
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“The first short play: Comes off as a bit of fluff...The two plays that follow pack more of a punch...Saint generally keeps things spinning at a rapid pace, especially with the more richly constructed 'Bunny Stutz' and the comical 'Love Course'. The best thing about the evening is the opportunity it presents for audiences...To get a sense of...his shorter works that manage both to puncture the upscale WASP world Gurney grew up in and to lament its passing."
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“The prolific playwright possessed a vastly underrated, and all-too-rare, ability to craft characters without caricature and comedy without condescendence...So it’s hard to be too terribly disappointed in Gurney’s ‘Final Follies’, an uneven but amusing triptych of something-old, something-new shorts. Even when Gurney was off his game, he still knew how to land a well-placed barb...Saint has set up his show like a relay: Start the race with your weakest runner, and finish with your strongest.”
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“In theory, the program is meant as a thoughtful tribute to a distinctive author. In actuality, it doesn’t work out well. None of these slim plays represent Gurney in his funniest or wisest modes...Saint gives the plays a tidy staging...Fostering an ominous edge to ‘The Rape of Bunny Stuntz’ might have lent that piece some needed dramatic weight, but there was little else that Saint could do with the flimsy others than to move them along quickly and lightly, which he ably does.”
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