Happy Talk NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (132)
See it if You want to see a play with a plot twist
Don't see it if …
See it if Sarandon and Ireland are acting superb ! Very good play , funny smart but also sad in a way.
Don't see it if If you are looking for musical, not a drama
See it if You're a huge fan of Susan Sarandon; want to see her in a very intimate theater. Her "wave" at the end is haunting. Show flies by.
Don't see it if You don't like modern dramas; if you would be upset to see the rage that happens at the very end (and the mess that's made).
See it if Eisenberg’s Sarandon and company are compelling. This is one play that exceeds the critics’ lukewarm response. Humor and pathos.
Don't see it if Darkness that belies a real family is hard-hitting.
See it if you want to see a magnificently acted dramedy involving questionable characters. - Susan Sarandon & Marin Ireland are brilliant
Don't see it if you dislike intimate plays about personal relationships, or need huge amounts of action as opposed to a lot of dialogue Read more
See it if Great acting, especially Susan Sarandon. An absorbing story with some really interesting characters.
Don't see it if You do not want to see some really good acting with an absorbing plot and you want to leave the theater with that feel good Hollywood glow.
See it if Susan Sarandon s performance is incredible. It is well acted throughout-tsome accents a little overblown Topical subject
Don't see it if One long act, starts off light hearted but quickly devolves into a serious topic. The foreshadowing of turns in the plot are somewhat obviou
See it if You are a fan of Susan Sarandon and edgy plays with strong character development.
Don't see it if You want to see a very happy ending. You may be disappointed.
Critic Reviews (38)
"Ms. Sarandon might not be ideally cast in the role of the flamboyantly dotty Lorraine...As embodied by Ms. Sarandon in this wobbly New Group production — directed by Scott Elliott and also starring the invaluable Marin Ireland — Lorraine always seems a bit abstracted, as if she had other, darker things on her mind than the glories of musical comedy. So, to put it mildly, does 'Happy Talk.'...Mr. Eisenberg’s play and Mr. Elliott’s direction never seem to settle on a cohesive tone."
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"The only good thing to be said about Jesse Eisenberg’s dismal new play is that it’s a real value: It’s two bad plays for the price of one...There’s something superior and even cruel about the play’s sense of humor, which mostly derives from Lorraine’s unabated awfulness...The comedy of 'Happy Talk' is so sour and the drama so ham-fisted and misdirected that I found myself weirdly grateful for Oreskes’s Bill, a character who spends the play grimacing in an armchair."
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"Alternately amusing and discomfiting...'Happy Talk' proves genuinely enjoyable in its first half, with Sarandon clearly having a blast as the self-centered diva...It's when the play turns darker that it becomes increasingly tiresome and unconvincing...Though Scott Elliott's staging fails to provide stylistic cohesion to a play in need of further development, the evening nonetheless has its pleasures, thanks in large part to the terrific performances."
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"At the very least, 'Happy Talk,' a wobbly living room drama by Jesse Eisenberg, ought to make theatergoers eager to revisit the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical 'South Pacific'...Eisenberg’s plays function best as detailed portraits of complex and often difficult people. Many of the narrative elements of 'Happy Talk' are clumsy, creepy and heavy-handed. Nevertheless, 'Happy Talk' is often absorbing."
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"If only we had reason to care about these relationships. Eisenberg writes the majority of his play like a drawing-room comedy and uses that as leave to design Lorraine as the perpetual punchline to a single joke...Exposing an unhealthy trope that you yourself are exploiting for laughs does not earn profundity points...Shock is a valuable dramatic tool, but not independent from genuine insight and a fundamental shift in perspective."
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“The pièce de résistance of the play's credibility problems is the plot...By the time ‘Happy Talk’ completes the transition from acid comedy to psychological thriller, it may very well be too late...I suppose you can view 'Happy Talk' as a parable of the dangers of narcissism...But the playwright's way of pinning down his characters, as if in a butterfly collection, makes his play something of an ordeal...Ultimately, ‘Happy Talk’ is undone by its dismissive attitude toward its characters.”
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"Under Scott Elliott's nimble direction, Sarandon and Ireland do superb, nuanced work traversing the different roles and responsibilities suggested in Lorraine and Ljuba’s friendly, fraught relationship...Eisenberg crafts characters and dialogue that will prove instantly accessible, and very funny, both to those intimately acquainted with the milieu he’s sending up and the presumable minority of audience members who aren’t."
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"Although the play suffers from a hasty, not entirely convincing conclusion, the characters are vividly composed, and director Scott Elliott provides a smoothly paced production...Perhaps Sarandon was experiencing an off night at a recent preview, but her portrait of a possibly crazy lady was not entirely convincing to me."
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