The Layover
Closed 1h 30m
The Layover
69

The Layover NYC Reviews and Tickets

69%
(144 Ratings)
Positive
56%
Mixed
33%
Negative
11%
Members say
Great acting, Disappointing, Absorbing, Great staging, Entertaining

About the Show

Second Stage Theatre presents Leslye Headland's new play about strangers connecting during an unanticipated layover.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (144)

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283 Reviews | 77 Followers
91
Entertaining, Great acting, Great staging, Refreshing, Must see

See it if see amazing actors perform an entertaining plot. Maria and Adam had great chemistry. Me and friends were pleasantly surprised. Great Staging

Don't see it if had or victim of an affair. Can't sit still for 90 minutes. Don't like great acting and great shows.

PMF
57 Reviews | 22 Followers
88
Absorbing, Intense, Great acting

See it if you enjoy "film noir" (they're calling the play "neo-noir") and you want to see some intensely good acting!

Don't see it if you want clear heroes and villains. Be ready to work hard - it's a world in which characters can tell the truth and lie at the same time.

97 Reviews | 64 Followers
87
Edgy, Thought-provoking, Genre-upending, Murky, Slow burn

See it if u want to explore themes of projections/realities, desire/lust, blurriness of self/other in relationships, genre- esp. noir & "love stories"

Don't see it if u want to take play at face-value. Processing reveals gratifying subversive take on gender, self, predation, "love" & need/wish fulfillment.

91 Reviews | 83 Followers
85
Absorbing, Entertaining, Great acting

See it if You want to see some fine acting in a play that will hold your interest until the end

Don't see it if You're not a drama fan

416 Reviews | 190 Followers
85
Absorbing, Great acting, Edgy, Thought-provoking, Entertaining

See it if Like couples' dramas about betrayal; have ever wanted to escape a humdrum life and seek adventure and face unexpected consequences

Don't see it if You are very moral and dislike plays with sexual overtones; Recently broke up a relationship; Cannot watch elder abuse Have trust issues

150 Reviews | 22 Followers
85
Clever, Great acting, Original, Quirky, Edgy

See it if Ignore the bad reviews if you like original plays that don't fit the usual mold with great acting that make your brain work.

Don't see it if You like things cut & dry, hate swearing and are naive enough to think that people don't have affairs and fantasies.

292 Reviews | 68 Followers
84
Clever, Great acting, Original

See it if Great writing with great acting in a play that hooks you from the beginning. It provokes some thoughts and how you deal with life.

Don't see it if you don't like surprises and sudden twists in stories.

58 Reviews | 31 Followers
83
Great acting, Edgy, Riveting, Thought-provoking

See it if You like noir, suspense, and great acting. Annie Parisse was fantastic!

Don't see it if You don't like psychological suspense stories or adultery.

Critic Reviews (26)

The New York Times
August 25th, 2016

"Has anyone ever enjoyed a layover? Either it is nerve-janglingly short or grindingly long. 'The Layover,' a disappointing new play by Leslye Headland, achieves the novel feat of being both at the same time. Running a little more than 90 minutes, it doesn’t succeed in bringing us deeply into the lives of its principal characters. And yet we don’t exactly leave pining for more of their company...Ms. Headland has muffled her comic verve almost completely in this play."
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Time Out New York
August 25th, 2016

"Trip Cullman’s gorgeous-looking and boldly acted production delivers the play in optimal form: racy laughs that suddenly trail into passages of eloquent pain and loss...True, the character contrivances required by her plot may rankle afterward—and might have been mitigated by retroactive exposition or a more fragmented performance by Parisse...But with Headland, even when the roof caves in, that seems part of the design—and the fun."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
August 25th, 2016

"The plot becomes etiolated as it scrambles after excuses for itself, and, worse, the characters, constantly reshaped to support a crumbling conceit, wind up resembling, despite the best efforts of the actors Adam Rothenberg and Annie Parisse, no human form. Under Trip Cullman’s direction the supporting cast, given some truly vile material to carry off, doesn’t...The Hitchcockian concept, compounded by its weak execution, reveals a problem: a greater interest in ideas than in people."
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Deadline
August 25th, 2016

"Headland writes snappy, caustic dialogue—the repartee here is pretty great—yet I found much of what was being said defied credibility...Shellie and Dex seem, ultimately, more like an author’s conceit than actual characters. The abrupt shocker that concludes the play only confirmed my sense that Headland wasn’t in control of the story and, by the end, simply threw in the towel. Or maybe I just didn’t get it. Still, the show was never boring."
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Variety
August 25th, 2016

"Leslye Headland’s attempt to write a neo-noir erotic thriller comes up lame in 'The Layover.' Despite the fine sexual chemistry generated by Annie Parisse and Adam Rothenberg, the play can’t overcome the scribe’s clumsy reworking of the vintage formula. Lacking those generic plot thrills, this half-baked erotic teaser is no more than mildly entertaining."
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The Hollywood Reporter
August 25th, 2016

"The author's ambitions slip out of her grasp as she attempts to riff on the kind of adulterous intrigue that was the domain of Patricia Highsmith...The result is a play that resembles a hijacked flight, taking too many jerky detours before crashing…The play's logic has begun to crumble well before its misjudged final scene...Nothing that comes before suggests that was the story Headland set out to tell, making 'The Layover' seem both ill-conceived and thematically incoherent."
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NY1
August 25th, 2016

"This is a case of style over substance...While Headland is clearly a smart writer, it feels as if she's over-reaching with this story, contriving more depth than the narrative can handle...Cullman’s compelling staging compensates for the play’s weaknesses with excellent technical designs and a splendid cast. Annie Parisse and Adam Rothenberg engage us from start to finish, even as the play veers off course. Bottom line: it’s a first class production of an economy class play."
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Theatermania
August 25th, 2016

"A beguiling and unsettling new play…By adopting and then slowly subverting this well-worn genre, Headland slyly exposes just how toxic our societal narratives of ‘love at first sight’ and the grand gesture can be…Headland asks some very important questions about the incongruity between reality and the stories we tell ourselves…These questions will nag you as you leave the theater and beyond."
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