See it if you like intimate plays with some difficult conversations
Don't see it if you are looking for an easy to follow along/digest story.
See it if you like the play that seems to navigate the delicate balance between archetype and stereotype that leads to thought-provoking discussions.
Don't see it if you are looking for big play.
See it if Wonderful three-hander with adept casting
Don't see it if Upper middle class Upper West Side and their concerns is quite a small pigeonhole of a group
See it if Rhea Perlman delivers. Realistic and humorous portrayal of an Upper West Side Jewish mother of a certain age that you'll recognize.
Don't see it if I did like it, but it can get clunky, and occasionally felt aimless in what it was trying to convey.
See it if you enjoy stories about living in New York City, about dealing with mental illness, about the messiness of being human.
Don't see it if you don’t enjoy complex characters who are imperfect and struggling.
See it if You live on the UWS and know everyone who lives there
Don't see it if You cant relate the a new york story
See it if You like Rhea Perlman (who knows how to project).
Don't see it if You expect more to a story and dislike shouting. Read more
See it if Very funny show, Perlman and Kritzer are great.
Don't see it if Short without much conflict
“ ‘Let’s Call Her Patty’ gestures toward an oral tradition of storytelling that aims to preserve local, and often endangered, histories.”
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“...Kritzer carries the play as it meanders and then abruptly concludes. Though Perlman’s comedic chops still shine in some moments, Kritzer’s Sammy is both the heart and humor of the piece. Neither talent, however, is enough to make up for ’Let’s Call Her Patty’s’ creative stagnation.”
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“ ‘Let’s Call Her Patty’ insists on being a story about Patty and Patty alone — a choice that hits a dead end when we realize how even Perlman’s dominant stage presence and talents as a character actor can’t overcome how passive Patty is as a protagonist. Patty does not act, but rather reacts to the people that orbit around her. And there’s only so much director Margot Bordelon can do to keep her story from succumbing to inertia.”
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“It truly is difficult to parse ’Let's Call Her Patty’ beyond the bits and pieces we are given. Margot Bordelon's direction and Kristen Robinson's set design give the play a dreamlike quality that is in keeping with a work about memories, unbidden thoughts, and random ideas. But as an audience for a play, we need more than these evanescent wisps.”
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"Rhea Perlman plays a Pilates-loving liberal Upper West Sider in this shallow new play... [where] unforced, realistic moments of connection are all too rare"
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“This play is more like a reality show with that kind of mother/daughter nattering where the daughter is trying to make a point and the mother keeps shifting the conversation to anything that will move...Sad to report that there is not much to see here folks. Move along.”
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“As the play goes on, the archetype quickly collapses into stereotype, and the more we know about “Patty,” the more she seems like a collection of traits that range from more-or-less-benign to more-or-less awful, not adding up to anything other than Overbearing Mother.”
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“Let’s Call Her Patty” can most charitably be considered a character study, since there is little discernible plot, with the one tangible development occurring close to the end of the 70-minute play, which feels longer.
Unfortunately, the character under study in Zarina Shea’s play, while meant to be colorful, comes perilously close to a stereotype, stopped from falling into flat-out caricature by the warmth and breadth of the cast.
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