Love, Love, Love NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (293)
See it if /for hilarious & disturbing portrait of narcissistic, materialistic boomers particularly by Amy Ryan as mother-from-hell w/ fine ensemble
Don't see it if /since predictable criticism of boomers as self-centered parents w/ damaged kids; still expertly and hilariously dissected
See it if you want to see a sharp satire/morality play for baby boomers (and, to a lesser extent, Gen-Xers) wrapped in an entertaining family drama.
Don't see it if you're not willing to see/accept/laugh at the failings of your own generation (be it boomer, gen-x or millennial).
See it if Caustic, pitch-black comedy about boomers & their children over three generations. Excellent acting (Amy Ryan!!) with sure-footed direction
Don't see it if Corrosive irony can get to be much by the third act but overall a sharp, insightful satire on the gradual warping of a value system
See it if you want to feel good about your own family dynamics; you enjoy good acting, even if the characters grate on you; excellent third act.
Don't see it if you want to like the characters in the play; you're not interested in the making of a dysfunctional family by me, me, me baby boomer parents Read more
See it if You want to see these wonderful actors in a very entertaining play.
Don't see it if Family drama with a lot of fighting is not your thing. It is entertaining but gets dark.
See it if you want to wade through 2 acts of overblown overacted junk,to get to 3rd act that actually has something to say.Set is good.Sound is bad
Don't see it if you want a show that entertains & enlightens. This drags with angry caricature characters. In the last act, you actually see one real person
See it if you enjoy an absorbing, witty play in which the characters experience different eras of their lives.
Don't see it if you require likable protagonists. These folks swim in the seas of self-involvement.
See it if You are a baby boomer who could never figure your parents out; wondered why some siblings were so different;like changing sets
Don't see it if You dislike changing sets;2 intermissions:drug and alcohol use; 60's 70's 80's;parents as the villains Read more
Critic Reviews (36)
"This play rumbles with a sometimes too easy irony...And yet I have to admit I had a swell time at 'Love, Love, Love,' impeccably directed by Michael Mayer and featuring a nigh-perfect five-member ensemble...The greatest joy in 'Love, Love, Love' comes from the chance it affords its stars to conquer the aging process and to demonstrate how people change — or more to the point, remain themselves — over the years."
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"Although it may sound overly schematic in print, the psychocultural history mapped by 'Love, Love, Love' is filled with interesting detours and switchbacks, abundant humor and a refusal (mostly) to condemn baby boomers outright...Michael Mayer’s fine-tuned and nicely balanced production shows off five actors in top form...It’s a testament to Bartlett’s clever, incisive dialogue that such selfish, limited people should steal our hearts."
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"That the play is little more than a stunt dawns on you only gradually. In the 1967 act, you might be blinded by the brightness and sitcom speed of Michael Mayer’s high-gloss production...Then, when the second act leaps ahead 23 years, the bottom falls out...Craziness is fun to watch, until it isn’t...This is the kind of play that seems to have been written in reverse, starting with a slick structural concept and heading, somewhat haphazardly, back toward human portraiture."
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"Bartlett manages the neat trick of making us relate to his characters while not particularly liking them. It's a testament to his gifts for incisive characterization, pungent comic dialogue and astute social commentary...The lead performers skillfully handle the difficult assignment of playing characters over several decades, even if they're not always fully convincing in every incarnation...While 'Love' is not quite as profound as it intends to be, there's an awfully lot in it to, well, love."
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"The premise and structure of 'Love, Love, Love' is intriguing: In three acts, with an intermission between each, we leapfrog across the decades...'Love, Love, Love' might have redeemed itself if it contained a modicum of the love its title boasts, or if any of these characters had even the slightest bit of an arc, but they don’t...By the end of 'Love’s' two hours, it feels almost as if the play’s four-decade span happened in real-time."
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"A cross between Joe Orton and Kenneth Lonergan, this snappy satire follows the adventures of a young British couple as they meet in swinging London and follow their bliss to 2011, birthing and discarding emotionally stunted offspring along the way. As Bartlett tells it, with searing insight and mocking wit in a flawless production directed by Michael Mayer, this was the generation that grabbed everything with both hands — and then ate their young."
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"Bartlett has given us what looks on first viewing like the best stage comedy to come along since Tom Stoppard’s 'The Real Thing,' and Mr. Mayer’s production is flat-out perfect...The laughs are piled high atop one another, but they’re bracingly angry...'Love' is, in short, a morality play, but one so well made and pulverizingly funny that it hardly ever feels preachy...It’s gloriously funny, but it’s also an important play, one whose harsh message deserves to be heard far more widely."
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"'What did you stand for? Nothing except being able to do whatever the f!!k you wanted.' Harsh, yes, and let’s admit somewhat broad for a generation that included at least a few societal game changers. Yet still ringing of truth, especially in the performances that Mayer has drawn from this amazing quintet...While it’s great fun watching Armitage and, especially, Ryan age seamlessly from callow youth to shallow middle age, it’s the increasingly commanding Kazan who walks off with the show."
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