Plenty NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (153)
See it if you're a Hare fan. I find he chooses a good premise, creates strong characters, but always gets a bit lost. Strong acting, great moving set.
Don't see it if you dislike insanity on stage. RW's performance was bumpy in those parts. Still my issues were mostly with the script. Solid production.
See it if you admire David Hare's work, want to see Corey Stoll deliver a transfixing performance, enjoy metaphors about decline of Britian
Don't see it if you're hoping for a star turn from Rachel Weisz, don't know a lot about 40's-60's British system or its diplomatic system
See it if you enjoy watching theater that doesn't seem interested in letting the audience get invested.
Don't see it if you don't have to.
See it if you like this very talented cast, though there is a serious lack of chemistry; you did not see the original play with the original cast.
Don't see it if you want wonderful direction and acting, though the actors work hard; you want a meaty play that draws you into its story and characters.
See it if you want to be bored for 2 1/2 hours. I love David Hare, but this was a snooze fest. Weisz chomps the scenery without ever making us care.
Don't see it if you are expecting a good play. It is horribly dated and dull. Since I never really believed the main character, I didn't care what happened
See it if You are a major fan of all David Hare plays. You love intense twisted hard to follow plots.
Don't see it if You can't get a seat in the front ! I was in the next to last row and found it very hard to get involved because it is very important to be Read more
See it if You enjoy phenomenal actors working hard to make intense drama. You like the star power, you like intricate and interesting sets.
Don't see it if You don't like your plays with confusing structures that rely very heavily on the actors without letting them breath within the story.
See it if Rachel Weisz and/or Corey Stoll fans (although, Emily Bergl is a stand-out). If you don't mind slow pieces that require thinking-audiences.
Don't see it if unwilling to be mentally-engaged with the work and, thus, can't keep up; dislike promiscuity or (brief) nudity; prefer musicals or comedies.
Critic Reviews (37)
"This 'Plenty' feels as artificial and remote as a Mayfair melodrama from the 1920s...Much of this has to do, surprisingly, with Ms. Weisz...She never really registers as a serious threat. Nor does she break our hearts...The performances by Mr. Jennings and Mr. Stoll embody what’s best in Mr. Hare’s play, the ways in which seeming archetypes surprise by not hewing to type...Yet the grayness that envelops this production is less one of moral ambiguity than of hazy dramatic uncertainty."
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“Weisz is an absorbing and intelligent actor, and she traces Susan’s descent into mental illness with persuasive bitterness and glamour. Yet despite her fine work, 'Plenty' seems remote…Its urgency is at risk of losing force with the passage of time...Most of the creditable supporting performances fall into a similar trap; aside from the splendid Byron Jennings...The plenitude of Hare’s play is not well served by this production’s postures of austerity.”
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"The role’s hugeness demands a corresponding hugeness in the performer. Weisz clearly knows this, pushing hard and getting close to the mark...Susan needs to be a glamorous nightmare, and Weisz is only halfway there. In this she is not helped by Leveaux’s decidedly non-epic production...Without feeling viscerally how thrilling and ego-consuming Susan’s war was, the audience cannot properly grasp her ensuing boredom and monstrousness. Her wails of despair become little more than whines."
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“Neither director David Leveaux nor Rachel Weisz in the lead role satisfyingly meets the challenges of this structurally complex drama...The precise reasons why the production packs so little charge are hard to define, but a dated text and a disconnect between director and material loom large among them...Weisz gives an oddly stilted performance here, wan and distant in the scenes of relative composure and artificial in the explosive rants."
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"'Plenty' covers 19 years, three countries, and eight locales in its 12 scenes—and the shifts can be clunky, and lengthy...One constant throughout director David Leveaux’s poorly paced revival: the luminous Weisz, who radiates steely determination and profound intelligence in every scene. Even Hare admitted the role is underwritten... Weisz’s distinct gift is that she gets us thinking about what Hare hasn’t shown. The gaps between are almost as intriguing as the scenes themselves."
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"Although the play’s original impact has been blunted with time, this slick revival directed by David Leveaux respects the historical moment...Weisz has a sweet quality that lends poignancy to the idealistic heroine’s bitter disillusionment with the cold realities of the modern age. She’s out of her depth, though, in the scenes that show Susan struggling to maintain her mental equilibrium within her social set...Leveaux’s strong production features solid supporting actors."
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"It’s a signal event, a comprehensively satisfying production that features a blowtorch-hot performance by Rachel Weisz...Ms. Weisz’s blazing performance, like the play itself, is ambiguous enough to permit multiple interpretations...Mr. Stoll is no less adept at conveying Raymond’s mounting frustration, and the ever-satisfying Byron Jennings gives a beautifully nuanced performance...David Leveaux has staged “Plenty” with a supple fluidity."
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"Neither Weisz nor her director David Leveaux meets that challenge in this revival, which in both her character and in the sense of overall emotional impact is somewhat chilly…Instead of a textured reading, the production glosses the content and is as chilly Mike Britton’s set…Least well served is Weisz. Her high-pitched, rapid-fire line readings conspire to keep Susan from getting under our skin…I left the theater not so much emotionally wrung out as merely shaking my head."
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