Prodigal Son
Closed 1h 35m
Prodigal Son
79

Prodigal Son NYC Reviews and Tickets

79%
(107 Ratings)
Positive
80%
Mixed
15%
Negative
5%
Members say
Great acting, Absorbing, Intelligent, Thought-provoking, Great writing

About the Show

Manhattan Theatre Club presents John Patrick Shanley's world premiere starring Robert Sean Leonard about a 17-year-old from the Bronx attending a private school in New Hampshire.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (107)

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156 Reviews | 204 Followers
85
Absorbing, Great acting, Resonant, Entertaining, Intelligent

See it if you like John Patrick Shanley's great dialogue and story-telling. Timothee, the young boy is a fresh, refreshing, and talented new face

Don't see it if you're overly Catholic, sensitive about being catholic, or don't enjoy an interesting, autobiographical coming of age/growing up story.

97 Reviews | 64 Followers
84
Great acting, Intelligent, Great staging, Indulgent

See it if you want a coming-of-age tale that very much feels that it was written by a literate, 60 y.o. playwright making sense of his adolescence.

Don't see it if nostalgia steeped in literary references is not your thing or if you have no interest in examining the difficulties of one's mid-teen years.

153 Reviews | 44 Followers
83
Clever, Entertaining, Great acting, Funny, Intense

See it if you enjoy coming of age stories. The playwright explores his with this play.

Don't see it if you don't enjoy coming of age stories or are looking for a diverse cast.

761 Reviews | 165 Followers
82
Absorbing, Ambitious, Great acting, Indulgent, Relevant

See it if you like coming of age stories, interested in the playwright's teenage years, like stories set in boarding schools, great acting debuts

Don't see it if you expect consistent characterizations, last minute unfair twists, are a fan of Robert Sean Leonard

54 Reviews | 11 Followers
81
Absorbing, Great acting, Beautiful

See it if you like good theatre

Don't see it if you don't like John Patrick Shanley

152 Reviews | 42 Followers
80
Funny, Great staging, Great acting, Intelligent, Clever

See it if You want to realize that so young actor can handle entire play

Don't see it if You don't remember your teen ages

52 Reviews | 30 Followers
80
Absorbing, Clever, Exquisite, Cliched

See it if you can be moved by a phenomenal lead who captures the essence of a super smart and super tormented young soul.

Don't see it if a somewhat stylized ending will hurl you into confusion.

138 Reviews | 87 Followers
80
Thought-provoking, Profound, Great writing

See it if ...you love Shanley's work. ...you love plays that have a spiritual component. ....you love a complex and nuanced exploration of teen years.

Don't see it if ...you are looking for a yuk fest.

Critic Reviews (36)

Theatre is Easy
February 10th, 2016

"Chalamet commands the stage with incredible force for an actor his age...In both writing and directing 'Prodigal Son,' Shanley is able to construct dialogue between his characters that is not only incredibly intelligent, but delivered in such a way that it engages the audience and is never once questioned for its authenticity in execution...If the purpose of art is to make you think and re-examine the way in which you live your life, then 'Prodigal Son' passes with top marks."
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Theater Pizzazz
February 26th, 2016

"One of theater’s most lauded playwrights, John Patrick Shanley, puts forth his own life in ‘Prodigal Son’…Is 'Prodigal Son' cathartic, narcissistic? Both…We visit with Jim Quinn, (Shanley’s young rude, inquisitive self) played by an incredibly talented Timothée Chalamet…Quinn doesn’t quite fit the mold, but has been rescued from his Bronx homeland by Alan Hoffman (a not quite suited for the role Robert Sean Leonard), a lit teacher at the school who thinks he can be Quinn’s savior."
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Stage Buddy
February 17th, 2016

"Quinn's floppy-haired adolescent angst, his constant questioning and his 'Catcher in the Rye' craftiness seem at times too fictionally familiar to be realistically credible, despite stimulating dialogue and Chalamet's riveting star-turn performance...His tenacity appears to draw weakness from the worn-out adults trying to make a living, if not a difference, at Thomas More Preparatory School. Perhaps 'Prodigal Son's' main failing is that the adults appear more deserving of our empathy."
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C
February 10th, 2016

"You could rightly argue that no one needs to see another play that is essentially a portrait of the artist as an angry young man. And then along comes John Patrick Shanley’s excellent new work to prove you wrong...Shanley – who has also deftly directed the work –keeps his canvas small, focusing on Jim’s interactions with these three adults...One can’t help but wish at times that the author had chosen to paint on a larger canvas."
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DC Theatre Scene
February 13th, 2016

"'Prodigal Son' comes off as Shanley’s strained effort to work out in public his own adolescence...If Shanley as playwright does not do his best work in 'Prodigal Son,' Shanley as director oversees an appealing production that does much to offset the flaws in the script...But it’s the five-member cast that most draws us in."
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Upstage-Downstage
March 5th, 2016

"The writing is simply not strong enough to juggle all of these side stories...It probably doesn’t help that Mr. Shanley himself serves as the director; another eye might have helped shape things better. There is no faulting the acting, however, and Timothée Chalamet is a real find, a bundle of nervous energy with just the right mix of allure and obnoxiousness to paint the portrait of a teen on the verge of either exploding gloriously into the world or imploding into self-destruction."
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The Guardian (UK)
February 9th, 2016

"'Prodigal Son' may be a complacent and somewhat predictable work, but it is also a savvy and often moving one...While the plotting is formulaic, it is also satisfying. Perhaps Shanley’s adolescence really did resemble a genre exercise. Life does have a pesky way of imitating art...The acting is uniformly fine."
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The Wrap
February 9th, 2016

"It doesn’t have much to offer as a play, it does tell us much about this writer’s high opinion of himself...'Prodigal Son' is without conflict for most of its 95 minutes...Two scenes under Shanley’s own direction emerge as real howlers before we get to the play’s action-packed denouement."
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