The End of Longing NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (118)
See it if you want to see two recognizable people, Perry and the women from House.
Don't see it if you want a consistent show that keeps you absorbed.
See it if had VERY low expectations, so enjoyed it more. Perry's personal therapy session. The other actors were solid!
Don't see it if You want a really well done play. Feels sitcom-y. Jokes are set up. Wants to be deep, but isn't.
See it if Perry & Morrison one dimensional as leads but Kim & Dunn-Baker (stage pros) enliven the sub plot about real commitment but to no avail
Don't see it if Dark, serious subject matter - alcoholism & high-end prostitution -treated in facile, glib sit-com manner and the jokes are stale too boot!
See it if Great for TV aficionados, All four cast members do the job. Interesting look at alcohol and commitment problems.
Don't see it if You cannot relate to people who are narrowly focused
See it if you're a fan of Matthew Perry, but don't go expecting to see Chandler Bing.
Don't see it if you're turned off by themes of alcoholism and its effects on a relationship. Read more
See it if you are interested in a sitcom under the guise of a play; there is some good acting.
Don't see it if The play is heavy handed and the relationships are not believable. Matthew Perry's acting is questionable and tedious. No heart. Read more
See it if you are NOT into theater and want to say you saw Matt Perry on stage
Don't see it if you want to see something that is well written or unpredictable. Read more
See it if you love Matthew Perry.His performance was weak, and his writing even weaker.The play was predictable, cliched, & badly acted by 3/4 of cast
Don't see it if you are looking for a tight, well written play.This is just a ho-hum play very badly acted.Only 1 character was believable.
Critic Reviews (31)
"If Jack is convincingly darker than your typical sitcom denizen, Mr. Perry doesn’t have the verbal and dramaturgical skills as an author to take the play—his first—where the character is leading...With few exceptions, the play remains trite even as it approaches seriousness...Under the direction of Lindsay Posner, 'The End of Longing' seems like staged television...Perry has written a synthetic play that mostly points out just how much better 'Friends' was written."
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"The play spends 100 minutes feeding at rock bottom, alternating between coarse quasi-humor, strained melodrama and maudlin romance. Many of the lines seem to think they are jokes, but forget to include the joke part...Writing this play may have been a therapeutic exercise for Perry, who has battled alcohol and drug addiction; you can sense him sweating out the toxins. That’s commendable but personal. The public result is a sweaty, toxic play that only makes you long for an ending."
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"Squashes its attempt at tackling dark themes with a glib approach that ill-serves both the subject matter and the performers...The playwright’s inexperience becomes evident from the paper-thin characterizations and lack of credible plotting...Perry at least demonstrates that his extensive TV comedy experience has rubbed off. The evening features many amusing one-liners...Posner keeps the proceedings effectively fast-paced...But he’s unable to infuse the evening with emotional authenticity."
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"There are a few chuckles here, and some comfortingly familiar sarcasm...But for the most part 'Longing' consists of four characters announcing feelings that these actors are likely skilled enough to register without many words...Where Perry’s script and performance does graze the truth is in two monologues that his character delivers about the grip and desperation of addiction...I found myself wondering if 'Longing' might have better succeeded as a one-man show."
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"Lindsay Posner’s direction doesn’t give the actors any way to rise above their stereotypes...Only Kim, with her natural comedic gifts, manages to get an honest laugh from the corny repartee...There’s no question that Perry put his heart into this play, this role, this moment of truth — and the redemptive purging it promises. But the whole enterprise is so self-serving, it really doesn’t need an audience to do its job."
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"Perry’s reach exceeds his grasp—and then some—in 'The End of Longing,' a contrived comedy-drama...Even when the play seeks to go to deeper places about prostitution and alcoholism and, quite literally, matters of life and death, the script is mired in superficiality and implausibility...Even though the characters are sketchy stick figures, the cast, directed by Lindsay Posner, offers some relief...Perry needs to up his one-note performance—and be quick about it."
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"Embarrassingly terrible. So bad, in fact, that I find it hard to believe that any random person who attends this contrived, mawkish, painfully unfunny and utterly pointless star vehicle can’t write something better...It’s disconcerting that MCC Theater agreed to produce the play, which proves that even a much-respected not-for-profit will put on a play by a once-popular TV actor, regardless of its quality."
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"Mildly entertaining but mostly cringe-inducing...It's basically every rom-com you've ever seen, presented in 100 minutes of predictable plot development and lowest-common-denominator jokes. At least director Posner gives this apparition from the '90s an attractive production...The performances are also decent...Jack...delivers a tearful monologue to an AA meeting. The moment is brave and slightly uncomfortable, but it still doesn't salvage 'The End of Longing' from being a giant cliché."
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