The End of Longing NYC Reviews and Tickets

“Midway through the proceedings switch from sex comedy to addiction drama…At this point it becomes apparent that Perry has written a role that he seems incapable of convincingly acting…Perry begins the play as a parade of gag lines that place his characters into well-known types, so when he calls on matters to get serious, there's no dramatic foundation…I can't imagine the play being accepted by a company of this stature without a celebrity's name attached to it.”
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“Perry succumbs to the superficialities and easy gag-slinging of the sitcom format...The relationships are so thinly conceived as to beggar belief; the one fundamental requirement of the genre—that the audience care about the couples getting together—is left glaringly unfulfilled…Posner's direction is slick, but there is little he can do with a script that substitutes gag lines for character insights...The play that Perry seems to be going for needs to be much funnier—and much sadder.”
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"An eye-rolling production...Perry's writing reflects the kind of bad sitcom sensibility where clichés predominate and characters remain, at best, two-dimensional...It's a well-intentioned effort as pop-culture psychology goes, but it's embarrassing as a serious piece of theatre...One has to wonder whether Perry's decision to play an alcoholic is a brave statement as part of his recovery or self-indulgence on the part of a celebrity."
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"Mawkish, rudimentary and with the plausibility only found in Hollywood scenarios…Perry’s characters are equally as trite, but are ably brought to life by the uniformly committed cast…Posner’s snappy staging, the sensitive performances, and the technically accomplished presentation do make this poor play watchable. ‘The End ’ ends up really just having the curiosity value of experiencing a celebrity performer acquitting himself well in a deficient vehicle of his own design.”
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"The 100 minutes...do exhibit author Perry's flair for writing bits of barbed and brittle repartee. What passes for a plot in which four egregiously underdeveloped characters are put in a progression of queasily predictable situations is otherwise lamentable...Perry, for all his earnestness in the script or in his performance, doesn't give us any clues as to what his four characters see in each other—either romantically or as conduits to a better life."
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"After listening to layer upon layer of sarcasm, constant swearing, and the obvious writing style of a TV sitcom, replete with some comical one-liners, we must wonder why this production, that already had a run on London’s West End last year, has ventured abroad to land at the Lucille Lortel Theatre! The cliché of the story surely doesn’t have a unique punch line...The play wears thin as it progresses...It felt so stilted and orchestrated that I longed for the ending!"
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"A well-intentioned homage to hope...The play, not surprisingly, has a sitcom flavor to it. The scenes are short and melodramatic...The play begins with a premise that we do not believe. The story plugs along, however...Perry writes some very funny lines...The good news is that Perry has created characters that are not the cookie-cutter variety...Only in the final scenes does his writing border on sophomoric...It is not great theatre, but it does stick with you."
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"Directed shabbily by Lindsay Posner...The redeeming part of this mess of a play, is in the secondary characters. Both total stereotypes but played with such heart and commitment that we can’t help but love them...With no real believability between the two leads, and no dramatic arc that we can get behind, this feels like a huge waste of time, energy, and money. It needs a strong assist from a caring writer, a better lead actor, and a firmer grasp on reality."
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