The Price of Thomas Scott NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (134)
See it if fine production values such as lovely costumes & excellent direction appeal. The Mint never disappoints in these areas. Always lovely!
Don't see it if you want theater with current themes, political relevance or social commentary.
See it if you're a fan of the Mint & enjoy the discovery of forgotten plays from the early 20th century, linear, socially-relevant plots
Don't see it if plays from early last century are not your thing, prefer less talky, more action plays, don't enjoy linear plots
See it if you want to see another rare, lost play by a mostly-forgotten playwright, lovingly & elegantly produced by Mint; u want a 1913 Footloose.
Don't see it if you're in it for the play itself. [The play is overstuffed, flimsy & implausible. The production is saved by wonderful acting & directing.] Read more
See it if You are a fan of the Mint Theater (as I am). Acting was good. Fun to see a period piece (in the positive sense of the phrase).
Don't see it if You want something up to date. Of course there is usually something relevant in a old play and that is the case here. Read more
See it if You want to see play that remains amazing even though it was written in a very long time ago
Don't see it if You don’t have the ability to put your mind back 100 years ago and be able to feel what much simpler times were like Read more
See it if The last 5 minutes of the 90 minute piece are fun (an interesting argument/dilemma and a nice post-curtain dance)
Don't see it if But the pacing beforehand is catatonic. All talk & no action.
See it if you enjoy Mint Theater Company works; want to see a female-written play with a spirited female lead, or travel back in time for an evening.
Don't see it if expecting exceptionally riveting, shocking drama; dislike early-20th-century British “parlour-room” plays; or you need something longer. Read more
See it if you are interested in the social concerns of 100 years ago. Nice, enjoyable play but no fireworks.
Don't see it if you have no interest in anything from the past and only like modern plays.
Critic Reviews (22)
“Baker’s drama is not very good...Under Bank’s sympathetic but listless direction, the show feels both overstuffed and undernourished...At a trim hour and a half the evening leaves little time for the characters to be fleshed out or the actors to truly shine. And while the show brings up tantalizingly thorny issues of faith, hypocrisy, sacrifice, and selfishness, they are like dark clouds hovering above the story without ever breaking into a full-fledged dramatic storm.”
Read more
“The audience's temptation is to project the moral standards of our post-‘Footloose’ world onto Scott...But I'm willing to accept that we're supposed to sit a little longer with the question that Baker poses in her dialogue...Unfortunately, not much of that intellectual or emotional tension remains inside ‘The Price of Thomas Scott’ itself...By the end of this moral back-and-forth, I couldn't help but wish that Hartley had just gone full Kevin Bacon and settled it all on the dance floor."
Read more
"The finely-acted production is attractively designed for its Edwardian period by Vicki R. Davis and Hunter Kaczorowski, and though the two-act play has been trimmed to an intermission-less ninety minutes, The Mint's traditional style of presenting older works in their original context, barring contemporary interpretations, remains true, making 'The Price of Thomas Scott' a very engaging introduction to a rarely-heard theatrical voice."
Read more
"A fascinating curio from another time, its revival here yet another feather in the Mint Theater Company's multi-feathered cap...The marvelous actor Donald Corren has wisely decided to play Thomas Scott not as a sour, dyspeptic prig...Corren is far too skillful and intelligent an actor to have fallen into that trap...The only significant flaw in this play: The narrative suffers from the fact that the action is entirely confined to the back parlour of Thomas Scott's shop."
Read more
“Relatively subdued in terms of dramatic action, ‘The Price of Thomas Scott’ is a thoughtful, neatly crafted study in personal convictions that is reminiscent of John Galsworthy’s works. Serious students of drama will especially appreciate this quiet yet interesting play...Bank, the Mint’s producing artistic director, gives the drama a well-paced staging that is solidly performed by an eleven-member company.”
Read more
“When is a man completely out of step with his own time and standing in the way of progress? If the Courtneys do not buy his shop they will buy another one down the road, so that he is not keeping them out of the community. It will also make it more difficult for him to sell in the future. It is difficult for a modern audience to side with or care about Thomas Scott, considering when one sees the harm it will do his worried wife and the careers of his children.”
Read more
"It's not a great play, especially compared to other works that the Mint has produced recently, which are often surprisingly relevant to the modern day. This one feels more of its time...Conversations about morality are not exactly the stuff of riveting drama. That said, dance numbers choreographed by Tracy Bearsley liven things up and the production values are high, as one can always expect from the Mint."
Read more
“By paring the script down to the under two-hour single act format favored by today's audiences, the questions Ms. Baker posed—but intentionally left without a conclusive ending— are likely to kick up questions relevant to the ethical dilemmas faced by these characters' present day counterparts...While the actors all fit their parts well, the men fare best, especially Donald Corren as the titular main character and Mitch Greenberg as Wicksteed.”
Read more