The Royale NYC Reviews and Tickets

"As directed, much of this play is reflective, interior and symbolic. Hand clapping, and foot stamping replace actual blows. This turns the thin script into a full-length play and gives the drama a certain lyricism. But after a while, all that rhythmic stomping seems to have more style than substance...Nevertheless, 'The Royale' is frequently brought back by the excellent performances...'The Royale' might have been more effective if Chavkin had aimed less for the head and more for the gut."
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"Man, oh man, 'The Royale' is a play worth seeing--especially in a production as tightly realized and inventively directed and as beautifully performed as this one is…It doesn't tie up the loose ends in a tidy bow. That is, of course, to its credit…'The Royale' is so consistently engrossing, Jay's inner game so engagingly depicted, and the cast and direction so flawless and fine, that the ending is not the point so much as the getting there is."
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"'The Royale’ is a slick, inventive piece of one-act theater with a historical theme that seems to be all too relevant to today’s current events....‘The Royale’ proves to be about how small actions by one person can have rippling effects for all people of the same skin color. This is a message and theme that seems to be all too relevant over one hundred years after when the events of the play take place."
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"It is all very exciting and the dramatic tension builds. Here's where the play becomes difficult for Ms. Chavkin's concept: Ms. Glover needs to let some air out of this big balloon that the actors have constructed in order to build back to the finale. The audience expects more theatrical ritual and doesn't get it. Still, the cast performs smartly, and the play's point about finding your own personal power as African-Americans in a racist society is eventually made in shattering fashion."
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"Too often, words at the ends of sentences were lost, so much so that I needed to read the script to know what was said...Along with fine acting all around, 'The Royale' gets points for creative staging, excellent lighting and sound and for raising an interesting question: when personal ambition collides with family needs, how is that decision made? Unfortunately, here we know the answer before the show starts."
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"Jay 'The Sport' Jackson likes to mess with his opponents’ heads right before he rearranges their faces. With its hypnotic rhythms and dreamlike style, the show works over a playgoer in much the same way...If the story has a weak moment, it's in Jay’s puzzling misperception of the level of threat against him. But the Globe production is an arresting one, from the ominous thrums of Matt Hubbs’ soundscape to the raw invention of Nicholas Vaughan’s set design."
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"The boxing is only simulated in Marco Ramirez’'s 'The Royale,' directed by Rachel Chavkin. It would have to be. That the simulations don’t work very well is immaterial because—big surprise—this isn’'t a play about boxing. It'’s about race. That message is delivered with uppercut intensity in this one-act drama loosely based on the real-life story of heavyweight Jack Johnson, the first African- American to hold the title."
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"Take away the spectacular theatricality and 'The Royale' would be a thin-ish script that makes some important points. But add the hands clapping in series of threes, often followed by a foot stomp; and stylized boxing matches where lights flash, noises jolt, and you feel, rather than see, the blows; and elevated performances by a stand-out cast, and the play becomes the ritualized conjuration of an era we should never forget."
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