Toast (Brits Off Broadway)
Closed 2h 0m
Toast (Brits Off Broadway)
71

Toast (Brits Off Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

71%
(151 Ratings)
Positive
68%
Mixed
25%
Negative
7%
Members say
Great acting, Slow, Funny, Quirky, Entertaining

About the Show

Part of the Brits Off Broadway fest, this dark dramedy examines a crisis at a rundown bread factory in '70s England. A revival of an early play by Richard Bean, author of the Broadway smash 'One Man, Two Guvnors.'

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Show-Score Member Reviews (151)

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196 Reviews | 137 Followers
75
Great acting, Entertaining, Raunchy

See it if you can appreciate the drama and humor and pathos in a play about people who have boring jobs, instead of finding that premise boring.

Don't see it if you have trouble understanding unfamiliar accents, or you object to the kind of language that's used in all-male work environments.

151 Reviews | 49 Followers
75
Absorbing, Edgy, Indulgent, Intelligent

See it if In depth writing. Characters are developed and engaged in the story line. Production design and lighting a plus.

Don't see it if Very fast pace speech with hard British accents makes it a bit difficult to pick up on every word.

137 Reviews | 24 Followers
75
Ambitious, Funny, Great acting, Poignant, Thought-provoking

See it if you like stories about lower/middle class blokes coming to recognize what the future holds for them

Don't see it if you will think why do I care about such a story

124 Reviews | 27 Followers
75
Disappointing, Great acting, Confusing

See it if You can understand the north British accent.

Don't see it if you want a clear story that is engaging.

197 Reviews | 74 Followers
74
Clever, Quirky, Great acting, Hard to understand colloquial british, Original

See it if you'd like a period study of British men at work in a bread plant. Outstanding acting, bawdy humor and thoughtful debate.

Don't see it if you have trouble with heavy local British accents; many people on exit seemed confused. A slow-paced, interesting work, and a bit overpriced

108 Reviews | 27 Followers
74
Realistically inhabited, Dry, Ambiguous

See it if Enjoy slice-of-life studies approached with more dark humor than pathos, resonate with portrayals of blue collar identity/inertia

Don't see it if Would struggle with strong Yorkshire accents, offended by bawdy humor, don't want to think about how processed food is made

55 Reviews | 76 Followers
72
Great acting, Slow, Funny, Quirky, Character-driven

See it if You like 2B a fly on the wall, esp a sticky dusty tea-stained wall in a UK factory canteen. Anglophiles will luv. Factory workers will, too.

Don't see it if You need plays to *Start w a recipe; *Add & Mix ingredients; *Bake & End w a cake. Toast only Adds&Mixes, which imho makes it delicious.

52 Reviews | 22 Followers
70
Absorbing, Clever, Funny, Great staging, Relevant

See it if you enjoy British redundancy tales along the line of Billy Elliot and Kinky Boots. No music, but this one has a great mystery at its root!

Don't see it if you don't understand Brits. This is a British play starring British actors with British accents telling British jokes. Good guys win! Yay!

Critic Reviews (32)

Blog Critics
May 2nd, 2016

"The two-act play boasts an all-male cast of seven whose fine acting drives the production…Just at about the point when the audience is stretched to exasperation at the inertia of the men and their tiresome boredom, Bean cleverly turns the action sideways…A fascinating look at the impact of factory work…This is a fine production which raises important questions about the nature of employment for others and the deadening aspect of work for hire."
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On Stage Blog
May 1st, 2016

"During the first act I found myself looking at the clock above the door often too, I swear it goes slower than my watch...But the good play that it certainly is, 'Toast' is often unpredictable. The playwright Richard Bean switches genre gears in a heartbeat mainly through the character of Lance. A brilliant cast directed by Eleanor Rhode delivers some warm and gentle comedy."
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CHARGED.fm
May 6th, 2016

"'Toast' is a beautifully constructed slice-of-life drama about the camaraderie amongst lower-class English bread plant workers in the 1970s...Though it takes a while for the story to get going, every detail revealed in the men's everyday interactions comes into play later on...The production's commitment to realism helps create a world as inescapable for the audience as it is for the men who work there...The stage is graced by extraordinary acting all around...A joy to watch."
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A Seat on the Aisle
May 2nd, 2016

"It seems to me that there really is much less to Richard Bean’s 'Toast' than first meets the eye. At first blush, the play, set in a drab, sterile bakery factory in Hull, appears to be something of an existential metaphor for the transience and meaninglessness of human life…And yet it is all for naught…'Toast’s' seven man ensemble cast is truly outstanding, but as for the play itself, not so much."
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Off Off Online
May 4th, 2016

"Bread isn’t the only thing that’s baking in 'Toast'; director Eleanor Rhode imbues nervous energy into a production that proves both raucously entertaining and moving…For all of 'Toast’s' good humor, farce gives way to a darkly spiritual kitchen-sink drama. Rhode’s trump card is Matthew Kelly’s devastatingly haunting portrayal of Nellie, the ever-laboring, broken yes-man."
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Epoch Times
May 15th, 2016

"The play has an air of authenticity since it is based on the author’s own experience working at a bread factory in 1975 when he was 18 years old...'Toast' is another winner from across the pond. Director Eleanor Rhode and all but one of the cast members are from the 2014 revival at The Park Theatre in London by Snapdragon Productions. And the cast is superb."
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TheaterScene.com
May 1st, 2016

"With ingenuously boorish and precisely written characters, Bean’s play is full of humor with moments of intense drama leaving the audience on the edge of their seats...Overall the performances were impressive and gave a slightly stagnant plot, life and motion. Under the brilliant direction of Eleanor Rhode, this revival is the perfect vehicle for Bean’s clever writing and the play that began his prolific career."
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Exeunt Magazine
February 12th, 2016
For a previous production

"Under Eleanor Rhode’s thoughtful direction, the revival is surprisingly gentle, if bawdy…The first half of the play is slow and conversational...But it ends in a brilliantly, and bizarrely, macabre twist...The second, slightly shorter, half diffuses this tension only to build it up and then diffuse it again, ad infinitum...For me, it was the staging that lifted this production out of the ordinary…The play might have ended sooner than I expected, but isn’t that the sign of a good shift?"
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