Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (88)
See it if you love everything Bedlam does...but URVJ is not time well-spent. Neither play is brought to life w/the interweaving. Jarring transitions.
Don't see it if you want entertainment or enlightenment. Acting doesn't shine. I know both plays well, but what's the point of the juxtaposition? Annoying.
See it if A good concept but this is slow confuse add ing. If you like both writers or stories.
Don't see it if You want something that is more consistent flowing. If you want a faster paced show.
See it if Bedlam's quirky often irritating fusion of Shakespeare & Chekhov is episodic & heavy handed despite solid work from ensemble but well staged
Don't see it if Problem isn't the mash-up (it's more Vanya than R&J) It's the unrelenting, overwrought pace of the piece Lacks any subtly of originals
See it if Imagine 2 classics in repertory, but at the same time. Forget Why?, incongruous themes force complete attention. Sonya utters Juliet lines.
Don't see it if Familiarity with both plays is essential or 2.5 hrs. will drag. Bland performances and wardrobe. Like the zombification of the classics.
See it if you want to see a failed experiment by the Bedlam theatre company. It is hard to see what Tucker was trying to do in mashing up these plays.
Don't see it if you want to see Uncle Vanya played very broadly with snippets of Romeo and Juliet thrown in without making much sense. Read more
See it if you're fan of experimentation, always needed 2 C a Vanya /R&J mash-up, like rest of Bedlams work, recognize actors trying 2 overcome script
Don't see it if don't want 2 give 2 1/2 hours to experimentation, want actors 2 succeed in presenting abstracts, need a reason, want some sort of continuum
See it if Mostly Uncle Vanya interspersed by a scattering of scenes from Romeo and Juliet. Confusing even if you know both plays.
Don't see it if You want a coherent theatre experience. You don’t like experimental theatre.
See it if you like intellectually rigorous experiments w/ Chekhov. Tests your patience but the cast does great work—esp Millonzi as Sonya.
Don't see it if you want R&J to function as little more than an occasional symbol of poetic idealism used to magnify UV’s prosaic cynicism. Read more
Critic Reviews (13)
"Chekhov takes up much of 'Uncle Romeo,' which is a blessing because as staged here, the parts from his play flow better than the ones from Shakespeare’s tragedy...Some of the juxtapositions have a humorous impact...Larger, structural changes are not entirely convincing...It’s relatively easy to follow the intertwined narrative strands — though it helps considerably to be familiar with both plays — but it’s hard not to wonder what the point is."
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"A crash-up of Chekhov and Shakespeare with an emphasis on the former: It's a vodka martini with the Bard as the vermouth. Unfortunately, this dramatic cocktail does little to bring out the shows' shared themes of passion, obsession and betrayal...Bedlam's M.O. is to crack open classic texts and discover something unexpected and resonant inside them. But beneath a few nifty performances, there's nothing at the center this time."
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“’Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet’ begins casually and ends by breaking your heart...A riff on two plays at once, Shakespeare’s youthful romantic tragedy and Chekhov’s mature and moody comedy...The brilliance of Tucker and his company is to hold up a Shakespearean mirror to Chekhov in order to unleash his oft-hidden weirdness, wildness, and yearning. In these actors’ hands...certain scenes from ‘Uncle Vanya’ played more powerfully than I’ve seen in a long time.”
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"Mr. Tucker’s 'Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet,' like even the most avant-garde of his shows, is both unpretentious and enormous fun...What Szadkowski does here is flat-out astonishing...Anyone who still questions the expressive potential of nontraditional casting should rush to see her. Everything about this show is a delight, but I bet it’s Ms. Szadkowski whom you’ll remember longest."
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"Whatever similarities Tucker saw in both these dramas, though, he has failed to communicate them in the mess of a production that has resulted...Even when the transitions from one play to another are smoothly done, Tucker's production never makes a convincing case for why these two works should be presented this way at all...God bless Bedlam for continuing to take risks with the theatrical canon, but this latest provocation is a misbegotten misstep."
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“Melding ‘Uncle Vanya’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ together requires taking the essence of the two pieces and superimposing them upon each other like interlocking puzzles. The ‘Vanya’ component, more or less, works within this structure. But ‘Romeo’ is almost absent in the process...Some ideas inevitably do not quite work out. There is no doubt, though, that Bedlam and Mr. Tucker will quickly rebound.”
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"In 'Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet,' Tucker has tried something new: a mashup of both Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' and Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet,' with scenes from the two alternating. The result is not confusing, but irritating and irrelevant, with neither play gaining from the combination. The advertisement for this show reads '5 actors, 2 plays, 1 performance,' but to what point?"
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"It's really more of 'Uncle Vanya' with a few scenes of 'Romeo and Juliet' thrown in, so the whole experiment feels almost like an afterthought, and the transitions between the two are sometimes awkward and confusing...It doesn't help matters that this production opens so soon after Richard Nelson's 'Uncle Vanya,' in which Jay O. Saunders gave the definitive performance of the title character...Maybe they are enjoying themselves, but they should ask themselves why the audience should care."
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