A Day by the Sea NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (121)
See it if you want a simple story with witty, quirky characters who contemplate their missed chances in life & their futures; wonderful performances
Don't see it if you want a complex plot or a fast-moving story. With 3 acts & 2 intermissions some may find it too long. Also if you don't like Chekhov.
See it if Lovely show from a time when storytelling was subtle and took its time. If you are looking to unplug from contemporary life, see this.
Don't see it if This will not dazzle you as it slowly reveals its relationships and plot. But, for a theatre purist, it is a delight.
See it if want to see some very good acting and good character development sprinkled throughout with a nice sense of humor & set in a different era.
Don't see it if you can't sit through a three hour play that is engaging but takes its time to build the characters - can be a bit slow. Read more
See it if Acting and scenery first rate
Don't see it if You expect fast pacing and current moires
See it if You like traditional 3 act structures, great acting and seeing how the challenge of who you love is a timeless theme. Ending is perfection.
Don't see it if You don't like slow moving, but beautifully written first acts. You like action and want things to happen fast.
See it if you are entertained by drawing room British comedy with an engaging plot and good acting.
Don't see it if dislike plays that with British characters spending a weekend at a seaside house.
See it if you enjoy quirky characters with heart, who either cannot express their feelings or cannot stop. This would be wonderful with a long edit.
Don't see it if you will have trouble sitting through a slice of life story, with three acts that run close to three hours. Read more
See it if You like Chekhov. If you like depressing unhappy but realistic endings. If you want thoughtful interesting theater. A good not great Mint.
Don't see it if You want short plays. This is three hours including two intermissions. First act very slow. If you don't like Chekhov you will not like this
Critic Reviews (31)
"The production is well done, especially in the casting of Julian Elfer. Director Austin Pendleton and set designer Charles Morgan give us the feeling that we are looking through a painting of life...The dialogue is so profound that the wisdom in those words echoes today's thoughts and quandaries...This is such a true ensemble and they make this page of life come so alive…With this gem of a play, this fabulous theatre company will offer you a night of theatre that is sure to satisfy."
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"The new production is impeccable, especially with respect to the acting and directing…It is a tribute to the Mint to yet again call our attention to an important writer from the past....Firth is splendid…Other characters are also well-defined and impeccably portrayed…The Mint Theater Company has captured Hunter’s vision with perfection."
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"The play feels slow…It’s impossible to tell how much of this is attributable to the script and how much to the production, which is not, in my opinion, up to high Mint Theater standards…Pendleton’s direction is radically uneven. There are wonderful small gestures…On the other hand, there are actors who seem to disappear when not speaking, intermittent lack of focus during dialogue, and cast members so theatrically flamboyant embodiment is left in the dust of bravado."
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"Has charmed most of the critics. Although not me. I'll grant that Hunter makes some gimlet-eyed observations about the choices people make in their lives and the courage necessary to take responsibility for those choices. And his play doesn't go to predictable places. But this production seems to me to just skim the surface of Hunter's melancholic truths. The cast is wildly uneven...The production also struck me as chintzy."
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"Pendleton helps his gifted cast develop expressive grace notes, and some prosaically written scenes conjure surprising strength...Mental activity helps one through the more arid sections of 'A Day by the Sea,' of which there are several...If, like me, you relish the languid rhythms and gentle forward motion of the well-made mid-century play, you’ll want to catch 'A Day by the Sea.' But this one could have been a little more well-made."
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"The play is marvelous. Pendleton and his cast tease out what is most salient and profound in the work...The playwright’s beautifully constructed three acts speed by because of the acting ensemble’s uncanny, in-the-moment presence shepherded by Pendleton’s pinpoint attention to the specificity of character development…'A Day by the Sea' is a play of monumental humanity and searing elegance with a soupçon of well-placed humor brought about by the exquisite performances."
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"Directed with precision and grace by Austin Pendleton on Charles Morgan’s lovely sets, the superb cast brings to warm life this world of dimmed elegance…The characters’ outside-world concerns resonate surprisingly in tune with today’s crises of war, terrorist violence, and threats of fascistic resurgence in the West…Among the excellent supporting cast, Polly McKie is especially fine…If N. C. Hunter’s work has been forgotten, it’s wrongly so. 'A Day by the Sea' proves it."
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"Hunter's play isn't precisely boring. Or, let's say, its boringness isn't a simple matter: Hunter knows that his people are dull and his dramatic action sluggish...Chekhov, the classic maker of plays in which 'nothing happens,' is often cited as Hunter's model...We have to piece Chekhov's facts together for ourselves; Hunter's people, in contrast, explain themselves all too fully...Pendleton's production does its best to find vitality inside the script's eerie, stop-and-start moods."
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