Emma & Max NYC Reviews and Tickets

"In physical terms, Mr. Solondz has translated his cinematic-eye view into a specifically theatrical vision with admirable success. There’s not a misstep in the staging...'Emma and Max' is always fascinating to look at, even if it’s in a masochistic way...Listening to what it has to say is another matter...From the moment we meet the whiny, needy, terminally solipsistic Brooke and Jay, it’s clear that they’re fish in a barrel, just waiting to be speared and gutted."
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“Much of the play is composed of long, rambling monologues that feel stilted and overwritten, designed to make thematic points. And the final scene...seems mainly designed for cheap laughs...Solondz overly indulges his writing, resulting in an evening that feels static and talky. It's no fault of the actors, who do credible work despite their schematic characters. Still, ‘Emma and Max’ ultimately feels more exploitative than illuminating of the tragic event that inspired it.”
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"There are many plays that evoke feelings and entertain and do everything that an admirable piece of theater is meant to; I cannot say, though, that these plays are as poignant or as tragically beautiful as 'Emma and Max'. I can't remember the last time I not only stepped out of a theater in awe of what was just seen...It is so hard to come up with the perfect form of praise for everything this show is, without also thinking of how the show affects me...This production is, simply put, wonderful."
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“’There is next to no dramatic action in ‘Emma and Max’...Inertia is the play's default state as it lurches from one long aria of bad faith to the next, delivered by characters so repellent that the only sensible reaction is to tune out...The action move at a snail's pace...Becker and Servitto wring every last drop of bile from the roles...The play is less about race than Solondz's distaste for his fellow humans.”
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"Solondz appears to have spotted the dangers upper-middle-class liberals can face in their supposedly insulated lives...Perhaps because Solondz eventually noticed that as written Brooke and Jay are more suited to comedy sketch than legit drama, he shifts the action to Brittany about three-quarters through...Solondz, better at this point as stage director than playwright, needs a more solid way to make his points in the current political climate of vague liberal inclinations."
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"Making an impressive stage debut with 'Emma and Max,' satirist Todd Solondz proves that he is a very astute man of the theater. As acted by its shrewd quartet of players, 'Emma and Max' is a devastating portrait of entitled urban white liberals who have never actually looked in the mirror to see how deep their prejudices go. 'Emma and Max' may not be an easy play to watch but its rewards are great."
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"Even while shedding light on the ugliness present in American society, 'Emma and Max' still manages to create great aesthetic beauty. There may not be any hope or redemption for these characters, but Solondz has created comedy and commentary out of fictional lives that might just be closer to reality than we think."
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“’Emma and Max’ is a trap set to deceive us all...Hyper-relevant dissection of our fears, favoritism, shortcomings...The audience will relentlessly laugh at a character until a tragic detail of their past is casually revealed...All of this is made possible from accomplished and skillful performances...The brilliance lying within ‘Emma and Max’ is that no matter how villainous some characters may appear or how irrational we are to forgive their trespasses, we can’t stop rooting for them.”
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"It’s a powerful and downright awkward exploration of hopes and despair, devastation and survival in typical Solondz fashion...An insightful and dangerous collision of concepts, weaving a thesis on race with almost more clarity and skill then Solondz’s film work, pushing hard on the humor while holding our head under water until we laugh or scream for air...The waves hit hard, even while making some of us laugh with shock, horror, and frustration."
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"The themes that have occupied Solondz throughout his three-decade film career – chiefly, the casual cruelties we inflict upon each other, and the inability to process a capacity to do harm – take center stage, translating well to the new medium...Although the dialogue occasionally veers toward the ridiculously overstated, Solondz manages to never lose a thread of sincerity in his portrayal of these characters."
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"Dryly funny and uncomfortably dark. Its unsparing and unrealistic depiction of unlikeable characters seems almost purposefully designed to offend. I found it off-putting, sure, but also provocative and compelling, helped by the grounded acting of an excellent four-member cast...With the help of an inventive design team, Solondz creates a stagecraft that you might have called cinematic even if you didn’t know his background."
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"It's a well-acted, intermittently interesting, but overly garrulous, tortoise-slow, oddly shaped play satirizing…the racial attitudes of white…liberals, as well as the nasty effects…of white privilege… Each actor makes a distinct impression, and Solondz's attractive physical production…achieves its goals. Still, 'Emma and Max''s overly broad characters lack the humanity needed for audience empathy, its dramatic structure…is distractingly lumpy, and its satire's point is too quickly blunted."
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"Wickedly funny and all too real...The play is a sharply observant skewering of the status quo in a Trump America that continues to encounter racism, bigotry, and hatred every day and where the term 'privilege' has become a dirty word...It’s also a place where payback can be a bitch, where there are consequences for physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. It’s not a happy situation, but it’s damn funny and frighteningly realistic, a mirror brilliantly held up to a society in crisis."
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"The play is a black comedy and social satire blazing with wit aimed at reckless self-indulgent white privilege...Brooke and Jay's preposterous behaviors are hilarious, cringeworthy uncovering the detritus of their insular daily lives. The set changes are plodding and all manned by Brittany. The clever scenic design adds depth and fluidity. The final act takes a drastic and deeply disturbing turn...The acting by the cast is first rate especially by Ms. Love."
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“All are guilty in ‘Emma and Max’ yet no one is evil. They’re all people trapped in their bodies, in their histories, in their circumstances...Solondz has tremendous empathy for his characters. In his world evil is not born of a desire to do bad or to hurt. It’s born of wanting to love and be loved, of desperation, of compulsion, of exhaustion, of the need for justice, of wanting to defend oneself and protect one’s loved ones.”
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“Solondz’s playwriting debut lacks the gut punch of his film work. For Solondz, race and class can only be understood in concert with each other...The children are the battlefield on which the main characters act out their grievances. This thematic ground has been done to death, by Solondz and any number of artists. Yet while it’s admittedly low-hanging fruit, the play dissects its tropes with wicked glee."
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