Heartbreak House

See it if You're a big Shaw fan and want to see a cool new take on one of his plays.

Don't see it if You're bothered by really shoddy acting and a slow story. I don't know whether the shitty acting was a choice or not, but it didn't work.

See it if You will like anything Terry Teachout likes. I thought I did.

Don't see it if You hate farce.

Also If you go don’t sit in the back, or wear your vegan fur. They’re keeping the AC on full blast.... Read more Read less

See it if You like British humor and farce in an intimate setting.

Don't see it if You can't follow dialects or prefer large shows in a large setting.

See it if you like singing in a group. Audience singing is encouraged. You know HH so well you won't notice how underdeveloped these characters are.

Don't see it if I can’t recommend it in its current state. Cast/director just didn’t pull it off. A chore to sit through.

Also It might get better. First performance flopped but I don’t think the show’s unsalvageable. It has a ways to go, though.

Phony English accents set the bar for the rest of the acting. It’s weird because most of the cast is seasoned. There’s hamminess that’s not genuinely funny. The actors aren’t yet melting into their roles—roles that are vague until they’re explicitly narrated by other cast members. There needs to be a much stronger sense of character expressed nonverbally because the dialog is insanely boring when generic, broad performances don’t square w/ the specificity in the script. I want to be able to respond to/laugh about the characters and their behaviors, not just listen for Shaw’s witticisms. There are supposed to be absurd surprises and revelations, but they come off as random occurrences because the characters aren’t well-defined or convincing enough to make their contradictions pay off.... Read more Read less