Lonely Planet (Keen Company) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (101)
See it if You want to see a story about a friendship during the aids crisis. You are willing to watch a show paced show.
Don't see it if You want a face passed show. You want humor.
See it if You enjoy engaging, well-acted plays which make you laugh and think.
Don't see it if You do not like small, intimate plays.
See it if you want to see two wonderful actors, working together, creating, playing, grieving listening.
Don't see it if you have seen many plays about AIDS and can't bear seeing another sad story.
See it if You like relationship stories and don’t require a large cast to enjoy a show. You’re interested in issues that are relevant and fact-based
Don't see it if Discomfort with homosexual characters or the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis from the standpoint of a group initially affected the most Read more
See it if you can handle caring, sympathetic AND empathetic (for many) riveting story-telling/acting. Very funny, sometimes intense & very vulnerable.
Don't see it if you're numb. Solid dialogue (w/numerous monologues) that frees sighs of warm introspection. Welcome escape & short respite from the norm. Read more
See it if you're a fan of Burton or McGrath, their easeful comic rapport papers over a script burdened with symbol and whimsy
Don't see it if non-realistic elements in a realistic staging bug you; direction sometimes underemphasizes the tenuous arc of the play Read more
See it if Such an emotionally rich, gripping play! Swept into poignant story of two friends w/ boundless, shared affection, patience, & sublime pathos
Don't see it if you're averse to intimacy of a two-hander, wrenching topic of loss & the grief & fear it engenders, rendered with humor & exquisite pacing. Read more
See it if you're a fan of Arnie Burton or Matt McGrath--as always, they give excellent performances.
Don't see it if you don't want to see a play that may have felt groundbreaking when it was written 20+ years ago but now feels pretty toothless.
Critic Reviews (22)
"Mr. Dietz has something besides humor in mind and that something — the weight of grief, the paralyzing fear of illness — emerges over the course of the show...In the plain, affectless staging by Mr. Silverstein, Mr. Burton and Mr. McGrath expertly underplay the characters...You may wish, at times, for a dash of immoderation, but the show’s deceptively gentle approach is also what makes it stand apart in our angry times."
Read more
"Its depiction of the plague years still hits hard. And it’s hard to imagine a better cast than the stars of this revival, directed by Jonathan Silverstein for Keen Company. As the two characters spar with each other, mostly through inspired put-downs and bon mots, McGrath expertly parries Burton’s superlative sardonic takes. They duel as though their lives depended on it—which they ultimately might."
Read more
"It's easy to see why this particular text is rarely regarded in the same breath as its seminal contemporaries...'Lonely Planet' has a hard time figuring out what it wants to be: Is it a poignant tearjerker or an absurdist fantasia (on national themes)? Dietz can't make up his mind...Fortunately, when the loquacity of the play becomes soporific, the performances more than make up for it...Silverstein stages the play with sensitivity."
Read more
"Silverstein has found an ideal cast and he has guided them faultlessly through the script's hairpin turns...Seeing 'Lonely Planet' was an almost combative experience; even as I resisted Dietz's setup, I fell under the spell of his writing and the performances...Dietz gets at something hard to shake off about the way gay men had to deal, daily, with death...Keen Company was right to revive this troubled, troubling play just now."
Read more
“The play's premise is straightforward, and the plot is relatively uneventful...The explicit and implicit intertextual connections sometimes detract from the effectiveness of the play as these come off as inorganic and self-consciously writerly...The absurdist elements and the burdensome weight of symbolism often occur at the expense of character development and relationships...Burton and McGrath are wonderful, and their performances compensate for perceived frustrations in the script.”
Read more
“Under Silverstein's placid direction, Jody and Carl never really get angry with each other or show much emotion. The entire play remains basically on one level. Anshuman Bhatia's setting is very realistic, but on the other hand something more surreal might have been in order. Paul Hudson's lighting usually telegraphs the time of day, but not always. How much time goes by is never made clear.”
Read more
"The performances and high standards set forth by Keen Company's production of 'Lonely Planet' exemplify all that Off Broadway can offer...The company puts forward a challenge to think on, connect with, and truly hear the confusion of a tumultuous time...'Lonely Planet' shows us the 'Greenland Problem' of it all: which messes do we accept as a part of the world that we live in, and which distortions do we ignore, or else find the strength to face?"
Read more
“What touched me so deeply about their relationship and what I think Steven Dietz captures so well, is their complete and utter acceptance of each other without judgement...The performances by both Arnie Burton as Jody and Matt McGrath as Carl were stellar...I think what makes ‘Lonely Planet’ so relatable now, is the sense of danger looming for the characters that makes them feel vulnerable in ways they’re not used to.”
Read more