The Archbishop's Ceiling

See it if If your interested in a back wall Arthur Miller play. Acting is good with what they have to work with.

Don't see it if To long, to wordy. It drags on and becomes uninteresting. If you only like Arthur Miller's more popular works.

See it if ur a Miller completist & want to see his rarely-seen late play about Cold War espionage, paranoia, oppression & suppression of free speech.

Don't see it if u want to avoid an inert production of a generally didactic, verbose, familiar & dramatically unsatisfying play.

Also This drawing room drama offers little in the way of spectacle or conflict (a gun is ineffectively brandished just to create some much-needed tension/conflict), so the success of the play is entirely dependent upon the tension & energy of the dialogue. Although mostly well-acted, the direction is plodding, listless & stilted, giving the actors little chance to inject some vitality & potency to this problematic play.... Read more Read less

See it if Actors deserve credit for trying. No bad seats at Urban Stages

Don't see it if It is not Arthur Miller at his best. A set exists. The comparison to today is a stretch

See it if you must see all of Miller's work and for the the group of actors who are generally good on a great set.

Don't see it if you want some action - this all takes place over 100 minutes in the same place and is mostly talk among the five characters.

See it if Meeting of four minds is this unclaimed Miller play. Thinly-veiled of historical events drama with Miller perhaps sympathising w/ each view.

Don't see it if Difficult to not draw parallels to what's unfolding today w/ spying, which makes for a relevantly dated evening. Two hours w/o a break?

See it if Being spy on, watching your back for friends, family and government.

Don't see it if It moves slow and long. No intermission. A lot of just talking.

See it if you want to see a play by a popular playwright that has never been performed in New York City

Don't see it if You are excited to see what you think will be a hidden gem

Also At first I was really mad at Arthur Miller for writing this play but the real blame goes to this theater for reviving such a dud. I don’t think there was anything good or positive about any component of this play but I also don’t think I would like this show if it was done by my favorite actors of all time. I really don’t know who would enjoy this show. Obviously no one ever heard of the show but when you see Arthur Miller’s name attached to it you may get excited but I can promise you you’re going to be very disappointed. There is a reason that this play was written so many years ago and never performed in the greatest city in the world... Read more Read less

See it if You are a Miller fan and want to be able to say you have seen all his plays and this is the only one you hadn’t seen.

Don't see it if You think you’re going to see a masterpiece of theatre, you most certainly are not ! Although the dialogue was in English I couldn’t figure

Also out the motivations of any of the characters. It didn’t seem to have any forward movement of the plot ! Sorry, but I cannot recommend this to anyShow-Score members !... Read more Read less

See it if Previously unproduced Arthur Miller play about censorship in the Soviet bloc countries in the 1980’s. Who do you trust? Good acting

Don't see it if You want action and a coherent story line. One character is totally unnecessary. 90 minutes with no intermission

See it if You're an Arthur Miller fan.

Don't see it if You want a good story that makes sense.

See it if U’re a fan of Arthur Miller and want 2 c an unseen (in NYC) play if his. I enjoyed the story’s closeness 2 our days of Trump. Funny moments.

Don't see it if You’re looking for something light and airy.

See it if Dissident writer, American author, communist sympathizer, and poetess/actress in Eastern Europe react to crackdown by government agents.

Don't see it if If you are confused by a plot that is a thinly camouflaged description of actual historical events and has no clear resolution.

Also Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in Czechoslovakia as a Communist state after World War II. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and continued until 21 August 1968, when the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded the country with tanks to suppress the reforms.
The Prague Spring inspired music and literature including the work of Václav Havel, Karel Husa, Karel Kryl and Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being.... Read more Read less

See it if If you have to see a lost Arthur Miller play. That’s why I went.

Don't see it if If you think that you will discover a lost masterpiece. This is not it.

Also This play needs a production with scenery ....like a ceiling. The title is “The Archbishops Ceiling”. Without, the play makes no sense. A better cast would also help.... Read more Read less

See it if you at a time when you can see 2 brilliant Miller plays, The Crucible and All My Sons, you want to see an epic fail.

Don't see it if you want to see a show with well developed realistic characters.

Also the American lead is portrayed as an exceptionally successful author who acts like a child in his personal life and extraordinary naivety in his professional life - a very stereotypical American.

The "eastern" european characters are too brave for their situation.

The "Danish" character may have had a purpose in Miller's mind, but has no purpose in this production.

Usually when there is a work by any author or artist that appears to be "lost" there is a good reason. When that work is by a celebrated author there is probably even more reason to not to expose it. That is the case here.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to delve into labyrinthine arguments & discussions about dictatorial regimes on artists & people in general.

Don't see it if you expect even a modicum of interesting drama and dialog from one of the greatest writers of our time.

See it if you enjoy Miller's work and like political stories.

Don't see it if you don't like communist-political stories in which everything said actually means something different.

See it if you are a fan of Arthur Miller and have not had your fill of his seemingly incessant theme of McCarthyism under every bed cover.

Don't see it if You're expecting a takeaway worthy of Miller. It reminded me of why I love Williams: even if the play is bad, there is a worthy phrase.

See it if If you like Arthur Miller

Don't see it if Period pieces

See it if you absolutely must see every Arthur Miller play.

Don't see it if you want something cohesive. I also had trouble understanding some of the actors as they were not projecting.

Also Sometimes there's a reason why plays are not produced.

See it if you'd like to see a rarely performed play by Arthur Miller w/a lot of interesting themes & ideas/

Don't see it if It's slow and very talky. There's really not much of a plot and the ending seemed very abrupt to me.

See it if You have a need to see every Arthur Miller play out there

Don't see it if You're looking for an enjoyable evening at the theater

See it if you're a big fan of Arthur Miller and want to see every play he wrote.

Don't see it if you want to see a play that was written well, with good direction and acting.

See it if you enjoy Arthur Miller and can sit for a long drama

Don't see it if you're not interested in plays about Eastern Bloc politics or can't follow fast-talking, accented actors

Also I didn't find much of a plot, just a series of nebulously (un)connected scenes that changed everytime a character entered/exited the living room (or hallway)... Read more Read less

See it if you’re a Miller completist, though this play is not among his best and this production not ideal.

Don't see it if Unwilling to overlook some clumsy staging, can’t sit for 100+ minutes of play that is short on dramatic action

Also Set in an unnamed Eastern bloc country resembling Czechoslovakia circa Prague Spring, an American writer, a poet, a dissident writer and socialist editor with a supposedly Danish mistress in tow find themselves thrown together in the editor’s well-appointed apartment, an erstwhile rectory. Saturated with an effectively evoked cold war era paranoia, any one of them could be a spy, and betrayals of various kinds are spoken of. Unfortunately, there’s a lot talk, some of it repetitive, and little action. The actors seem to have been directed to underplay everything, so the evening feels shapeless, with little sense of rising stakes as suspicious circumstances accrete. The result is a murkiness to the proceedings; however even though nothing spoken or experienced here can be taken at face value, the production meanders to a slow finish.... Read more Read less

See it if Show for the people who came from the countries where spying and destroying dissidents were normal.Gehling,Meth,Morger, Spano are stars

Don't see it if Small theatre, dirty sits, 1h 40 min, no intermission. Slow at times, a lot of talking about "them" who might install spy equipment

Also Show is not bad at all. Better to go if you have some at least basic knowledge about situation in Europian countries in 70th-80th, how goverments were able to destroy people for a book against system or even word and how citizens had to make their choice. If viewers have no idea about history-they write bad reviews about the show. So if you have nothing to say-do not post a bad review... Read more Read less