The Workshop NYC Reviews and Tickets

85%

(42 Reviews)

Positive

95%

Mixed

Negative

Members say

Great acting, Absorbing, Intelligent, Clever, Funny

About the Show

softFocus presents the world premiere of this satire starring Tony nominee Austin Pendleton as a veteran theater professor of an MFA playwriting program.

Ward Stein (Pendleton) presides over his class. Posters from old productions of his plays adorn the walls. There's a framed Obie Award, bookcases crammed with tomes, a table, chairs, and a boombox. His students range in age from early to late 20s. Kris and Zorick get ready to read Riley's play as the other students look on...

Member Reviews (42)

Talky, Intellectual, For theater buffs, Rambling, Clever

See it if you like plays about theater. TW is compelling w/ focus on writers (not actors). Fine ensemble acting, but Pnd'ton had some trouble w/lines.

Don't see it if discussions of theater seem pretentious .Or digressions annoy you (long one re: child molestation). TW needs cutting. Easily 30 mins. Read more

Absorbing, Intelligent, Relevant, Entertaining

See it if you want to see some very talented actors (incl. the masterful Austin Pendleton) play out a fascinating polemic on the art of playwriting.

Don't see it if you have no interest in modern drama or the insight into the writing process; you're uneasy in intimate settings (ie, an audience of 40). Read more

Critic Reviews (4)

“The dialogue is a succession of quick jabs and uppercuts, and references abound…At the same time, ‘The Workshop’ does not feel overly insidery…As an incisive and insightful tale of ambition and envy, inspiration and mediocrity, the show should resonate with a wide swath of theatergoers…The writing, bolstered by Mr. Pendleton’s poignant performance, transcends the chuckles as it depicts a man staring at the abyss of his failure.”
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“You can tell Torrey Townsend has studied his craft…You can tell because the very idea of studying art fills him with both affection and revulsion…‘The Workshop's’ desultory portrait of their semester lasts two and a half hours, yet somehow rarely feels long. Townsend’s well-performed play is bracingly cynical…Adams’s intimate production tucks us close enough that we can smell the spilled coffee. The scorched odor of dying dreams, though, is the thing that keep us awake.”
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“It’s the kind of raw, audacious evisceration that only someone who truly loves the messy, awful art of the stage could perform…This combustion of frustration and exhilaration makes for one hell of an evening of theater. Directed with a deft and unaffected hand by Adams and featuring a shattering central performance by Pendleton…‘The Workshop’ is a breathtaking study of an Ego…The uncomfortable brilliance of ‘The Workshop’ is that it won’t let us pat ourselves on the back.”
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"Townsend’s bitingly funny demolition of writerly ambition...What elevates the material over drive-by satire is Townsend’s mixed love and disgust for stage dinosaurs like Stein...Townsend’s script could stand to lose 20 minutes...There are also minor false notes...But the intimate, tight-focus staging by director Adams is perfectly scaled...The young ensemble is appealing and precise in their character typing, and Pendleton does Pendleton—the elvish, shambolic shaman—surpassingly well."
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