The Layover NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (144)
See it if you enjoy good acting and engaging rapport between two main characters.
Don't see it if if you have young children or are not ok with pg-13 themes.
See it if you are interested in dramas about unusual and difficult romantic relationships.
Don't see it if you are offended by explicit sexualily or infidelity themes.
See it if you like good acting, and wouldn't mind a bad ending.
Don't see it if You want the main characters well developed.
See it if if you want to keep an eye on the work of a young contemporary playwright.
Don't see it if You are bored by trite dialog, and a prosaic plot.
See it if You want a show with many turns and twists in the plot
Don't see it if You expect a happy ending.
See it if You like relationship based, quirky shows.
Don't see it if Can't suspend your disbelief.
See it if you've ever wondered what those 2 attractive strangers across from you are talking about.
Don't see it if you need a moral. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to get from the unhappy lives that this play gives hope to and then demolishes.
See it if You like an interesting mystery story that keeps you intrigued throughout
Don't see it if You don't like mysteries
Critic Reviews (26)
“Once the setup is clear, the play is unable to maintain its footing; neither leading character’s life is interesting or unique enough to keep the dramatic cauldron boiling. (The theme of lies vs. truth is far more compellingly evoked in ‘Caught,’ at La Mama.) The several moments of steaming sensuality between the lovers simply aren’t enough to compensate for 'The Layover'’s multiple implausibilities...if you visit ‘The Layover’: fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy night.”
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"A dark-hued, thoroughly unsettling drama...Headland has a very sharp ear for dialogue, a keen eye for detail, and a nose for getting at the heart of human relationships in all their complexities. Trip Cullman directs the 100-minute work with smart pacing and an enviable flair for not telegraphing what comes next…The ever lovely Parisse naturally engenders sympathy (or at least empathy) no matter what her circumstance or action, which goes a long way to making the play work so well."
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"An irresistibly intriguing new play...If Parisse and Rothenberg are to 'The Layover' what Roman and Granger are to 'Strangers on a Train,' they’re just as effective as their celluloid predecessors. They’re decidedly sexy in the sex scenes, and the emoting in the later sequences is equally effective. Trip Cullman is the director getting them down and dirty...He also reaps plenty from the other four cast members who might easily have come off as two-dimensional but don’t."
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"The first few scenes of 'The Layover' are its best. There's heat and promise, aggression and suggestion. If the play had ended here, a swift erotic encounter between strangers on a plane, it would have been a welcome diversion from the workaday world...But it's not hardboiled stylization that follows: just poorly written realism. Once the pair parts, Headland's ear deserts her; Parisse and Rothenberg, too, turn strangely wooden. The ease of the play's first section turns flat."
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"The opening scenes of ‘The Layover’ recall Nichols and May at their most inspired. Our expectations keep being subverted in hilarious ways that say much about men and women and how they mate. And why they lie to each other. 'The Layover' ends in scenes that hark back to Brecht’s observation that it’s a perverse God who made the organs of lovemaking and excrement the same. That’s quite a journey to take in only 100 minutes, and no theatergoer should miss it."
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"Leslye Headland may have written 'The Layover' because she wanted to see if she could recreate a film noir onstage. Maybe she did, but she didn't make a good one...The borrowed atmosphere just serves to underscore what's missing...As happens so often, the actors ride to the rescue and almost save the evening—but not quite. Annie Parisse seems incapable of giving a bad performance no matter what she's given to do...And Adam Rothenberg is equally appealing as Dex."
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"A taut and twisty psychological thriller…'The Layover' takes a bit long getting to its payoff, a problem that might be resolved by trimming back some detail on the secondary characters. By and large, it’s a sophisticated, sad story about how well we can intimately know someone. One wonders if Headland, whose own wedding is at hand, was exorcising demons."
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"Did he want something to start? Did she? What lies are OK to tell to strangers? These are all interesting questions, made crisply exciting by Trip Cullman's sleek direction. But while Headland touches on them briefly, she doesn't look at the 'whys' in depth. Instead, 'The Layover' is part dark comedy, part murky thriller. We know something bad is going to happen because of some heavy foreshadowing. But when that something bad does happen, it's neither unexpected nor revelatory."
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