Man From Nebraska NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (189)
See it if you are engaged in your life or feel a need to be. Very provocative especially, I imagine, if you're past middle age.
Don't see it if you're looking for light entertainment.
See it if you enjoy dramas about real life situations: loss of faith, lack of passion about life, marriage... with a bit of humor to cut the tension.
Don't see it if if you are impatient with long silent moments or if you are looking for light entertainment or action. Read more
See it if You like theater that takes some risks and makes you a bit uncomfortable. This is thoughtful and rich, multilayered. Will stay with you.
Don't see it if Don't like plays that unfold slowly, looks at crisis of faith, has long pauses and leaves much unsaid. This has delicate, profound beauty.
See it if You like Tracy Letts plays, David Cromer directing &Reed Birney who gives a great performance
Don't see it if You do not like serious plays that that make you think.
See it if You enjoy thoughtful,absorbing theater with excellent acting.
Don't see it if You prefer fast moving drama and avoid discomfort!
See it if You like absorbing plays with good dialogue, occasional humor, and some unpredictable moments.
Don't see it if You can't relate to a "crisis of faith." You don't enjoy dramatic plays.
See it if you wish to see reed Birney at his best. Great use of the huge stage It makes one think about LIFE .Not a weak link in the cast.
Don't see it if you want a razzle dazzle musical. Some depressing scenes but that is life.
See it if You want to see excellent acting in a well written show about very relatable characters.
Don't see it if You only like comedies and don't care about relating to others.
Critic Reviews (33)
"Birney's unparalleled skill at evoking the dislocations of middle age have never been put to better use...Letts impresses with his depth of vision and refusal to repeat himself. 'Man from Nebraska' strikes me as the most penetrating play about religion to be seen this season...The director David Cromer's finely detailed way with actors makes him the right man for the job...The production remains engrossing, and often deeply moving, throughout."
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"Tracy Letts' 2003 Pulitzer Prize-nominated 'Man from Nebraska' is first having its belated New York premiere at The Second Stage Theatre in a peerless production by David Cromer with a cast led by 2016 Tony winner Reed Birney and co-star Annette O'Toole. This low-key play by Letts is unlike any of his other four plays to have been presented here. It may leave you close to tears and emotionally drained. The play is not so extraordinary as much for what it says, but what it leaves unsaid."
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"A beautifully staged and acted production...Birney dazzles as he takes us through Ken's journey from spiritual breakdown to an uncertain new life...Though this is Birney's show, the entire cast is top-notch. O'Toole is particularly moving as the wife who'd prefer the status quo...Cromer very effectively has the many scenes play out as filmic close-ups. The stagecraft overall is outstanding."
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"David Cromer’s direction is of a piece with Letts’s writing, simple and clear. The play’s progression is seamless...No one element of this production clamors for attention, allowing us to take in the humanity that pervades the entire piece...An intimate drama that examines a good man trying to wend his way through a crisis of faith...It seems simple because it’s so basic, but it’s not really very simple at all."
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"Director David Cromer does a superlative job slowly sussing out the details and the layers of Ken’s life, loves, and his lost soul that set him out on this journey of discovery, but not such a good job with Nancy. The space is a constant whirlwind of places and pieces making up the landscape of his journey...I would have enjoyed a greater sense of clarity and understanding, and most likely Ken would as well, but the last few minutes are tense and completely engaging."
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"Birney has the ability to make us not just empathize with his onstage alter egos (even when their actions are less than savory), but also see ourselves in his eyes. Fortunately, Birney is just one chain in the link of David Cromer’s sensitively directed and impeccably acted production of this alternatively comic and dramatic work...It’s not in the same league as Letts’ 'August,' but any play that makes us consider what being human really means deserves a devoted audience."
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"Cromer's beautifully calibrated direction...moves the action from one suggestively defined locale to the other with cinematic smoothness. The journey, however, hits some playwriting potholes...The idea of a repressed bourgeois man leaving home to light his inner fire, while not new, is certainly ripe for dramatization. However, once Letts...sets up his situation, he doesn't follow through with characters or situations sufficiently capable of avoiding the mantle of contrivance."
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"Mild and slow-paced...'Man from Nebraska' is in no way a sitcom. Its humor is quieter, more indirect. Letts’ own Midwestern upbringing seems to come into play here, in his capturing of the culture of his characters, and the rhythm of their speech...If little is explained, this winds up not mattering as much as it might in the hands of lesser theater artists. These artists feel in full control. The nine-member cast is impeccable."
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