THE GORGES MOTEL (FringeNYC)
Closed 1h 20m
THE GORGES MOTEL (FringeNYC)
85

THE GORGES MOTEL (FringeNYC) NYC Reviews and Tickets

85%
(26 Ratings)
Positive
88%
Mixed
12%
Negative
0%
Members say
Entertaining, Great acting, Funny, Clever, Delightful

About the Show

Part of FringeNYC: Award-winning playwrights join favorite TV and stage actors with stories of sex, comedy and tragedy in an upstate motel that has seen better days. Fringe veterans bring the ridiculous and the sublime together with breakups, make-ups and a drone attack.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (26)

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116 Reviews | 18 Followers
91
Clever, Entertaining

See it if several playwrites writing short pieces around a common location and event, which are loosely joined into a full length performance.

Don't see it if you don't like short plays joined together to create one whole.

82 Reviews | 32 Followers
88
Absorbing, Great acting, Entertaining, Ambitious, Resonant

See it if you want to see some great actors take on a myriad of characters; you enjoy quick moving work

Don't see it if you are not a fan of collections of short stories; you cannot stand some stories being left unfinished

95 Reviews | 28 Followers
85
Delightful, Ambitious, Funny, Entertaining, Refreshing

See it if a string of character sketches that have in common a light touch & warm funny sensibility, with a witty and frequently delightful cast

Don't see it if you're bothered by unevenness or lack of resolution-- some of the stories resolve, others don't.

JR
140 Reviews | 27 Followers
80
Entertaining, Great acting, Quirky

See it if you like an evening of interwoven one acts. Some are better than others but all well done. Fantastic acting and direction.

Don't see it if you insist on consistency. Comes close, but parts do fall flat. The ones that work are fantastic.

202 Reviews | 53 Followers
79
Entertaining, Great acting, Original, Cliched, Funny

See it if A series of short scenes loosely tied together by a motel location and some related to a wedding. Each scene had a different tone.

Don't see it if You want a single structure linear story with plot and character development beyond short mini plots and conversations

572 Reviews | 138 Followers
69
Quirky, Funny at times, Uneven, Disappointing, Attempt to be commercial?

See it if prefer boulevard comedy be4 it gets to dinner theatre with actors you might know from film or tv, solid company of actors heightens material

Don't see it if prefer a unified approach to your theatre entertainments rather than amalgam

688 Reviews | 116 Followers
68
Disappointing, Quirky, Slow, Good acting

See it if Quirky sit-com premises appeal; Good acting & better direction - (helping to paper over absurdities)

Don't see it if Good plot premise plot sags badly & doesn't really recover; farcical rom-com situations fail to delight

37 Reviews | 12 Followers
100
Clever, Delightful, Funny

See it if you love funny short plays

Don't see it if you are locked up in a maximum security Federal prison

Critic Reviews (6)

The New York Times
August 16th, 2016

"A tantalizing, comic daisy chain of short plays by six playwrights. A couple are fun: Craig Pospisil’s 'Kissing Cousins,' in which two wedding guests discover that they’ve slept with the groom — one (the spot-on Amanda Sykes) quite recently — and Arlene Hutton’s 'Here Comes the Drone,' in which the bride has suffered a trauma. As a whole, though, 'Gorges' disappoints."
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Time Out New York
August 16th, 2016

"A collection of seven loosely connected playlets, the show is primarily concerned with questions of romantic and familial betrayal. Set in different rooms, smartly differentiated in Chris Goutman’s nifty staging, the pieces last about 10 minutes each, with most of the fine cast playing multiple roles…Not every segment is equally successful—there are several rooms for improvement—but most of the people checking in are work checking out."
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CurtainUp
August 18th, 2016

"It's satisfying to have a short peek into the lives of this smattering of characters...The flip side is that our windows in on these characters are brief and fleeting, and in few of these stories do we reach a satisfying point of conclusion…Certainly, leaving things ambiguous is a fair and valid literary choice, but when replicated across so many stories, it starts to feel less artful and more like a tease...But as long as you're OK with that going in, you'll likely find plenty to enjoy."
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Theatre is Easy
August 23rd, 2016

"'Gorges Motel' is a great Fringe show to see for some lighthearted fare…Though at times sophomoric and bordering on stereotypical, 'Gorges Motel' is chock-full of surprises and jokes ready for a sit-com pilot. Certain segments grappling with grief, doubt, loss, and other heavier topics keep the evening grounded…While some of the stories were more fully integrated into the central throughline than others, it is quite entertaining to experience a 360-degree view of the Gorges Motel."
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Theatre Reviews Limited
August 21st, 2016

"The resulting piece has the feel of somehow being 'woven together' without the scenes necessarily depending upon one another...Because of their brevity, these scenes require actors who are able to quickly develop characters with recognizable conflicts and who have the ability to establish setting with alacrity. Under Goutman’s steady and generous direction, the cast of seven handle these tasks with exceptional craft and flexibility...'The Gorges Motel' will not disappoint."
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New York Theater
August 15th, 2016

“Such collective theater projects are almost inevitably uneven, but at its best, the play offers some quirky laughs and some touching oddness...Indeed, few of the pieces in ‘The Gorges Motel’ seem initially to fit naturally into a single work, but the final ‘Missing’ suggests that all the playwrights were guided by the metaphorical possibilities of the location - establishing an analogy between the natural wonder of the Watkins Glen gorge and the mystery of human connection.”
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Trailer

Creative team