Widowers' Houses NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (31)
See it if deliciously old-fashioned, yet timely. Fun, funny and thought-provoking. Issues of financial abuse & political corruption are still current.
Don't see it if small set. Some of the financial details are given a bit to fast to be understood thoroughly.
See it if you are curious about Shaw's very first play, enjoy complex intellectual arguments, like plays that explore issues of poverty vs wealth
Don't see it if you find Shaw too complex, don't like intellectual arguments re: poverty vs. wealth, don't like some overacting
See it if to see a rarely performed revival of George Bernard Shaw's very 1st play. This production retains the wit, if not the bite, of Shaw.
Don't see it if you're looking for this production to skewer current social injustices the way so many of Shaw's plays did in his time & can still do today.
See it if you need to check this Shaw off your list (which is why I went)
Don't see it if you are bigger than that....
See it if You like stories from the 1890s or classic plays. The script still holds up and provides some laughs.
Don't see it if You don't like smaller shows, period pieces or older plays. The acting is a bit uneven.
See it if You're a huge fan of Shaw and don't mind community-theater-based acting (actors who are one-dimensional and overact)
Don't see it if You want to stay awake
See it if you like well-done productions of very old plays. I had not one complaint of this play, and I'm often highly critical.
Don't see it if you want it to equal Shaw's greatest plays, this is his 1st. You've no stomach for morality plays, or want something more thought-provoking.
See it if You enjoy thought-provoking theatre, with great music and stellar young performers.
Don't see it if You don't like political-themed shows, musicals or children.
Critic Reviews (14)
"While all of the characterizations are adroitly handled, Monahon's is the most demanding, the most mercurial. She doesn't hold back from depicting any of Blanche's darker inclinations...Shaw followers don't get the opportunity to take in 'Widowers' House' often, but that's not the only reason for racing to this one. An even more incentive for raising a foaming beer stein to it is that it's so well and so forthrightly done. Director Staller's belief in it being presented pays off handsomely."
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"The play is just as relevant today as when it was written...David Staller obviously knows and loves this material and it shows. His direction is crisp, entertaining, fleshed out and fresh. He draws the best from his actors and allows them to go to the edge of their characters without falling off the cliff...This is a must see for all who love Shaw and a great introduction to those who don’t."
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"Here the playwright takes on tenement housing and the ruthlessness of businessmen—topics that still sizzle…Under Staller’s direction, the actors do splendidly…Here and there Staller gives a textual boost to Shaw…It’s symptomatic of the care Staller has invested, although the climactic moment seems the director’s own...It’s a more overtly cynical note than in Shaw’s original, but the playwright might still have approved."
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"A fascinating if uneven show. Director David Staller has mounted an impeccable show, aided by Brian Prather’s pristine set, Barbara A. Bell’s accurate costumes and Peter West’s lighting. The unevenness has solely to do with Shaw’s script. It was, after all, his first play. So most of the characters are two-dimensional at best. The Shavian wit is blunted. The humor, such as it is, is forced…As Shaw would like, we walk out of the theater thinking."
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"George Bernard Shaw’s first play, given a first-rate performance by The Actors Company Theatre directed by David Staller, establishes the theme of personal morality vs business corruption that would be a signature of his works through the years...Does this play written more than a hundred years ago seem very current? Director Staller makes it seem as if it could happen today."
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"The comedy gripped the attention of the audience while pressing forward with a message about sex, greed and real estate. The spirited rhetoric by a cast of stellar performers with their strong individual presence in period costumes is as relevant today as it was in the Victorian era. Staller puts a spin on this production that keeps the action moving into the still annoying relevant issues that will resonate with you, and at the same time enlighten and entertain."
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