Edward Rothstein

“More will be claimed for this show than such evocations—just as more was claimed for the source novel by Elizabeth Strout—but more really isn’t justified or, for that matter, really necessary.”

“Unfortunately, this promise is largely unfulfilled.”

“It means to give us history accompanied by lessons, but it is vivid enough to show us a history too complex for such lessons—perhaps even more complex than it suspects.”

“The major impression, ultimately, is not that of a clever romp wickedly testing the limits of the tasteless, but of a repetitive refrain of disgust and disdain—not only for the imagined beings onstage, but for those still in the land of the living, buying the tickets.”

“What Mr. Mac offers us instead is an exercise in self-indulgence, with a dollop of facile allusion and a dose of bad faith.”

“This is too facile, too familiar and too unexamined.”

“If this is myth, it is weak stuff, its power and mystery insisted upon but not felt.”

“It is the real thing—a traditional, fantastical Broadway show—independent of both the animated film and the 1956 film with Ingrid Bergman, which are said to have “inspired” it.”

“But their undercurrents made me relieved not to be sharing them: a nastiness, a disgust with ordinary humanity, and a masking of these attitudes with sentimental commonplaces.”

“The play is generally so smartly written, the characters and their realization so vivid, and the direction of Bartlett Sher so taut that you are drawn into a three-hour drama about something intrinsically undramatic, in which nuance and minutiae are generally more crucial than action: negotiations.”

“Mark Bell's direction keeps an unrelenting pace that leaves the audience breathless and the actors clueless.”

“All the more extraordinary, then, that I felt unconstrained by the show’s built-in artifice and was swept up by the vitality and simplicity of this production adapted from the acclaimed concert performances of the work given to benefit City Center last fall.”

“Wilson's play is so disciplined, so full of distinctive voices with their own pungent passions and fears, and so meticulously brought to life by a taut ensemble feelingly directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson that we fully accept this world as it is given to us.”

“This ensemble makes for a compelling evening.”

“Mr. Langella corrects the balance.”