Lend Me a Tenor

What started as a funny romp turned into a tragedy of epic proportions at the Music Box Theatre.  More like a overly long episode of the Carol Burnett Show, I thought this one would never end.  Truth be told, I left at intermission.  The actors were all decent  - and frankly i chuckled quite a few time - but c'mon, even Carol Burnett has limits.  She can only try to make Harvey Korman or Tim Conway laugh so many times before the joke gets very old, very quickly.

Top Girls

Let me start off by saying I completely enjoyed the acting of the gals on stage. Kudos to your talents. That's the only good thing I have to say about this train wreck on 47th and 8th.

A thoroughly painful evening at the theater. A complete turn-off and complete fraud thrust upon the audience.

I'm completely disappointed at Manhattan Theater Club's choice to present this show. At the first reading of this play Caryl Churchill they should have thrown it in the trash bin and burned it. It's revolting. It's absurd. It's unacceptably long and boring. There doesn't even seem to be a point to anything that occurred on stage the entire evening. Shame on you MTC!

MTC seems to hype this show and provide a description of the plot which doesn't even jive with what transpires on stage. Only one of the many scenes takes place at the Top Girls employment agency in London. It happens to be one of the better scenes (take them where you can get them). Is this show really about the values of the leading lady? Values?? I think not. Choices, maybe, but values? No.

When I see over 1/2 of the audience leave their seats by the end of the show (3 unbearable acts with two intermissions and over 2.5 hours!) it's usually a hint something is not kosher. But there's nothing more telling than the leading lady politely bowing, but then rolling her eyes as if to say "Oh boy, we've cleared another house again", it's only validation that even the actresses seemed to regret their decision to perform in this show.

Rabbit Hole

Well they just don't tell you on the posters just how biting this show is going to be! After about 20 minutes you come to realize that Cynthia Nixon and John Slattery have lost a child - and the drama doesn't stop there. The younger, quite irresponsible sister finds out she is pregnant - quite an inappropriate time for it, as you would imagine. Mom (Tyne Daly) doesn't help out with her meddle-some nature and insistance that the family seek help with their greif. Dad wants his son's dog back from the family they sent it to right after the accident, but wants to sell the family house and move to a new place. Throw in a visit from the young boy who actually killed the son (a car accident) - and you have one evening of high drama and tension in the family house!

In the end - it seems that the message is that everyone deals with greif in their own way and in their own time. Well - that may be true - but you'd better buy your ticket to see this show on ITS timeline - or you'll miss a true gem and an extremely talented cast!

The Foreigner

Assassins