Did Broadway Critics Rave About Reckless?

Craig Lucas' Reckless, starring Mary-Louise Parker, is a whimsical comedy about a woman on the run. The production, directed by Mark Brokaw, was originally announced for an off-Broadway engagement at Second Stage, but hopes were so high for the revival that Second Stage joined forces with Manhattan Theatre Club to present the show on Broadway. It officially opened at the Biltmore Theatre on October 14. Did critics think it was reckless to move the play to the big time?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "Whimsy is tough to pull off on stage, and the bigger the production is, the tougher it gets. A good example is the musty, sporadically affecting revival of Craig Lucas' Reckless, which has reached Broadway on the strength of its leading lady, Mary-Louise Parker. Lucas' bittersweet cocktail of Yuletide cheer and existential terror still packs an emotional punch, but the silly parts have curdled under the brighter lights of Broadway... The cast, steered by the dependably sensitive Brokaw, does everything it can to smooth over the cloying patches... Juxtaposing the hilarious with the harrowing can amplify both emotions; Christopher Durang and Neil LaBute have made careers out of doing just that. But the emotional whiplash in Reckless feels forced."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "A perkily told sad story of a runaway waif-woman in the wide, wild world, Reckless remains a beguilingly sneaky crash course in the loss of innocence. Mr. Lucas, whose works are as thick with whimsy as Pee-wee Herman's playhouse, has never been to everyone's taste. But when he is at his best, and Reckless definitely qualifies as that, no one can beat him at plying cartoon cuteness to probe the fears that keep grownups awake at night… Translating Mr. Lucas's sensibility while avoiding sticky preciousness requires a lightness of touch that big old Broadway usually can't sustain. Fortunately, Ms. Parker, who recently won an Emmy for her work in the HBO production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, is a natural, full-strength star who is paradoxically adept at making delicacy read large and finding the flow in disjunction."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "The revival of Craig Lucas' Reckless isn't so much reckless as plain stupid… This dismal apology for a play is weakly directed and, by and large, very poorly acted. But I feel I must make some kind of case for the indomitable, unsinkable Parker. She has a role tantamount to that of the little Dutch boy holding his finger in a broken dyke, vainly trying to prevent a flood. Such heroism never works, but is intermittently engaging."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "If you had to choose a play that epitomizes the empty-headedness of American theater in the last few decades, you couldn't do better than Reckless, which has, depressingly enough, been revived as a vehicle for Mary-Louise Parker… The plot is ultimately a long cartoon, which might be okay if it were funny. It seldom is… Manhattan Theatre Club has joined forces with Second Stage to present this well-directed, beautifully mounted revival of a worthless play."

David Rooney of Variety: "Reckless might not be the most obvious candidate for a Broadway revival. But in the capable hands of director Mark Brokaw, with a terrific cast led by the luminous Mary-Louise Parkerthis gorgeously designed Manhattan Theatre Club production makes the ephemeral charms of Craig Lucas' play more substantive, creating an imperfect but rare and delicate jewel that amply justifies its showcase."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "The production, directed by Mark Brokaw, looks and sounds a little lost on a big Broadway stage. In its tiny off-Broadway incarnation, Reckless had the feel of story theater, a demented fable that unfolded with the in-your-face pleasures of an adult pop-up book. On a larger stage, these qualities seem harsher, even crude, and the humor more than a little forced. Still, there are pleasures to be found. Parker displays a believable bewilderment as the tremulous Rachel… Brokaw, a veteran director of Lucas plays, keeps the evening moving at a good clip, and he has staged the comedy's surprising and emotionally satisfying final scene with considerable empathy."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "Lucas introduced Reckless back in the relatively idyllic early '80s, before terms such as 'suicide bomber' and 'orange alert' had entered the vernacular. But the kind of manic hopelessness the playwright dabbles in, and ultimately rejects, acquires added meaning in light of recent events. And despite a few glitches, this Manhattan Theatre Club revival, which opened Thursday at the Biltmore Theatre, makes Rachel's journey fresh, funny and newly poignant. It doesn't hurt that the cast is led by Mary-Louise Parker, who does quirky desperation and understated pathos as well as anyone in the business…. Though Reckless hardly promotes this sunny theory, it offers a clearer and brighter outlook than you might expect."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "For all its adorable and horrific originality… Reckless never did go as deep or wear as well as the playwright's later trips down the rabbit hole of Kafkaesque domesticity. Despite the firm-handed consistency of Mark Brokaw's direction, the unrelenting, catastrophic winsomeness feels more like cartoon than fable… It cannot be easy for Parker, with so many psychological layers at her fingertips, to play a character to whom things just happen. Brokaw, who directed her so perceptively in How I Learned to Drive, apparently has encouraged her to maintain a glassy-eyed cheerfulness until the end of Rachel's travails. Parker's catatonia doesn't look that different from her healthy self."

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