Did Critics Think Lincoln Center's The Rivals is a Revelation?

The last Broadway production to have its official bow in 2004, the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals opened its limited engagement at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on December 16. The play is a comedy of manners, with a complicated plot and a group of rather eccentric characters. Did critics think the LCT production, directed by Mark Lamos, was unrivaled?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "Civility hovers over the proceedings from beginning to end, even when a little passion might have come in handy. The acting is rarely less than admirable and occasionally considerably more, Jess Goldstein's costumes are sumptuous, and the whole thing is a bit of a bore. Lamos has found three theater vets--Murray, Dana Ivey and Richard Easton--who can sneak some zing into the proceedings and, more importantly, encouraged them to do just that. But it's not enough. From the very beginning, as the well-appointed cast bustles around John Lee Beatty's handsome town-square setting to the sound of sprightly harpsichord music, the faintest smell of mothballs lingers around the production… Fittingly but unfortunately for a comedy of manners, this Rivals is just too well behaved."

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times: "As personified by Dana Ivey, an actress of blissfully well-honed comic instincts, Mrs. Malaprop is indeed the main event in Mark Lamos's plumply upholstered production, which opened last night at the Vivian Beaumont. Resolutely fighting off scene-stealing attempts by supporting players--primarily her bouncing, powdered bosom and her preposterous bonnets--Ms. Ivey's Mrs. Malaprop parades imperiously through Sheridan's sentimental comedy about romantic complications at the seashore, dispensing glittering gems of inanity.. Mrs. M and her gloriously disordered vocabulary are, without a doubt, the life of this party, but the festivities may not be all you'd hoped for a familiar sensation at this time of year, when celebrations proliferate. Despite a largely zesty cast and a first-class production from Lincoln Center Theater, the uncomfortable truth is Sheridan's comedy is one of those approved-and-certified classics that require unexpected reserves of patience and fortitude. Intermittently adorable, it is also, and not infrequently, tedious."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "Although Mark Lamos' staging is both seriously underenergized and undercast, the old play still can get plenty of laughs. It also fills a need... Present cast doesn't live up those of the past, and it makes an enormous difference. Dana Ivey, despite the splendid hyperbolic millinery designed by Jess Goldstein, misses the sublime, billowing authority demanded of Mrs. Malaprop-though Richard Easton proves far more at home with Sir Anthony, cheerfully barreling his way through the play. The estimable Brian Murray made less than I would have expected of Sir Lucius, and seems oddly muted, in part due to Lamos' generic staging. Just as John Lee Beatty's setting starts as an epic view of Bath and then dwindles into a drab series of domestic interiors and street images, so does Lamos' concept of the play trundle unimaginatively from scene to scene. Even so, The Rivals is must-see theater."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Theater lovers who know how rare good classical theater is here should be delirious with Mark Lamos' production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 comedy The Rivals. The pleasure begins as soon as you enter the Vivian Beaumont and see John Lee Beatty's sparkling evocation of 18th-century Bath. There is a similarly voluptuous elegance to Jess Goldstein's costumes… The joy of Lamos' production is that the actors have such a strong sense of the way people from different classes speak and move."

David Rooney of Variety: "A fine ensemble cast dives into the delectable froth of a classic comedy of manners in Lincoln Center Theater's Broadway revival of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals. Heartily embracing the theatrical artifice of the late-Restoration piece rather than attempting to modernize its approach, director Mark Lamos and designer John Lee Beatty situate the action entirely downstage, played directly to the audience. While this strategy makes for a production that's somewhat physically monotonous and low on energy, the play's vibrant wit prevails, along with its gleeful skewering of pretentious society twits and romantic silliness."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals is all about language and love. For language, Lincoln Center Theater's effervescent revival has a trio of trusty pros--Richard Easton, Dana Ivey and Brian Murray--to deliver the goods. For love, it has a new generation of young actors, led by Matt Letscher, who acquits himself with remarkable ease as the smitten Jack Absolute, an ensign enraptured by the aptly named Lydia Languish. And both groups get the comedy that is sprinkled generously throughout the play, which opened Thursday at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in a handsome production directed by Mark Lamos... Lamos has done an exemplary job in clarifying the complicated, often confusing plot, which throws a lot of exposition at the audience in the play's opening scenes."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "Mark Lamos' nimble direction and splendid cast ensure that this trifle retains its tart appeal. The revival actually owes its piquancy less to the younger players who enact love's folly than to old pros. Emily Bergl is winningly coquettish as Ms. Languish, and Matt Letscher exudes playful charm as her suitor, Captain Jack Absolute. Sheridan's characters, like Charles Dickens' or Robert Altman's, can scream out for name identification. Carrie Preston is endearing as Lydia's friend, whose beau is even more adept at creating unnecessary complications, and Keira Naughton adds sass as Lydia's maid. But all of the above are hard-pressed to compete with the easy aplomb offered by their elder cast members."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "Ivey is hardly the only delight in this pleasing, if not revelatory, revival of Sheridan's first play. But when she utters, 'Comparisons are odorous,' or 'All men are Bavarians,' it does seem that seas should part for her bosom-heaving glory… There is nice, cruel edge to the multiple courtships, a snarky sense of pecking order in the crumbling class-consciousness and progressive notions about the education of females… Lamos has staged the large cast with affection for the language and a diverting mixture of the foolish and the dashing - even when we can't escape the feeling that the younger actors are playing dress-up. Emily Bergl has a lusty if gullible intelligence as Lydia Languish."