What's the Critical Verdict on Twelve Angry Men?

Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men, which began as a teleplay and then a celebrated movie starring Henry Fonda, may be familiar to many people, but it has never before been on the Great White Way. Enter the Roundabout Theatre Company, which has brought the piece to its Broadway house, the American Airlines Theatre, in a new production, directed by Scott Ellis. When the drama opened on October 28, what were the critics' verdicts?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "The first Broadway production of Twelve Angry Men isn't as star-studded as some recent Roundabout Theatre productions. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing. Here the company has cast theater vets such as Philip Bosco, Tom Aldredge, Larry Bryggman and Boyd Gaines. The result is a gripping production, with fine acting all around and taut direction by Scott Ellis."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "The actors in this adaptation of Reginald Rose's popular television and film drama from the 1950's, which has been translated to a Broadway stage for the first time, are having an awfully good time. So, it might be added, is much of the audience. The Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Twelve Angry Men, which opened last night at the American Airlines Theatre, suggests that sometimes the best way to present a fossil is just to polish it up and put it on display without disguise, annotation or apology. This tidy portrait of clashing social attitudes in a jury room definitely creaks with age. But somehow the creaks begin to sound like soothing music, a siren song from a period of American drama when personalities were drawn in clean lines, the moral was unmistakable and the elements of a plot clicked together like a jigsaw puzzle without a single missing piece."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "When the chips are down and the verdict's in, you can take Twelve Angry Men out of TV drama, but you can't take TV drama out of Twelve Angry Men. It's corny and it's obvious. Yet there is still solid strength to Reginald Rose's play, which last night opened at the American Airlines Theatre in an elegant yet forceful version by the Roundabout Theatre… It's a decent play if no classic, perhaps the theatrical equivalent of those modestly entertaining novels we call 'a good read,' and certainly worth the careful and caring treatment it's getting here."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men is really two plays. One is a mechanical whodunit, as members of a murder jury analyze a case they feel the lawyers have not fully explained. The other is a Frank Capra-like paean to the jury system. It is not easy to blend the two, but director Scott Ellis has managed it beautifully, creating a powerful ensemble from his impressive cast. The characters do not have names, only numbers, but the actors have given them great individuality."

David Rooney of Variety: "Director Scott Ellis drives the ensemble of sterling theater actors like a demanding jockey astride a trusted steed, and if he tends to gallop unduly through some character-establishing dialogue, his intermissionless staging brings a rousing urgency to this bristling drama that helps to hide the work's liberal didacticism… Gaines and Bosco have the meatiest roles, the former a quietly intelligent voice of reason, stability and unintimidated independent thought, the latter a hotheaded bully, his judgment clouded by bitter personal experience that ultimately unlocks his painful emotional exposure. But alongside these controlled, anchoring perfs is a superb ensemble fleshing out Rose's complex characterizations, each of them taking a bracing turn in the spotlight."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "What makes the play really work, at least in the Roundabout Theatre Company's taut, tension-filled production, is a smashing ensemble of actors, a baker's dozen of performers there's also the courtroom guard who invigorate a script that, at times, is obvious and more than a little schematic. These men, under the sure, steady direction of Scott Ellis, propel the play to a satisfying, even exhilarating conclusion--although the outcome seems preordained from the start."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "Reginald Rose's judicial drama, which premiered on TV 50 years ago and later became a film and stage play, can seem hopelessly dated…. But under Scott Ellis' bracingly naturalistic direction, this Broadway premiere, which opened Thursday at the American Airlines Theatre, captures the tension, poignancy and sheer drudgery of the proceedings with almost painful authenticity."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "For the pleasure of watching a dozen beautifully seasoned actors do what they obviously love to do, it is hard to imagine a more enjoyable hour and 45 minutes than Twelve Angry Men. For a lesson in squeezing every drop of humanity from a landmark piece of period hokum, one could hardly choose a more illuminating revival than Scott Ellis' production, which the Roundabout opened last night. But if you're looking for a credible drama about the psychological and technical workings of the American justice system, any episode of Law & Order would be more convincing."