Were B'way Critics Impressed by Stars in 'night?
Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "With such incredibly high dramatic stakes, and with actors like Edie Falco and Brenda Blethyn being directed by the dependably crisp Michael Mayer, at least a handful of potent emotional set pieces and displays of actorly craft are inevitable. But audiences must sit through a disconcerting amount of missed opportunities to get there, and what could have been a devastating punch to the solar plexus leaves surprisingly few marks… Although Falco works hard at creating a sufficiently wounded bird, many of her ungainly gestures look rehearsed; she seems awfully comfortable being uncomfortable in her own skin… Like Blethyn, she gives a valiant but ultimately incomplete performance. Neither Mayer, who deserves credit for pushing the pace and not overdoing the melodrama, nor his stars have established the connections that bind these two very different women so closely."
Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "You are seldom persuaded that Jessie is ready to give up that life. There's a sly spark of intelligence and even malice in Ms. Falco's performance that reminds you that this is indeed the same actress who created Carmela Soprano. You can sense Ms. Falco's Jessie trying to will herself into a sort of zenlike placidity… Though Jessie says she doesn't blame Thelma, it's hard to avoid the impression that she really does. The play's title starts to sound less like a sad, exhausted farewell than a petulant cry of revenge. And it feels as if it would be more appropriate for the drama to end with the sound of a slamming door than with a gunshot. Ms. Norman's script is not enriched by this approach. Without the inexorable, gravitational pull of Jessie's will to die, 'night, Mother assumes the pedestrian aspect of yet another family drama of confrontation and revelation. And under Mr. Mayer's laissez-faire direction, it's hard even to believe that these two women are related."
Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "The play's fatal flaw should be clear enough. What the playwright needed to do was slowly disclose an Ibsen-like back story, making the obvious engrossing and, more important still, the final act tragically inevitable, rather than the throwaway stuff of everyday journalism… It's all decent, detailed material--yet it's somehow made no more interesting than the case history of a figure in a supermarket tabloid. This is by no means the fault of the actors. Ironically enough--despite the curiously shoddy setting, designed as if on a tight budget by Neil Patel--Michael Mayer's smoothly rhythmic staging is, like the acting, rather better than the 1983 original's. Falco makes Jessie's one note of wan but chirpy resignation resonate most wonderfully--it's like a concerto played on a one-string fiddle--while Blethyn turns technical cartwheels in the more varyingly textured role of the mother. There are times when superior acting doesn't save a play, but simply exposes it."
Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Since there is no question that she will pull the trigger, the only question is if she will be able to adhere to her timetable. Happily, she does, but the evening seems to last far longer than its supposed 90 minutes. Part of the problem is that both actresses seem so 'together.' Blethyn does not seem in any way helpless or dithery. Her inability simply to phone for help when her daughter leaves the room makes no sense. Similarly, Falco, though she has camouflaged with the help of costume designer Michael Krass her natural elegance, does not suggest someone utterly lacking options or hope… Each of the women has powerful moments, but the overall feeling is flat and mechanical, an exercise in facile nihilism."
David Rooney of Variety: "While it's clearly part of the actress' and director's design, Falco's systematically closed-off, shut-down, numbly detached performance keeps her suicidal character Jessie Cates a frustratingly opaque figure, making it possible to invest in her fate only through its impact on her mother… Blethyn's complexperf sheds almost as much light on the causes of Jessie's pain, fatigue and sadness as Falco does."
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Physically, Falco suggests a woman undone by the world around her… The actress' possesses a steely determination but what's missing is a sense of Jessie's bleakness, the realization that there is nothing in her gray life worth living for… Blethyn's Thelma is much more showy and seems to be operating in a different, lighter play… It's an actressy, ripe performance, often funny and a bit blowzy you have the sense she once was a good-time girl and not as astringent as the marvelous Anne Pitoniak was 20 years ago… 'night, Mother is played out in real time, the minutes ticking off with increasing desperation. They give the play a sense of urgency, but, in this production, its leading ladies dilute that intensity. Neither one reaches the level of despair that is at the heart of this devastating drama."
Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "The Broadway revival of 'night, which opened Sunday at the Royale Theatre, proves that time has not diminished the play's power to provoke and unsettle. Norman's mercilessly naturalistic dialogue demands a pair of stringent performances unfettered by vanity. Under Michael Mayer's vigorous, disciplined direction, both stars deliver the goods, and then some. Falco, who has proved her range with a series of interesting stage and screen roles, plays Jessie as a woman weighed down by so much emotional armor that she can seem numb, or callous…. Just as Falco doesn't let us forget the pain underlying Jessie's resolve, Blethyn's magnificent portrayal never obscures Thelma's vulnerability."
Linda Winer of Newsday: "There is still much lean, intelligent, clear-eyed writing. Michael Mayer has directed his uncompromising actresses with all the tough emotional elegance the script demands. But there is a mawkishness to the unsentimentality. We feel more manipulated than devastated, more impatient than persuaded… Despite the appreciative sobbing around the theater, we feel more and more dispassionate about Jesse's passion for ultimate quiet. The world is needier than she is."