Did Critics Get Hooked on the New Group's Revival of Hurlyburly?

The New Group has gathered a buzzworthy cast for its revival of David Rabe's Hurlyburly. Led by Ethan Hawke as Eddie, the company also features Bobby Cannavale, Josh Hamilton, Catherine Kellner, Parker Posey, Wallace Shawn and Halley Wegryn Gross. The dark tale of Hollywood excess opened at the Acorn Theater on January 27. Did critics enjoy their time with the play's troubled characters?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "The New Group's production has its moments, but one is left with the feeling that the celebrated 1984 production must have been more compelling… If this were an ABC comedy, it could be called Desperate Divorcés. It wouldn't qualify as a comedy, however, because despite smatterings of humor the play is more dark than funny. And as far as drama goes, the sparks only fly near the end in a confrontation between Mickey [Hamilton] and Eddie. Most of the play is made up of casual conversations, which are realistic enough but not too scintillating… Of the New Group's ensemble, only Hawke makes his character multidimensional."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Thanks to a terrific cast that parks its vanity in the wings--directed by Scott Elliott and led by Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton and Parker Posey--theatergoers are likely to experience a heady buzz of excitement and clarity that fades only in the last quarter of this three-hour production and that any of the desperate characters onstage would kill for… Mr. Elliott is at the top of his form with Hurlyburly, approaching it with the same mix of clinical hindsight and in-the-moment immediacy that he brought to last season's revival of Wallace Shawn's 1985 play Aunt Dan and Lemon. This perspective again uncovers fresh wellsprings of power in a work that turns out to be more than a period piece."

Frank Scheck of The New York Post: "Despite memorable characterizations and some viciously funny dialogue, Hurlybury makes its points fairly quickly, and the bloated running time is badly in need of editing. This wasn't a problem in the original production, with its razor-sharp staging and amazing star power. But in this rendition, the highly uneven performances and slack direction serve to underscore the play's weaknesses, making the relentless ugliness and misogyny wearisome. Cannavale is the best of the bunch, simply riveting as the alternately wounded and abusive Phil…. Posey demonstrates again that her talents are more suited for screen than stage, while Shawn's producer is even more outlandish than he needs to be. Hawke, who's onstage for most of the play's running time, has his powerful moments, but lacks the charisma and intensity necessary to make us sustain interest in his repellent character."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "I enjoyed Scott Elliott's revival of David Rabe's 1984 Hurlyburly every bit as much as I hated the original production. Which is to say, enormously… Why do we need to spend three-plus hours with [the characters]? If there is any intellectual or moral justification, let it be simply the visceral satisfaction of watching these marvelous actors go through their disgusting paces. Take Hamilton. Mickey may be the most appalling of the lot because he is so dispassionate. But the elegant way Hamilton slithers around the stage gives his malevolence the chilling, mesmerizing quality of a snake. Bobby Cannavale plays the most destructive--and ultimately self-destructive--of the men, but Cannavale has so much vulnerability he makes the loutish character not just disquieting, but oddly pathetic. The same is true of Hawke."

David Rooney of Variety: "Director Scott Elliott and the committed cast wrestle the text's coked-up verbal ferocity into as sturdy a production as one might have hoped for but don't show why this taxing play merits new attention… Dated as it is, there are still any number of passages in which Rabe's writing bristles with toxic rage and his savage humor supplies a jolting current. But this three-hour-plus visit into the sordid lives of some deeply unpleasant Hollywood Hills residents yields few fresh insights… Solid as Hawke is in the central role, he's slightly outshone by his two male co-stars."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "The ringleader, or at least central character, is Eddie, played by a remarkable Ethan Hawke, giving one of those unnerving, nearly over-the-edge performances that sparks the whole evening. Hawke expertly captures the character's excesses, a man in search of instant gratification. Rabe allows Eddie to talk at length about those urges, with his belligerent chattering filling up much of the production's three-hour-plus running time… Director Scott Elliott has divided this revival into two acts. The original production… had three. The new division makes for an elongated second act where plot gives way to meandering, less effective conversation. By then, you get the idea that these men are living in a desperate nether world of their own making. 'So this is the bachelor life,' says one of them early on in the evening. In Hurlyburly, that statement is more of a warning than high praise."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "The cast that director Scott Elliott has assembled could hardly serve Rabe's material better. Led by Ethan Hawke in his strongest stage performance yet, Elliott's ensemble delivers an eerily convincing portrait of manic desperation in '80s Hollywood--and an even more disturbing evocation of the sexual paranoia haunting our country today."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "Unlike the original Mike Nichols production, this one doesn't keep undressing the women while the men emotionally and physically abuse them. In fact, Elliott's production is more charged up with male eroticism than female humiliation, which works just fine…. Hawke, with his vaguely undifferentiated face and compact intensity, cannot convince us that Eddie has more than two emotions: drugged self-pity and impotent rage. But he does manage to suggest that something deeper might be happening inside."