Did New York Critics Give Brooklyn Boy a Warm Broadway Welcome?

Donald Margulies' Brooklyn Boy, which stars Adam Arkin as a troubled novelist, has come to Manhattan after a tryout at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California. The play opened on Broadway on February 3 at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre. Were critics happy that this Boy returned home to New York?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "Donald Margulies' undercooked, schematic drama stays on a predictable but moderately satisfying course at first, as Eric Weiss Adam Arkin revisits the comforts and resentments of his Brooklyn boyhood… Margulies--who writes smart, empathic adult dialogue better than just about anyone and flexes his muscles several times early on--hasn't just made Eric a successful novelist and tormented son. No, our reluctant hero has sold the movie rights to his book. And so set designer Ralph Funicello's musty brownstones give way to sleek minimalism, and we're off to the world of vapid stars and unctuous producers. By this point, any writer addressing the banalities and insincerities of Hollywood had either be very funny or very insightful. The L.A. section of Brooklyn Boy is neither."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Part of the play's point, it would seem, is that life often does fall into predictable patterns. And Brookyn Boy, smoothly directed by Daniel Sullivan and acted with fine-grained conviction by a cast led by Adam Arkin, may indeed be Mr. Margulies's most personally heartfelt work. But while this comic drama is steeped in an admirably humble and often touching spirit of acceptance, it seldom does what first-rate plays must do and what Mr. Margulies has achieved repeatedly before: it does not make the familiar seem fresh."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "There's predictability afoot, from Weiss' opening encounter with his father dying of cancer right through to that exculpatory kaddish. So what? The guy isn't Shakespeare or Eugene O'Neill. He's still pretty darn good and has written an extraordinarily satisfying play... The staging, with its apt settings by Ralph Funicello and costumes by Jess Goldstein, is exquisitely attuned to the play, for which much credit goes to Sullivan. Kudos, too, to the splendid Arkin.... This is one of the most purely enjoyable plays to come along on Broadway in a quite a while."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Ralph Funicello has designed one of the most perfect sets I've ever seen to brood over Donald Margulies' entertaining Brooklyn Boy… It underscores Margulies' concern with how far we get from our roots and how little it takes to bring us back to them. This theme is marvelously evoked at the beginning of Margulies' ambitious play… The Hollywood scenes are uproariously funny, but they seem a distraction. The play ends in his father's apartment in that haunting building. We've come full circle. It's been an amusing journey, but not a satisfying one… Brooklyn Boy is a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Given Margulies' talent, I had expected more."

David Rooney of Variety: "The rewards of success and fame are weighed with poignant complexity against the loss of authenticity and essence in Donald Margulies' eloquent midlife reflection, which traces a suddenly celebrated writer's unwitting struggle to reconnect with his past. While its static structure and somewhat mechanical resolution keep Brooklyn Boy from being an outstanding play, it is nonetheless a satisfying one, illuminated by sensitivity and humor, by sparkling, naturalistic dialogue and by the grace with which it extends a deeply personal story into a universal realm."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "It's the present coming to terms with the past that permeates Brooklyn Boy, Donald Margulies' affecting new play that Manhattan Theatre Club has brought to Broadway's Biltmore Theatre. Not exactly a new idea, but Margulies, author of Dinner with Friends and Sight Unseen, handles the accommodation so skillfully that his family tale, told in a series of confrontations, makes for a warm, heartfelt evening of theater... Hollywood's disregard for the literary properties it buys is a familiar story, but Margulies adds a twist to Eric's meeting with an aggressive movie producer Mimi Lieber. She desires a few 'tweaks' to his script, which she says is 'a touch too ethnic.' Then the woman has a vapid young TV star a comic Kevin Isola she wants to star in the film read a bit from the script's father-son scene-with Eric playing the older man. The result is surprisingly dramatic and reveals Margulies' ability to pull emotion out of the most unexpected moments. The play's elegiac finale, which won't be disclosed here, demonstrates that sometimes you can go home again. With that homecoming comes a peace of mind tempered by a sense of sadness, and, in the case of one Brooklyn boy, accepting where he came from."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "As Eric, Adam Arkin turns in a wry, rueful performance, deftly engaging and reacting to his fellow cast members. Allan Miller gamely plays Eric's father... Polly Draper is similarly convincing and looks great as Eric's soon-to-be ex, and Ari Graynor has some funny moments as a dizzy college student whom Eric meets at a reading. Kevin Isola also impresses as a seemingly vapid young actor... One only wishes that Brooklyn Boy offered a little more in the way of reflection and revelation."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "Donald Margulies' Brooklyn Boy, which Manhattan Theatre Club opened on Broadway last night, is filled with sudden insights and glorious patches of unpredictable eloquence. But even Daniel Sullivan's first-rate production cannot disguise an old yawn of a story in modern dress… Brooklyn Boy is perhaps the most conventional work by Margulies, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Dinner with Friends. Despite the disappointments of his new play, it is sprinkled with beautiful writing and infused with what the Hollywood shark refers to as 'aching ruefulness.'"