Were Broadway Critics Impressed with the Virginia Woolf Revival?

Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the famous drama that takes place in the wee hours of one sodden morning, has not had a Broadway revival since 1976. After a long search for the right actors, a new production officially opened at the Longacre Theatre on March 20 after a Boston tryout. Directed by Anthony Page, this new take on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? stars Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin. Were Gotham critics excited by this interpretation of the piece?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "Given Irwin's physical gifts and Turner's brassy, blowzy persona, George and Martha could easily have lapsed into milquetoast and virago modes, respectively, and it is to Page's credit that this never happens… Turner gives an empathic, surprisingly gentle performance: This Martha is certainly capable of inflicting serious harm, but she shows a maternal side toward all three other characters, making the inevitable attacks that much more painful. Similarly, Irwin shows the tightly repressed violence of a man who has learned to live almost entirely within his own head for protective purposes. Irwin, whose resume includes several plays by Albee's spiritual godfather Samuel Beckett, clearly relishes creating a character through words instead of movement."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Tempering the play's notorious vitriol with eye-opening compassion, this interpretation restores characters who have acquired the faces of Freudian monsters to purely human form. In following Mr. Albee's account of a couple's long-night's journey into dawn, set at their home on an insular New England campus, Mr. Page and company have affectingly scaled a masterpiece back from operatic excess to the tautness of a chamber work. They have done so without sacrificing the emotional intensity or the abundant, alarming humor that finds the gut-wrenching factor in belly laughs. And as the man-eating Martha, Ms. Turner, a movie star whose previous theater work has been variable, finally secures her berth as a first-rate, depth-probing stage actress."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "Virginia Woolf is the writing of a young playwright, and his genius is here centered as much on the sizzle as the flavor. But what a toxic, alcohol-fueled sizzle!.. Turner, growling and belligerent, is finely matched by the perky, pesky George of Irwin, who's fiercely waspish in both senses of the word. Harbour makes a brash, callow but calculating Nick, and Enos, her face often crinkled with a look of uncomprehending idiocy, is a timid, oddly resilient Honey. Both are superb."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "This is one role where Turner's low, gruff voice makes perfect sense. It is the growl of a raging alcoholic. Irwin, who rose to fame as a mime, has in fact a mellow, liquid voice. Together they convey all the savage eloquence of Albee's dialogue. Every line is riveting. Some are witty and caustic. Some are pure poetry… The production, directed by Anthony Page, mines the riches of the play beautifully. John Lee Beatty's set has a witty academic seediness. Jane Greenwood's costumes convey the poignant nuances both of '50s social conventions and Martha's attempts to get beyond them."

David Rooney of Variety: "If Anthony Page's impeccably classy and respectful staging has a somewhat muted quality that allows the drama to fire on all cylinders only intermittently, the stunning cruelty and compassion of the writing still stands tall… While she arguably undersells Martha's obscenity, Turner saunters through the role's gin-soaked, blowzy flirtatiousness and wry disgust with ease. But much of the performance is marked by a nagging shortage of authority or, more to the point, ferocity… Irwin's buttoned-up physicality feeds an interesting take on George, initially as gray and spent as his cardigan vest and tweedy trousers… But his George comes to life in fidgety fits and starts, too rarely pouncing like the wounded animal he is."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Director Anthony Page and a terrific cast headed by Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner mine the fierce humor but don't neglect the heartbreak that runs through Albee's landmark 1962 drama.. Turner, with her throaty voice and larger-than-life presence, has the blowzy, braying and sexually predatory Martha down pat. But the actress offers more than that, particularly in the play's third act, when, alone on stage, she touchingly reveals 'I cry all the time.'"

Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin, bring no apparent personal baggage to these roles, but both handily shrug off the shadows of the Hollywood icons who preceded them. It would be hard to imagine a more ideal Martha than Turner... Reeling across John Lee Beatty's handsome set, awash in the swirls of booze and cigarette smoke that are her character's sustenance, she is at once seductive and repellent, projecting all the bruised sensuality and wounded pride underlying Martha's carping. Irwin, conversely, offers an expert portrait of a seemingly frail, cowed fellow whose authority and cunning are revealed to us bit by bit."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "Anthony Page, the playwright's specialist in London, has directed a solid, straightforward, intelligent production of this articulate three-hour monster of a drama. If the evening doesn't have the visceral magnitude of the 1999 staged reading by the original-and ageless--Uta Hagen as Martha, with Jonathan Pryce, Mia Farrow and Matthew Broderick, well, Hagen is dead now and that night is for the memory books. This remains a thrilling dissection of the complexities of coupling, set small in 1960 in a middling New England college, but as vast and as vulgar as the curdling Cold-War American dream."