Did Critics Fawn Over the Feline Comedy Indoor/Outdoor?

The first commercial transfer from the Summer Play Festival, David Finkle's Indoor/Outdoor opened at DR2 on February 22. This four-character play featuring Mario Campanaro, Brian Hutchison, Emily Cass McDonnell and Keira Naughton about cats and relationships, has heavyweight Broadway producers Hal Luftig, Margo Lion and Daryl Roth supporting it. Did critics think it was purrr-fect?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "The 'indoor' cat in Finkle's play, named Samantha Emily Cass McDonnell, is far from adorable. In fact, she's kind of irritating. This is partly due to the flat writing and partly because McDonnell has a high-pitched, near-monotone voice that quickly becomes grating. Unfortunately, the cat does a lot of talking, addressing the audience directly for most of the play… Cat-loving theatergoers would probably be better off checking out the Moscow Cats Theatre also running off-Broadway but featuring real cats performing tricks. No matter how much they yell, flirt and dance, the felines in Indoor/Outdoor remain pretty lifeless."

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times: "Indoor/Outdoor has its moments. I liked Samantha's savvy jokes about pop culture. I chuckled when she said, 'I sit in front of the TV 90 percent of my life, what do you expect?'… But even by the standards of anthropomorphic animal theater--not a genre rife with masterworks, let's face it--this one's a bit sloppy. It's dangerously unstructured, for instance, and not in a good, Chekhovian way. It just goes on and on… Mr. Finkle falls headlong into the usual trap of excessive cuteness here."

Mark Blankenship of Variety: "Genuine kindness--the type that isn't coated in mawkishness or undercut with irony--is about as rare in the theater as a talking cat. Kenny Finkle's Indoor/Outdoor has both. A transfer from last year's Summer Play Festival, it's the improbable story of a kitten who follows the path of so many heroes by leaving home to find herself. It is also a clever, big-hearted comedy that makes it easy to feel good."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Samantha, the playwright's mewling heroine, is a whiner and devoid of much personality. Her deficiency in the sparkle department puts a serious crimp in Finkle's gimmicky romantic comedy... The idea of Indoor/Outdoor is actually more interesting than its execution... The production is too cute by half, with strenuous performances by its four-person cast that also includes Brian Hutchison, Keira Naughton and Mario Campanaro. Their aggressiveness flattens what might be a charming little show. But a delicate touch is needed, something not supplied by Daniel Goldstein, whose direction is as big and bold as David Korins' cartoonlike setting."