Did Critics Find Off-Broadway's Tryst Involving?

Part romance and part psychological thriller, Karoline Leach's Tryst has hit off-Broadway. The production, directed by Joe Brancato, stars Maxwell Caulfield of Grease 2 fame as handsome conman George Love and Amelia Campbell as the desperate Adelaide Pinchon. It opened at the Promenade Theatre on April 6. Did critics believe it was an evening to remember?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Joe Tropia in his Broadway.com Review: "'Whose game is this?' asks the tagline for Tryst, Karoline Leach's new romantic thriller which opened at the Promenade Theatre last night. The combination of Leach's finely tuned script with pitch-perfect performances from leads Maxwell Caulfield and Amelia Campbell makes discovering the answer to that initial question a thoroughly entertaining, if somewhat slight, evening of theater… This play may not be everyone's cup of tea, but audiences looking for an evening's diversion with twists they can happily 'gasp!' along to will be hard pressed to find better than Tryst."

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times: "Theatergoers with a taste for things traditional - imposing, naturalistic sets; pretty period costumes; tidy narratives with a surprise twist or two - can take comfort in Tryst, a suspense drama of a distinctly old-fashioned stamp… Maxwell Caulfield and Amelia Campbell, who are the entire cast, give stylish, effective performances as a handsome cad and a lonely spinster, those two cozily familiar types from British fiction. The sets by David Korins and costumes by Alejo Vietti evoke the period handsomely and with fine theatrical flair… In those last moments, Ms. Leach tosses in a final twist that felt gratuitous to me. But it's in keeping with the overall texture of the play, which happily sacrifices psychological credibility to keep the plot on the boil."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "It's the kind of material that might have been done in a limited not-for-profit theater were it not for Maxwell Caulfield. He brings a kind of glamour and charm to her seducer that makes him mesmerizing rather than repellent. Amelia Campbell is deeply moving as the almost unbearably innocent Adelaide. Under Joe Brancato's able direction, we find the shifts in their relationship riveting, and the play itself, which could have been simply melodramatic, troubling and touching."

Marilyn Stasio of Variety: "It's always nice to hear well-shaped words of melodic dialogue rolling from the stage. So let's not kick U.K. scribe Karoline Leach back to Blighty for failing to do what she attempted to do with Tryst, an eerie character study of two social outcasts trying to keep body and especially soul alive in the unforgiving world of Edwardian England. While Leach writes with a certain compassionate lyricism about a smooth con man and the lonely shopgirl he targets to rob, their behavior is so out of character that the only possible reaction to the plot's glaring contrivances is disbelief."

Zachary Pincus-Roth of Newsday: "As portrayed by Maxwell Caulfield, George manages to seduce the audience, despite his unequivocally evil goal. The nonchalant asides in which he reveals the methods of his deceptions are amusing. And at her best, Amelia Campbell is stunningly convincing as Adelaide, conveying the character's sad situation while maintaining her dignity. Despite the play's flaws, Leach has created a crisply constructed piece of good, old-fashioned storytelling that makes for diverting, if not mind-blowing, entertainment. But men, don't take the woman you just met online; that would be awkward."