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Crimes of the Heart Reviews
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Get real. Review by: PPP, Apr 17, 2008 |
This was so disappointing -- Pulitzer Prize, Beth Henley, and Kathleen Turner notwithstanding.
The acting was awful - stilted and overwrought -- and since there was virtually no humor, it was not an entertaining outrageous experience. Had it been played for laughs, it might have been better, but overblown dramatics fell flat.
But the absolute worst feature of this play were the fake, fake fake Southern accents. Why wasn't there a ... read more dialogue coach used -- someone who actually knows how Southerners speak? (limping coach needed as well)
A waste of time and money for me and my sister-in-law - both in NY from the SOUTH. |
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A GREAT PLAY, BUT PERHAPS JUST RENT THE MOVIE! Review by: Beth M, Feb 18, 2008 |
CRIMES OF THE HEART BY PLAYWRIGHT BETH HENLEY
By Beth Mandelbaum
When a play wins the Pulitzer Prize, there has to be a reason. So I went to see the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart, a play which I had never seen, to try to find out why.
Since food (especially cake) plays a very noticeable role as a source of comfort and perhaps even happiness in Crimes of the Heart, I thought I would ... read more begin with a summary of the “ingredients” that go into this play.
The play focuses on the McGrath sisters, whose quirky lives have been filled with seemingly endless personal tragedies both past and present, some shared, others not. In fact, life’s tragedies, or as they say in the play, “the bad days,” would seem to be what these rather different sisters have in common.
Tiny Lenny, who looks older than her 30 years, left the possibility of love behind many years before as she was convinced that the one man she loved would reject her because she had a “shrunken” ovary, preventing her to have children. Ever since, she has spent her life at home, taking care of her grandfather, who raised her and her two sisters, Meg and Babe, after their mother hung herself (and their yellow cat). None of the sisters has even gotten over this event.
The play opens as we watch Lenny struggling to place a lit candle on a cookie, so she can sing happy Birthday to herself and make a wish. It’s hard to know whether to be amused by her anxious fussing, or to feel sad for her. I felt some of each. And we learn that Lenny’s beloved horse has just died, after being struck by lightening. And to add to it all, granddaddy is in the hospital after suffering a stroke, now leaving Lenny to live alone in the house.
Her two far more beautiful and colorful sisters return to their grandfather’s home because of the sensational news that Babe has shot her husband, because she “didn’t like his stinking looks,” and is coming home after being released on bail. She has a defense attorney named Chandler who is sweet on her and who also has a personal “vendetta” against Babe’s husband, who has survived the shooting (Babe missed his heart!). At first it seems that he is building a strong case for Babe’s defense until some extremely embarrassing evidence comes forth.
Sister Meg, the wildest, and who seems cold and self-centered, admits that her singing career in Hollywood, which she began right after she left her boyfriend Doc who was injured in a motel room which collapsed during the height of Hurricane Camille because she refused to evacuate, failed (we learn the reason much later in the play), and is now doing billing for a dog food company. Doc now lives in town, but has remarried, much to Meg’s dismay.
Throw into this the fact that we have a very fine cast and an extraordinary actress taking the reigns as director for the first time.
I have seen Crimes of the Heart characterized as a dark comedy. But it seems that only in the second act do the comedic aspects of these seemingly endless “bad days” surface. But when they do, this provides a real taste of what this play can be (and must have been).
Ms. Turner appears to have probed the plays darker effects. This production of Crimes of the Heart, even with the wildly “dysfunctional” lives of its three main protagonists, a potentially comedic goldmine, struck me as weighted towards the dark side.
However, there is something about the language and turns of phrase in this play, so filled with rich storytelling, and the way this is presented by the actors, that creates a feeling of very dark humor. And in some ways, just a reading of the catalogue of the tragedies experienced collectively by the McGrath sisters, may feel humorous in its seeming impossibility.
However, to me, the essence of Crimes of the Heart is the complex and varied, often touching, often maddeni |
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Old Garbage is still Nasty. Review by: Frankie, Feb 15, 2008 |
Even though the author says she's from the South, the people in Crimes of the Heart are entirely that part of Dixie which exists only in the cluttered minds of New Yorkers who have never traveled farther south than Staten Island. All the characters are false, phony, boring --- the kinds of portrayal which garner praise from the pseudo intellectual emptyheads at Columbia University that gave this mess the Pulitzer Prize.
Instead ... read more of wasting time and money on this misguided resurrection of long-ago discarded smelly trash, wouldn't it be better to stay home and watch paint dry --- either that or choose from the dozens of GOOD shows now playing. |
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Would have rather taken a nap. Review by: zzzzz, Feb 8, 2008 |
| HORRIBLE! Charming script, pitiful direction, really bad acting (sorry), but even the set was ugly. Would have rather taken a nap. |
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Would not recommend Review by: Maya, Jan 28, 2008 |
| So boring! Hardly any plot and nothing to keep you from getting up and leaving. NO high points to this show. The acting is okay but not enough to recommend anyone to go see this show. I'll say save your money and go see a good comedy or something truly dramatic! |
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Slow moving! Review by: jogher, Jan 20, 2008 |
The story line tends to be a little weak especially in the second half of the show.I found it hard to believe this was a pulitzer prize winning play but maybe for its time it was controversial.
I thought the actresses and actors were good and could not fault them but I would not pay full price for this show.I got tickets discounted and did not mind the afternoon out. |
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My recommendation:
Don't go
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Recommended for:
Seniors, Adults
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| * Review is an opinion of a BroadwayBox user and not that of BroadwayBox.com and BroadwayBox, Inc. |
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