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The first Broadway revival of Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 expressionist play, MACHINAL, opened last night at the American Airlines Theatre as a Roundabout Theatre Company production.
Rebecca Hall stars as Young Woman. Other leading players: Michael Cumpsty (Husband); Morgan Spector (Lover); and Suzanne Bertish (Mother).
Creative: directed by Lyndsey Turner; sets by Es Devlin; costumes by Michael Krass; lighting by Jane Cox; sound by Matt Tierney; music by Matthew Herbert; hair and wig design by Paul Huntley; choreography by Sam Pinkleton; dialect coach, Kate Wilson.
The reviews are all over the place as one might expect for such an unusual and stylized play. They range from raves (see for example David Cote, Time Out New York); to mixed (see for example Ben Brantley in The New York Times); to negative (see for example Elysa Gardner in USA Today),
However, the good reviews outnumber by a considerable margin the mixed and negative.
Star Rebecca Hall has received glowing reviews for the most part, yet there are a few exceptions. There is high praise in virtually all the reviews for Lyndsey Turner’s direction, Es Devlin’s sets and Jane Cox’s lighting.
BONUS LINKS:
-- The Guardian: Matt Trueman on Rebecca Hall's Broadway debut.
-- Photos: opening night curtain call.
Here then are links to and excerpts from 21 reviews for MACHINAL:
Ben Brantley in The New York Times writes: “Rebecca. Hall must struggle to hold her own against an overbearing co-star. That would be Es Devlin’s revolving, scene-stealing set, which portrays a juggernaut of doom — i.e., modern urban existence — that flattens all in its path. You might say such a battle, pitting a lone specimen of humanity against a marvel of technology and artifice, only underscores the haunting determinism of “Machinal,” and I wouldn’t argue. And even if the Young Woman is clearly headed for extinction from the first scene, Ms. Hall’s emotionally transparent performance is never overwhelmed by what surrounds it. So the contest between star and scenery ends in a draw. It’s most of the supporting cast who are the casualties here, in ways that I think dilute the hypnotic cadences and potential impact of Treadwell’s drama.”
Joe Dziemianowicz in the New York Daily News writes: (*** out of 5 stars) “Cheers to the Roundabout for choosing this atypical and rather risky show — an Expressionist play with emblematic characters and spare, staccato dialogue. But kudos don’t equal success. Treadwell’s play is stylish but slight. It does, however, provide compelling evidence for the gifts of British director Lyndsey Turner, whose New York debut demands you sit bolt upright and take notice. . . . “Machinal” doesn’t elicit strong reaction — but it’s well served by the world and well-oiled machine created by Turner.”
Elisabeth Vincentelli in the New York Post writes: (***½ out of 4 stars) “All told, it’s a tough sell, but director Lyndsey Turner and her star, Rebecca Hall — Scarlett Johansson’s reasonable friend in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” — have made it a must-see. . . . “Machinal” is a vivid, bracing portrait of a woman pushed to the edge, but it doesn’t involve any weepy psychologizing. The dialogue is highly stylized and the sophisticated-looking production follows suit, a shocker coming from the usually conservative Roundabout. What makes the show so fascinating is the contrast between its cerebral approach and Hall’s compassionate performance. In her Broadway debut, the English actress effortlessly navigates stream-of-consciousness monologues while helping us relate to this opaque character.”
Mark Kennedy for the Associated Press writes: “The Roundabout Theatre Company's new production has kept the quirky engine but surrounded it with a good-looking chassis and new lighting and audio systems. It's even put in the driving seat the enormously appealing Rebecca Hall under the artful, creative direction of Lyndsey Turner. The result at the American Airlines Theatre is a quirky, sometimes melodramatic and expressionist scream from the past that somehow still can move you. . . . Not for everyone, it's a moody, jarring meditation on the modern world that's a critique of capitalism, mechanization and male-dominated power. For 86, it looks pretty, weirdly good.”
Linda Winer in Newsday writes: “This little-known adventure in psychological, sociological and stylistic boundary-pushing -- not on Broadway in 86 years -- has been given a dazzling, daring revival that feels especially startling in the doggedly conventional environs of the Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre. The lavish yet beautifully stark production reintroduces Treadwell, the pioneering American journalist and criminally forgotten author of more than 40 plays, and introduces to Broadway the provocative British director Lyndsey Turner and gifted, courageous actress Rebecca Hall. Bottom Line: Revelatory revival.”
Roma Torre for NY1 writes: “Director Lyndsey Turner's uncompromising vision presents a harrowing portrait of a woman smothered by the constricts of gender and convention. Designed brilliantly with stark lighting and a massive rotating structure featuring complete set pieces, the picture is complete. The large cast is in top form, with Suzanne Bertish as the mother, Michael Cumpsty, the husband, and Morgan Spector, the lover, standing out. But Rebecca Hall has the toughest job as the nondescript murderess. Resisting the urge to soften her, Hall manages an honest, wrenching portrayal of a woman you'd be very hard pressed to call a friend. "Machinal" is not for the faint of heart. But if you're up for an intense theatrical experience, this one's a first-class punch to the gut.”
Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal writes: (scroll down) “What brings this "Machinal" to life is the acting. Rebecca Hall, a British stage actor who is best known to American audiences for her glowing performance in Ben Affleck's "The Town," is so unselfconsciously winning that you can't help but warm to her plight. Michael Cumpsty, who is incapable of giving a bad performance, is identically persuasive as the Babbitt-like executive who marries her because he likes her "pretty little hands." Everyone else is a cipher, but that's what they're supposed to be, since "Machinal" is a parable of life in mechanized America, a variation on Elmer Rice's "The Adding Machine" (which preceded it by five years) to which Ms. Treadwell has added a feminist spin.”
Tom Teodorczuk in The Independent (U.K.) writes: (**** out of 5 stars) “Machinal” is one of those lost ahead-of-its-time plays that gets found by successive generations (Harley Granville-Barker’s “Waste” is another). Its last major production was a 1993 National Theatre revival directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Fiona Shaw. . . . The unravelling of Rebecca Hall’s tormented psyche is gripping. She’s particularly impressive in two rushed monologues where she intimately debates with herself whether society’s expectations are at variance with her own desires. “Machinal” is a good play that has been greatly staged in New York by a director and leading lady both new to Broadway. “Machinal” hasn’t been seen on Broadway for 86 years but on this evidence it will take considerably less time for Hall and Turner to be invited back here.”
David Rooney for Reuters and The Hollywood Reporter writes: “A difficult play to warm to that’s nonetheless an intriguing theatrical curio, “Machinal” also represents an audacious choice for Roundabout Theatre Company, a leading nonprofit that has come under occasional criticism for making safe, subscriber-friendly choices. That certainly can’t be said for this sustained anxiety attack, which offers a bleak view of life as a series of deadening submissions, punctuated – if you’re lucky – by moments of peace or freedom that even then can be followed by betrayal. It’s appropriate that the play’s final words are “Lord have mercy.” But while “Machinal” might have the matinee crowd squirming in their seats, it’s hard to imagine a more focused production of this rarely seen work. The Bottom Line: A stark opera that's inseparably of its time and yet quite trenchant in its observation of a woman's isolation.”
Matt Windman in AM New York writes: (**** out of 4 stars) “Lyndsey Turner’s extraordinary production makes for an absolutely stirring 90 minutes of theater. It powerfully captures the play’s heightened theatricality and terrifying aura, utilizing a sleek, box-shaped set that swiftly rotates back and forth to reveal new scenes. The cast is unusually large, allowing the depiction of a stifling, uncaring crowd of strangers inducing claustrophobia. English actress Rebecca Hall, who was stunning in “The Winter’s Tale” at BAM back in 2009 and has also appeared in many films, delivers the intense, vulnerable and haunting performance that her demanding role requires.”
David Cote in Time Out New York writes: (***** out of 5 stars) “This sensually shocking and impeccably acted production—a high point in my years attending the Roundabout—feels stingingly fresh and provocative. Yes, the milieu is pure Jazz Age, but the intelligence and ferocity of Treadwell’s bleak vision comes through sans dust, rust or one iota of nostalgia. The groundbreaking journalist-playwright is part of a theatrical continuum stretching back to Büchner’s Woyzeck and forward to Young Jean Lee. And this sensational mounting proves it beyond a doubt. . . . If you care about American theater—particularly its experimental heritage—go now. I seriously hope that the Roundabout’s audiences are thrilled by what they see. But if Todd Haimes gets complaints from people who were rattled or disturbed, that only means the machine is working smoothly.”
Elysa Gardner in USA Today writes: (**½ out of 4 stars) “An accomplished stage actress with acclaimed British productions of Shakespeare and Shaw under her belt, [Rebecca Hall] seems stumped by her character's exaggerated inability to articulate her unhappiness beyond vague yearnings for freedom. Speaking robotically and sustaining an air of barely repressed hysteria, Hall grapples with her stream-of-consciousness monologues. One begins with "Let me alone," touches on Saint Peter and the Virgin Mary and concludes with "I'll not submit." By the time “Machinal” runs its course, theatergoers may feel as if they're the ones who have been beaten into submission, by an anti-heroine who inspires dark fascination but little empathy.”
Jesse Green for New York Magazine’s Vulture writes: “Whatever moral shiftiness may be squirming beneath its surface, “Machinal” is at least as worthy of revival as O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, another expressionistic drama that opened on Broadway in 1928. Happily, the Roundabout, which has been steadily upgrading its “classic” offerings in terms of both choice and execution, gives it the top-drawer mounting it deserves. The director, Lyndsey Turner, making an exceptional U.S. debut, pulls off the neat trick of realizing a Big Idea without letting it consume the play. She’s also elicited compelling performances from the large supporting cast, and mustered all the technical elements into a comprehensible if resolutely mysterious whole.”
Toby Zinman for The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Philly.com writes: “This is one of those plays you read—maybe—in graduate school and never think about again. Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Sophie Treadwell’s expressionist drama, is puzzling: you couldn’t ask for a more stylish production yet the play is so dated that you wonder why they bothered. . . . The brilliant director, Lyndsey Turner, whose knockout of a show, “Chimerica,” was a hit in London earlier this season, creates a great look and a great rhythm for this “Machinal,” imitating the beat and the sounds of a huge societal machine that grinds up lives. The noirish dialogue is based on unrelenting repetitions and the didactic clichés of the era. The revolving set (Es Devlin) and moody lighting (Jane Cox) are the most exciting aspects of this short, stale play.”
Robert Kahn for NBC 4 New York writes: “The question posed by Treadwell is whether Helen is a victim of mores, or a narcissistic criminal, and the answer, at least in this production, seems to be both. Rebecca Hall, a fine actress, plays Helen both as a woman ahead of her time and out of place in society — think Lena Dunham, in HBO’s “Girls” — and a naive fool, too-often concerned with the wrong thing at the wrong time. . . . “Machinal” is a tough piece of theater. Society drove Ruth [Snyder]— and so, for our purposes, Helen — to kill her husband. To actually be free, Helen has to die. How you ultimately view “Machinal” depends enormously on your sympathy for Helen and your ability to empathize with her actions. I just didn’t like Helen very much, so her death never felt like a terrible loss.”
Marilyn Stasio in Variety writes: “Enthralled as we are to our digital gadgetry, you’d think we’d identify with the heroine of “Machinal,” Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 Expressionistic melodrama (inspired by the infamous Ruth Snyder case) about a woman driven to murder trying to escape her fate in a mechanized society. Helmer Lyndsey Turner’s stunning production creates an appropriately bleak environment for this dark drama, and Rebecca Hall (a member of British theatrical royalty better known for her movie work) makes a compelling case for this fragile creature. But it’s tough to empathize with someone who lacks a backbone and hasn’t a brain in her head.”
Robert Feldberg in the Bergen Record writes: “The play, featuring a spellbinding Rebecca Hall, presents the crime in the context of a grasping, machine-driven, male-dominated society (which would come crashing down a year later). . . . The British Hall, who has made a number of films and was particularly fine in the TV miniseries "Parade's End," is tall and slender, and sometimes her Young Woman suggests a large, beautiful bird attempting to shrink away from predators. . . . In Lyndsey Turner's revival, there are scenes that rise to that potent level, but others, principally with the woman and her lover, lose that edge and slide into a kind of banal realism. Thanks to Hall's haunted characterization, though, the essence of the play, the sense of an individual plowed over by the inexorable surge of society, never fades. We don't feel sympathy for the Young Woman's crime, nor are we meant to, but it's impossible not to be touched by her futile struggle to find her place in the world.”
Melissa Rose Bernardo in Entertainment Weekly writes: (Grade = B-) “Rebecca Hall, a British actress who's making her Broadway debut, is spectacular in a near-impossible role. She maintains an astonishing deadness in her eyes throughout the entire evening, save one scene: when she's with her lover (Morgan Spector). Then they light up like firecrackers. That's also the most loosely structured, conventional exchange in Machinal, and the whiplash-inducing return to her character's unreal world is exasperatingly unfulfilling.”
T. Michelle Murphy in Metro New York writes: “Though written to reflect the true story of murderess Ruth Snyder in 1927, the play is also timeless in the sense that it portrays an everywoman who loses her voice, and perhaps her sanity, in a life seemingly devoid of free will. . . . Rebecca Hall’s acting is perfectly decent, but she nonetheless may have been miscast. Despite posturing meekness and “purity,” there’s something about the star’s worldliness — not to mention her 5-foot-9 frame — that makes the character’s submissiveness suspect. . . . It’s clear director Lyndsey Turner put lot of work into all the little details of “Machinal,” with the right mix of star power and media momentum, and we wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an extension or two in the show’s future.”
Robert Hofler for The Wrap writes; “This dazzling Roundabout Theater production often recalls an urban contradiction that is a hallmark of Edward Hopper’s paintings: loneliness coupled with a total lack of privacy. If Theodore Dreiser had been a woman and that woman wrote the novel “An American Tragedy” as a play, you’d have Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 drama, “Machinal.” Or something very much like it. . . . This staging is notable for giving Rebecca Hall her stunning Broadway debut and proving that “Machinal” is an arresting and not some old chestnut that deserves to be cracked open only once every century.”
Danny Groner for the Huffington Post writes: “What stands out, though, is how different we deal with mental illness (and the perception of it) today versus less than a century ago. That's surely one of the main topics that Lyndsey Turner hopes we draw from this production: the mistreatment and ignorance displayed by medical professionals and others is disturbing by today's standards. However, it also sets a good framing for Rebeccca Hall's wonderful performance in the lead role. . . . The audience is delighted with a masterful set that leaves you as much attuned to what's going on in front of you as wondering how they can be pulling it all off behind the scenes.”
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