‘ART’: Bobby Cannavale & Neil Patrick Harris. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

ART
By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Scott Ellis
The Music Box
239 West 45^th Street
https://artonbroadway.com/
 

By Scott Harrah

Star power, dynamic performances and dark humor are the main reasons to see this winning Broadway revival of Art. The show won the Tony Award for Best Play back in 1998. Is a 27-year-old show featuring an overpriced painting still relevant? Of course. And with a stellar cast including Neil Patrick Harris, James Corden and Bobby Cannavale, the classic Yazmina Reza play is one of the hottest tickets in town.

Pricey painting

Successful dermatologist Serge (Mr. Harris) spends 200,000 francs on an all-white painting by a famous artist that purportedly has several white lines somewhere in the middle. When he invites his two best friends over to show it off, they are not amused.

Marc (Mr. Cannavale) is outraged when he sees the painting and hears how much Serge spent. He crudely dismisses the artwork as a “white piece of s**t” and accuses Serge of becoming pretentious.

The high-strung Yvan (Mr. Corden) at first tries to be neutral. He’s all worked up about his upcoming wedding and attempts to diffused the tension between the Marc and Serge to no avail.

Subtext more relevant in 2025

The title and setup of Art suggests the play is simply about the subjective nature of what is or is not considered “art.” However, the subtext of playwright Yasmina Reza’s story is far more relevant nearly 30 years later: The precarious and fragile nature of longtime friendships, particularly among men.

Marc is horrified that Serge would spend so much money on such a gimmicky painting. He is so contemptuous toward Serge that it puts their 25-year friendship in jeopardy.

Yvan tries in vain to make peace between the two old pals but he ends up simply annoying them instead of improving matters.

The one-act play starts out as an argument about art but quickly becomes a nasty emotional meltdown for all three friends. They wonder if they can all remain friends after such a vitriolic evening.

Great direction & performances

Director Scott Ellis extracts fine performances from the cast.

Neil Patrick Harris is magnificent as Serge, the wealthy doctor who finds it odd that anyone wouldn’t think the painting he bought was great art.

Bobby Cannavale is superb as the angry, argumentative aeronautical engineer Marc.

One of the nicest surprises is just how good James Corden is as the insecure Yvan. Mr. Corden often steals the show with his many neurotic outbursts and temper tantrums. He’s a bit too slapstick at times, but the audience seemed to enjoy his over-the-top antics at the performance this reviewer attended.

Art, like art itself, won’t please everyone but this revival is a lot of fun regardless. There is no question as to why it’s a must-see this fall.

Published October 2, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on September 25, 2025

‘ART’: Bobby Cannavale. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘ART’: James Corden. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

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‘THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM’: Eileen Atkins & Jonathan Pryce. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM
Written by Florian Zeller
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Jonathan Kent
Through November 24, 2019
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200),www.manhattantheatreclub.com

By David NouNou

Florian Zeller is a French novelist and playwright whose previous plays include The Father (which played at the Samuel J. Friedman in 2016, with a Tony Award-winning performance from Frank Langella). Earlier this year, Isabelle Huppert was in Mr. Zeller’s The Mother Off Broadway. There is a thread that runs through Mr. Zeller’s plays where death and dementia play a major character. From a pretentious standpoint, it is equivalent to a haunting character that comes in and goes out between scenes, but stripped from the haunting aspect, it is a deep and disturbing reality that all the elderly and their families face together.

Set in present-day Paris in a house in the country, Andre (Jonathan Pryce) is in a dazed and agitated state and is staring out the kitchen window while his older daughter, Anne (Amanda Drew) is going over his papers and discussing what to do with his diaries while he remains mute. She also brings forward the fact that he unable to live alone in this big house, when Madeline (Eileen Atkins) Andre’s wife of 50 years walks in, with their younger daughter Elise (Lisa O’Hare). She goes on preparing mushrooms for lunch, and Andre goes over the ingredients for this delightful dish that they substituted for meat. This conversation goes on for a while where we have to decide which one of them is dead, is it Andre or Madeline?

It becomes frustrating deciphering these scenes, because every time it goes in one direction, the other character pops up. It’s Mr. Zeller’s way of showing us how people with dementia deal with death and family. He plays these two subjects almost as ghosts. The subject matter is heady and so many families face these problems every day.

What grounds this thin 80-minute drama is the nuanced performance of Eileen Atkins as Madeline, the strong, indomitable force that anchors Andre throughout their 50-year marriage. She is willful, and for all intents and purposes, the proverbial “last man” standing.

Jonathan Pryce gives another powerful performance; his agitated state, his rambling repetitious sentences are heartbreaking and terrifying. Although he was the personality in the marriage, in the longer run he is the terrified and weaker of the two. Their performances give life to the memory of a powerful subject, overshadowing and outliving an otherwise weak play of gimmicks.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published September 26, 2019
Reviewed at September 25, 2019 press performance.

‘THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM’: Eileen Atkins & Jonathan Pryce. Photo: Hugo Glendenning

‘THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM’: Eileen Atkins & Jonathan Pryce. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM’: Jonathan Pryce. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM’: Eileen Atkins. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM’: Jonathan Pryce. Photo: Joan Marcus

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‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Janet McTeer & Liev Schreiber. Photo: Joan Marcus

LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES
Written by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Josie Rourke
Through January 22, 2017
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.LiaisonsBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Seeing Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the third time, I marveled at how well written and crafted a play it is. Granted, productions can vary, casts can give different interpretations, and weak directors misguide the show but this play about love, passion, deceit, seduction, deception, lust and much more, all set in Paris and the countryside in the 1780s, is a marvel to behold.

The enjoyment of the play is how the two main characters manipulate themselves, each other and the people that cross their paths. Needless to say the victims are virtually all annihilated. Le Vicomte de Valmont (Liev Schreiber) and La Marquise de Merteuil (Janet McTeer) are the two principles who joust and parry in this lethal game of love and conquest with other people’s lives. They were once lovers; now they are friends who constantly challenge each other on whom are they going to conquer next and to what degree is that person going to suffer.

The three lives that are going to be affected include Madame de Tourvel (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen), a married, virtuous woman who is staying with Valmont’s aunt, Madame de Rosemonde (Mary Beth Peil). Valmont truly loves Madame de Tourvel but will ultimately seduce and destroy her. Cecile Volanges (Elena Kampouris) is a girl of 15 out of the convent, and daughter of the Marquise’s cousin, whom she forces Valmont to seduce. The third being Le Chevalier Danceny (Raffi Barsoumian), who is in love with Cecile, but the Marquise decides to dally with him to thwart off and renege on her promise to Valmont.

Liev Schreiber and Janet McTeer are both very good but they don’t strike the right chord together. They lack the sting the two need that causes all this devastation around them and that comes from faulty direction. The reason for this disconnect between the two, although Mr. Schreiber makes a good Valmont, is he is too good looking for any woman to resist in the 1780s or 2016. He wouldn’t have to try very hard to seduce any woman; she wouldn’t be able to resist him. He lacks the smarminess and lechery that his predecessors had. Ms. McTeer lacks the villainess the character desperately needs.

This all comes under the heading of faulty direction by Josie Rourke. A stronger director could have corrected these minor infractions and made it into a much stronger production. In the supporting roles, Mary Beth Peil and Birgitte Hjort Sorensen are the standouts.

Despite the minor flaws I mentioned, I strongly recommend Les Liaisons Dangereuses if you are in the mood for an evening of seduction and deception. Who wouldn’t want to see Liev Schreiber and Janet McTeer live on stage?

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 4, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on November 3, 2016

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Janet McTeer. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Liev Schreiber. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Birgitte Hjort Sorensen & Liev Schreiber. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Liev Schreiber & Elena Kampouris. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Liev Schreiber & Janet McTeer. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISON DANGEREUSES’: Mary Beth Peil & Birgitte Hjort Sorensen. Photo: Joan Marcus

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‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella & Kathryn Erbe. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE FATHER
Written by Florian Zeller
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Doug Hughes
Through June 12, 2016
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.manhattantheatreclub.com

By David Nounou

To say The Father is a harrowing play is an understatement. The uniqueness of this play is we are ultimately viewing it from the perspective of the person with dementia and not from the usual perspective of family, relatives or caregivers. For anyone who has had to deal with a parent, spouse, loved one or friend, from the onset of dementia to finally succumbing to it, is a horrific ordeal. However, Florian Zeller, the French playwright, has made this disease into an unforgettable theatrical experience

We see Andre (Frank Langella) in his deluxe Paris apartment rebuking his daughter, Anne (Kathryn Erbe) for suggesting that he should have someone look after him during the day. He accuses his former caregiver of stealing his watch so he threw her out. Anne tells and proves to Andre that the caregiver did not steal his watch, but he hid it himself in the kitchen cupboard. Andre is constantly demanding to see his other daughter, Elise and why doesn’t she come to visit him, and so the journey in the mind begins.

There are a lot of twists and turns in The Father that would be criminal to divulge. Suffice it to say it is one of the most riveting plays on Broadway this year. What gives it that additional suspense is the impeccable performance by Frank Langella. When we first see his Andre all dressed and pressed in his living room, we almost believe by his forth righteousness that it is Anne who is scheming to put him away. Watching Mr. Langella–first as a charming bastion of strength to the bitter end as layer after layer of his sanity being peeled away–is watching one of the most magnificent performances of the year.

Miss Erbe’s Anne is sympathetic and caring; she does her best to take care of Andre even at the expense of her own she relationship with Pierre (Brian Evers) who suggests putting him in a care facility. They both give fine performances but the attention is always on Mr. Langella.

The one distraction of the play is the lights that flash at the audience to indicate scene changes; when you have such a heavy subject, those lights become a nuisance. Doug Hughes, the director, should have softened the distracting light effect because it takes away from the tension and the drama created on the stage. However, due to Mr. Langella’s superior performance we overcome this obstacle.

Through Mr. Zeller’s interpretation and Mr. Langella’s performance, we see dementia in a new light; not as observing the patient with this disease, but seeing events that might have happened a day ago or a minute ago through the eyes of the patient and the moment-to-moment ordeals they face on a daily basis.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 18, 2016
Reviewed at performance on April 17, 2016

‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella & Hannah Cabbell. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Kathryn Erbe & Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Kathryn Erbe & Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

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