Review Roundup: WTF's A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, Starring Audra McDonald and Will Swenson

Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2015 Season presents an invigorating new look at Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, which opened on August 5, and runs through August 23, featuring six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald and Tony Award-nominee Will Swenson.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, New York Times: Its original, 1947 production never made it to New York. It would be another decade before "Moon" opened on Broadway (when it ran for 68 performances), and another 16 years after that before it received a production (directed by José Quintero, and starring Jason Robards and Ms. Dewhurst) that had critics exclaiming "Masterpiece!"... Mr. Edelstein's production isn't close to that caliber. But sometimes an imperfect interpretation of a great play can be more informative than a flawless one. Watching this "Moon," in which you often sense a self-conscious distance between the cast members and their roles, you become aware of how much the work (as is often true of O'Neill) is about people playing parts that don't fit them.

Frank Rizzo, Variety: When Audra McDonald's Josie Hogan embraces Will Swenson's James Tyrone in the last act of Eugene O'Neill's elegiac masterwork "A Moon for the Misbegotten," it's an act -- and a performance -- of profound love, understanding and grace. This barefoot madonna may be raw, rough and randy for most of the play, but at this moment her open heart knows this broken man most needs peace before dying. The six-time Tony winner also knows what the role needs to get her to that transformative moment in the excellent Williamstown Theater Festival production. In her freshman go-round with O'Neill, McDonald goes to the head of the class in a full-bodied, sure-footed and deeply moving performance that is destined to be have further life beyond the Massachusetts Berkshires' annual stage festival.

Don Aucoin, Boston Globe: From the start, McDonald is utterly convincing as the barefoot, ribald, hard-working daughter of a tenant farmer, whether Josie is boasting of her power over men or fixing a water pump or sweeping the slightly askew steps of the Connecticut farmhouse she shares with her wily father, Phil (a very good Glynn Turman), in September 1923. There are depths to tough-talking Josie that we, and she, discover as "A Moon for the Misbegotten' transitions from comic to tragic, and McDonald navigates those depths steadily and beautifully, without overplaying a single moment.

Steve Barnes, The Albany Times-Union: As directed by Gordon Edelstein and performed on a remarkable set by Ming Cho Lee and Lee Savage, the production is a true ensemble effort, a symphony of equals, with pathos and comedy sounding in similar measure. By the time it's over...you're wrung out, exhausted and grateful. Although Josie Hogan, the Connecticut tenant farmer played by McDonald, and Glynn Turman as her father, Phil, were written as Irish, Edelstein's casting of black actors in the roles gives the play's caste divisions added power...Edelstein...finds abundant comedy throughout, and he's got a cast equipped to handle the humor and the operatic level of drama late in the play...Swenson deftly underplays what could be a showy, romanticized role, and McDonald reveals deep layers of a woman toughened by prejudice against her gender and race.

Jan Nargi, BroadwayWorld.com: There's no mistaking who's in charge in the Williamstown TheatreFestival's crackling production of A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN now running through August 23. As Eugene O'Neill's indomitable heroine Josie Hogan, six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald stomps, kicks, shoves and brandishes a big stick as she asserts her dominance over her father Phil (Glynn Turman), her landlord and wannabe love interestJames Tyrone (Will Swenson), and anyone else who gets in her way.

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