THE LYONS Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 4:01am

Today is Monday, April 23, marking the official opening night performance of The Lyons, Nicky Silver's darkly comic dysfunctional-family play starring Linda Lavin and Dick Latessa, following previews from April 5 at the Cort Theatre. The play, marking the Broadway debut of Mr. Silver, premiered Off-Broadway last fall. Mark Brokaw directs.

Here's how the play is billed: "The Lyons is a funny and edgy work starring Linda Lavin as Rita Lyons, the indomitable matriarch of a family at a major crossroads: her husband is dying, her son's in a dubious relationship, her daughter's struggling to stay sober and on top of it all, she can't settle on a new design for the living room."

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 8:03pm

The AP is positive:

"Nothing beats Rita’s final speech, and Lavin rips into it with gusto.

“I am rootless in the world,” she says. “I’m still alive and I have to find a way to try to feel something!” You can tell it was a major reason this busy actress chose to commit to this play instead of other Broadway-bound options.

But the real star is Silver’s play, a wonderful little riff on family dysfunction. Or, as Rita says while flipping through pictures of beautiful living rooms, “I suppose you never really know what people are like, behind closed doors.”"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/review-nicky-silvers-terrific-the-lyons-starring-linda-lavin-is-mordant-little-gem/2012/04/23/gIQAC3p5cT_story.html

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 8:29pm

The Faster Times is mixed to positive:

"On second viewing now that it has transferred to Broadway, I find the performances broader and the play slighter. But it is still entertaining to spend two hours with the unhappy, unpleasant Lyons family– self-involved mother, distant sourpuss father, alcoholic daughter, angry gay son.

...

That “The Lyons” is being played more broadly is in part surely just a practical matter: The Cort Theater holds more than nine times the seating capacity as the Vineyard, where “The Lyons” premiered. A larger audience means that Lavin and the five other members of the cast have to play bigger simply to be heard.

That it is slighter also seems in part intentional. They’ve eliminated an entire scene from the beginning of Act II (a monologue, really) of daughter Lisa (Kate Jennings Grant) talking at a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous talking about her life and loves, which was not meant to be funny."

http://www.thefastertimes.com/newyorktheater/2012/04/23/the-lyons-review-linda-lavin-broader-on-broadway/

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 8:45pm

The Hollywood Reporter is positive:

"Linda Lavin surprised theater pundits at the start of the season by turning down plum featured roles she had originated in not one but two productions transferring to Broadway, Other Desert Cities and Follies. Instead, she opted to do Nicky Silver’s corrosive comedy The Lyons at Off Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre. The tart yet unexpectedly compassionate slice of familial dysfunction has now moved uptown with its impeccable six-member ensemble intact, and Lavin’s exceptional performance as the brittle matriarch of this messed-up clan removes any doubt that she made the right choice."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/the-lyons-theater-review-315077

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 8:49pm

amNY is mixed to positive (3 stars out of 4):

"In the less engaging second act, Curtis stalks a handsome real estate broker by pretending to be interested in an empty apartment, which ends with him getting beat up pretty badly.

As a dysfunctional family drama, "The Lyons" is hardly as penetrating as "Clybourne Park" or "Other Desert Cities." But as directed by Mark Brokaw, it's entertaining and full of witty one-liners."

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-the-lyons-3-stars-1.3677955

[egghumor]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 9:06pm

I used to believe the big competition for the Best Actress in a Play Tony Award was mostly between Tracie Bennett and Nina Arianda; but from the looks of things at this point, I'm now beginning to think the real contest might be between Arianda and Lavin.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 9:13pm

The Philadelphia Inquirer is positive:

"This could all seem hurtful and tediously nasty, but “The Lyons” is blessed with Mark Brokaw’s nimble direction and a cast that mines all the dissonance as if each little imbroglio comes popping hot from a precious nugget. Lavin is the outright leader in this — everything from her New York accent to the world-weary mini-whine in her voice to the roll of her eyes says this is a woman who knows her mind and wants nothing to do with anyone else’s. The wonderful Dick Latessa is her dying husband; even though Silver gives him far too many cheap barbs based solely on high-level cursing, Latessa is a pro with the know-how to land them."

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/20120423_Broadway_review___lsquo_The_Lyons_rsquo_.html

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 9:19pm

Murray at Talkin' Broadway is mixed to positive, with a great review for Lavin.

"Rita Lyons may never win a Mother of the Year award, but for playing her Linda Lavin deserves some kind of prize. The scorching center of, and by far the best reason to see, Nicky Silver's comedy at the Cort, she refines and redefines the concept of self-concerned demon matrons into a portrait of sheer comic perfection as filtered through an age-old stereotype. Think you know everything possible about the endlessly kvetching Jewish mother? Think again."

"Rita is too gloriously, over-the-top theatrical for you to not believe, and indeed hang on, every word she says. Unfortunately, the same is not consistently true of the play that surrounds her. Despite game performances from the other actors and crisp direction from Mark Brokaw, The Lyons is considerably more star vehicle than story. Whenever the action shifts to one of the children, who supposedly embody everything Rita has grown to detest and must find some way to conduct the lives they've been ignoring for most of adulthood, the play sags and dogs."




http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/TheLyons.html Updated On: 4/23/12 at 09:19 PM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 9:24pm

Entertainment Weekly is mixed (B):

"But outside the confines of that fluorescent-lit, pressure-packed, disinfected room, The Lyons feels ill at ease. Though Silver has wisely excised Lisa's rambling Alcoholics Anonymous monologue since the late 2011 Off Broadway run, an extended apartment-showing scene lingers at the top of act two; and on second viewing, it seems less compatible with the witty whirlwind we've just witnessed. (It actually feels like a short play in itself, like one that might appear at the EST Marathon mentioned in the scene — 10 points for audience members who get that inside-NYC-theater reference.) It does provide a convenient route back to the hospital, where comic order is, thankfully, restored. But there's only so much struggling-actor shtick a viewer can take, even from a hunky blond broad-shouldered broker (Gregory Wooddell). Besides, that all-white apartment could really use a Rita Lyons makeover. Hmm... I'm thinking light blue. Or, as Rita describes it: 'Icy blue. Glacier blue. Stunning.'"

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20364394_20589393,00.html

This is pretty much exactly how I felt about the play.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 10:17pm

Brantley is very positive:

"At that time the consensus was that the second act was wobblier than the first. Besides, it had less of Ms. Lavin, whose blithely rendered bitterness seemed the best reason to see the show. But with a few cuts (including a standard-issue Alcoholics Anonymous testimony from Lisa) and tweaks, the second half now equals the first.

In fact, the play delivers a couple of late sucker punches that, while impressive enough in the original version, leave you reeling here. And while Ms. Lavin continues to reign supreme, the cast feels more balanced than it did before. Ms. Grant has securely found her feet as the haplessly competitive Lisa."

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/theater/reviews/the-lyons-with-linda-lavin-at-the-cort-theater.html?ref=theater&gwh=B71C046F6594AEB79B6E21AAD6A8BAD6

[chanel]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 10:41pm

Villagevoice.com loves Lavin, likes the play, though it relies on cursing old man and sassy but efficient black nurse types.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2012/04/linda_lavin_in.php

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 4/23/12 at 11:47pm

thrilled to be reading these reviews...esp for Nicky Silver, Linda Lavin and Michael Esper...

This play continues to stay with me.

[fflagg]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 12:20am

Is Brantley sleeping with Silver? The rave is totally undeserved.

Ms. Lavin is brilliant in this Neil Simon meets Edward Albee diatribe. The daughter is miscast; the son is OK; the father is very good; the poor nurse is a really good actress not given enough to do.

The opening of Act 2, with the hunky realtor, is pointless and throws the show off track.

Without Ms. Lavin, this show would last a month; with her, it may last 6 months. Here's to a Tony nom [at least] for her!

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 6:59am

Well if Brantley is sleeping with Silver, so is the rest of the bunch. It's not like he was the only one to give the production a very positive review.

[Patash]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 8:19am

"the poor nurse is a really good actress not given enough to do."

Not to pick on you specifically, fflagg, but that expression always throws me. Does it mean they should rewrite the play when a really talented actor is in a small part so that character has a bigger part? Or does it mean that a really good actor shouldn't play a small part, but only do large parts? Either way, I just don't get that expression.

[cornerstone7]

Posted: 4/24/12 at 4:50pm

As aggregated Curtain Critic:
84 Overall
93 Cast
82 Script
80 Design
http://www.curtaincritic.com/Shows/THE_LYONS_REVIEWS-144.html