Billy & Ray Reviews

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 10/20/14 at 8:17pm

... “Billy & Ray,” a play about the collaboration of director Billy Wilder and writer Raymond Chandler on the film “Double Indemnity.”...

.... disappointing production at the Vineyard Theater, directed by Garry Marshall. Its main appeal, to be honest, is in being able to witness the New York stage debuts of two of the performers in the four-member cast – Vincent Kartheiser, Pete Campbell from Mad Men, portraying Billy Wilder, and, as his secretary Helen, Sophie von Haselberg, who looks and acts uncannily like a young Bette Midler — and is in fact her daughter.
Billy and Ray Review: The Making of Double Indemnity

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 10/20/14 at 8:37pm

Adam Feldman: "Mike Bencivenga’s inept backlot comedy, Billy & Ray... blends the excitement of scene-by-scene DVD commentary with the sophistication of junior-class high-school drama."
Time Out New York review

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 10/20/14 at 8:45pm

Jennifer Farrar: "A smartly humorous, suspenseful production....crisply directed by Garry Marshall, creator of TV comedies including "Happy Days" and "The Odd Couple"
AP review

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/20/14 at 9:13pm

Vincent Kartheiser, so creepy yet oddly engaging as the ambitious Pete Campbell in "Mad Men," has genuine stage presence. Sophie von Haselberg so resembles her mother, Bette Midler, that it's hard not to imagine the snappy young actress emerging from one of mom's clams on a half shell.
And that is the most upbeat news we can squeeze out of "Billy & Ray," Mike Bencivenga's labored imagining of the tempestuous collaboration between Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler while writing the 1944 noir classic "Double Indemnity."


Newsday Review Updated On: 10/20/14 at 09:13 PM

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/20/14 at 10:09pm

Isherwood doesn't seem to be much of a fan:

The thinly drawn characters and static narrative give little scope for Mr. Kartheiser and Mr. Pine to deploy their considerable skills. Mr. Kartheiser’s Wilder mostly consists of a thick Germanic accent and a cocky smirk. Mr. Pine, given little more to do than act grumpy and take furtive gulps from a bourbon bottle he keeps in his briefcase — Chandler’s teetotaling is soon revealed to be a sad ruse —gives perhaps the only disengaged performance I’ve ever seen from him.


New York Times' Billy & Ray Review Updated On: 10/20/14 at 10:09 PM