Eclipsed Broadway Reviews

For all its harrowing power, 'Eclipsed,' headlined by the Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, one of the most radiant young actors to be seen on Broadway in recent seasons, shines with a compassion that makes us see beyond the suffering to the indomitable humanity of its characters. And although the events it depicts happened more than a decade ago, the play resonates powerfully today, as more than one African country continues to be plagued by atrocious violence, with women often the most brutalized victims....Under the bright lights of Broadway, where escapist fare or genteel revivals most often thrive, Ms. Gurira's play, directed with clarity and force by Liesl Tommy, reminds us of something profoundly important, and perhaps too easily forgotten amid our own country's continuing racial troubles: African lives matter.

Plays about the different ways women choose to respond to institutionalized rape during wartime are not standard Broadway fare, and ECLIPSE's transfer from its October-opening run at The Public Theater, should be considered a major achievement, no doubt accelerated by the facts that the playwright is known for her acting role on the popular television series THE WALKING DEAD, and one-fifth of its superb ensemble is Academy Award-winner Lupita Nyong'o.

'Eclipsed' is not an easy play to take in. It brings the audience uncomfortably close to a destructive environment. But it is an important one that brings attention to the ongoing plight of women in war-torn Africa. The performances are exceptional all around. The production (directed with graphic detail by Liesl Tommy) also has historical significance, marking the first Broadway show with a female playwright, a female director and an all-female cast.

Nyong'o loses herself utterly in the searing and stunning play 'Eclipsed,' which opened Sunday at the Golden Theatre, also marking the important Broadway bows for playwright Danai Gurira and director Liesl Tommy. Oscar-winner Nyong'o ('12 Years A Slave') plays a 15-year-old known only as The Girl who finds herself enslaved in a rebel compound during a bloody civil war in Africa. The five-member cast - all women - is a true ensemble and must not be missed.

Most important, Eclipsed is a major achievement - a scorching work about women and war whose humor burnishes rather than undermines its seriousness of purpose. And it features a ferociously committed ensemble performances staged with power and finesse by Leisl Tommy. It's the kind of work no sane commercial producer would look at and immediately think Broadway - even with two highly recognizable names on the marquee.

'Eclipsed' is a colorful and fiery drama, and one that no doubt stands bracingly apart from ordinary Broadway fare. But there's more here than just that....The performances are top-notch. I loved Nyong'o, who is vulnerable, comical and charismatic, as a still-malleable girl on the cusp of womanhood. I was touched, as well, by Sengboh and Armand, who are torn between the enemy they know, and the uncertainties of a life without his protection.

[Nyong'o] is captivating to watch, as are all the women in the cast, even when the script doesn't quite rise up to meet them. If the first half can sometimes feel too baggy and broadly-played, and the second almost seems to rush through its most affecting moments, the overall impact is still startling. Gurira, whose parents emigrated from Zimbabwe, and the Kenyan-raised Nyong'o obviously shouldn't have to carry the weight of representing their entire continent for a Western audience on Golden's stage. But Eclipsed does open a window on a world we rarely get to see this intimately, and they deliver it so gracefully that the play's flaws feel less consequential than the resonating force of its story. B+

Indeed, Nyong'o proved as compelling and radiant in person as on screen. But the play, despite other enthusiastic reviews, struck me as an earnest, heavy-handed labor of love - sincere and worthy but a dramatically simplistic look at the oppression of women as a weapon of war. Gurira - who, incidentally, plays Michonne in 'The Walking Dead' - wrote this after interviewing women in Liberia. Nyong'o was an understudy in a 2009 Yale Repertory Theatre production while still a student.

All the actresses are superb, but it's the Girl who's at the center of the evening. Nyong'o, with her expressive eyes, fully captures her fear and uncertainty, from the heart-tugging sadness when she's summoned to the commander's bed to the unsettling combination of terror and eagerness when she decides to cast her lot with Number Two and become a soldier. It's a splendid performance.

This is an ensemble piece, not a star vehicle, but Nyong'o can't help standing out even as the girl becomes a fully fledged member of this unenviable community of war-ravaged women. Her plight is terrifying, and Nyong'o makes the tragedy achingly personal.

When experienced in the intimacy of the Public's LuEsther Theater earlier this season, Danai Gurira's searing drama about women's roles in the Liberian civil war had an extraordinarily visceral impact. With only 177 seats in the house, audience and performers seemed to be breathing the same air. One wondered whether that connection would be broken when the show moved to a much larger Broadway theater. Not to worry. The 900-seat Golden Theater was originally designed to be an intimate house, a good fit for small-scaled, serious plays, of which 'Eclipsed' is decidedly one. And while the $95 top-priced ticket was a draw for downtown theatergoers, at a new top of $145, the show hits the sweet spot for the serious New York theater crowd - the ideal audience for this intense drama - that often feels overlooked and underserved on Broadway.

The front cover of the Playbill for the Broadway production of Eclipsed, which opened tonight, features the beautiful face of its star, Lupita Nyong'o, looking worried. The back cover, an ad for Lancôme, also features Nyong'o, smiling broadly. No doubt the back cover subsidized the front, because the chances of a play like Eclipsed getting to Broadway without a star of Nyongo's current cachet are nil. Eclipsed is about Liberian women forced into sex slavery during that country's mad civil war. And while it has moments of light-heartedness, and a wind-up that could conceivably be called hopeful (the war, after all, does end), most of the play, by Danai Gurira, is crushingly sad; what else could it be? So let us be grateful to 12 Years a Slave, the Academy Awards, and Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Serum for allowing a moving and must-see production to move and be seen.

It's a common lament that there are no good roles for women. But Danai Gurira, a playwright and actress known as Michonne on 'The Walking Dead,' has packed this harrowing, albeit sometimes heavy-handed, 2008 drama with five of them....Liesl Tommy's taut staging provides an excellent showcase for the play. The cast is uniformly very good and while performances have deepened and feel more lived-in uptown, there are still few moments - light and serious - when individuals tilt toward being overly showy, as though they're performing. Despite that, plus a few music miscues at a recent performance, the play is unsettling and eye-opening.