Broadway Blog - Review Roundup: TIME STANDS STILL

Are we supposed to deny ourselves ordinary happiness because there's misery in the world? This is one of many questions Donald Margulies poses in his intelligent and timely new play. James and Sarah, a journalist and a photographer, have been together for nine years and share a passion for documenting the realities of war. But when injuries force them to return home to New York, the adventurous couple confronts the prospect of a more conventional life. Time Stands Still is a blazingly important new work about responsibility - to ourselves, to our loved ones, to our community, and to our world.

Charles Isherwood, The NY Times:New plays of substance remain sadly rare on Broadway, and return engagements are almost unheard of, which makes this remounting of "Time Stands Still" as brave as it is unusual. Thankfully audiences who couldn't make time for this rewarding play last spring now have a second chance to catch it.

John Simon, Bloomberg News: On second viewing, I found the play even more satisfying. Margulies, a gifted playwright, tells the story of a photojournalist Sarah Goodwin (Linney) and reporter James Dodd (d'Arcy James), who have been collaborating and cohabiting for 8 1/2 unwed years and are just back in their Brooklyn loft.

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: Seven months later, Donald Margulies' play is back in fine form, now at the Cort Theatre with Christina Ricci. The film actress known for edgy work in "Monster" and "The Opposite of Sex" proves herself delightfully natural on stage playing a young woman who tends to look on the bright side.

Linda Winer, Newsday: Laura Linney was a star, but not yet the star of her own Showtime series, "The Big C," when the Manhattan Theatre Club opened "Time Stands Still" last winter. But she already had a quiet, dazzling honesty as Sarah, a war photographer recovering back home in her Williamsburg loft after almost being killed in a roadside bombing in Iraq.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: Laura Linney -- whose initial performance of Sarah earned her a Tony nomination -- has made her less abrasive this time around. A welcome side effect is that we now understand better what Sarah's writer boyfriend, James (Brian D'Arcy James), sees in her.

Michael Sommers, NJ Newsroom: Following a six-month hiatus, the handsome production directed by Daniel Sullivan reopened Thursday at the Cort Theatre. Christina Ricci makes an admirable Broadway debut as the perky character originated by Alicia Silverstone but otherwise the show has changed little in the process.