Review Roundup: The Critics Weigh In On Idina Menzel in SKINTIGHT

Roundabout Theatre Company presents the world premiere production of SKINTIGHT, by Roundabout Underground alumnus Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, Significant Other), with direction by three-time Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin (Bad Jews). The cast includes Will Brittain as "Trey," Stephen Carrasco as "Jeff," Eli Gelb as "Benjamin Cullen," Cynthia Mace as "Orsolya," Idina Menzel as "Jodi Isaac" and Jack Wetherall as "Elliot Isaac."

Roundabout reunites writer Joshua Harmon and director Daniel Aukin (Bad Jews, Admissions) for Skintight, a scorching examination of beauty, youth and sex, for Harmon's Roundabout Underground commission. As part of Roundabout's commitment to foster the talent of emerging writers, each Underground playwright is commissioned to write a new play before their Underground play is produced.

Skintight opens tonight at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). This is a limited engagement Off-Broadway through August 26, 2018.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Jesse Green, The New York Times: "Skintight" is an "it has been raining here" kind of play. And perhaps it's just the wrong season for anything more ambitious. In any case, you know it's an overcooled room if even Idina Menzel can't heat it up.

Matt Windman, amNY: "Skintight" is too often static, slow and messy. It is not on par with Harmon's other recent comedies including "Bad Jews" (which has become a hit with regional theaters), "Significant Other" (which transferred to Broadway) and "Admissions" (recently produced by Lincoln Center Theater).

Barbara Schuler, Newsday: Love may be love may be love, but yikes, it can be mind-boggling at times, a message delivered in excruciating detail by "Skintight," Joshua Harmon's far from groundbreaking dysfunctional-family comedy now at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre.

Joe Dziemianowicz, The Daily News: Joshua Harmon is a smart playwright with a keen ear for zingers as seen earlier in "Bad Jews," "Admissions" and "Significant Other." His latest play is essentially a riff on an old-fashioned May-December sex farce in the age of gay marriage, Grindr, Botox and more. Make that a March-December story, considering the half-century gap.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: The performances are a mixed bag. Menzel does fine as the aggrieved Jodi, frequently getting laughs with her sharp line readings. Gelb is even better as Benjamin, delivering his jokes with the authority of a seasoned sitcom actor. But Brittain leans too heavily into Trey's vain silliness, while Wetherall, playing a character who's supposed to be in thrall to hedonism, for some reason looks vaguely miserable throughout.

Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: Daniel Aukin's staging gets laughs where it should, making excellent comic use of the brutal gray stairway (reminiscent of the one in Klein's 1980s Obsession ad) at the center of Lauren Helpern's sternly elegant set. But the play is so tightly corseted by its central concern-"What is so great about hot?"-that its characters don't have enough room to breathe. It makes good points, but as a human story, it seldom digs beyond skin-deep.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: For a play with serious matters on its mind, "Skintight" is packed with jokes - droll ones, smart ones, silly ones, and some that are quite moving. The men may have all the laugh lines, but Menzel is marvelous at giving Jodi's annoying smothering-mother the plaintive air of someone who feels completely at a loss in a world she never dreamed of, back in the day when she, too, was young and beautiful - and who now feels compelled to keep playing her nurturing role, even though she knows she's despised for it.

Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review: Director Daniel Aukin-of Bad Jews, Admissions and non-Harmon titles such as 4000 Miles-keenly accentuates the author's rapid-fire comedy, both verbal and visual. While you might think there's little humor to be derived from Botox jokes nowadays, author and director give us a barrage which becomes funnier and funnier. Aukin can even take something simple-like the sixteen-step staircase that dominates Lauren Helpern's oh-wouldn't-you-like-to-live-there set-and get continual laughter out of it. There are also some very funny couch gags, of the "watch where you sit" variety. But Skintight is loaded with laughter as it contemplates beauty, love and lust.

David Cote, The Village Voice: Admissions felt potted and pat, an excuse for Harmon to write a breathless jeremiad against identity politics delivered by an angsty teen. Both it and this new one were staged by Harmon collaborator Daniel Aukin. The jerks in Skintight - a dramedy about family, transgenerational lust, and the fashion world - are no less jerky, but somehow, they're more endearing. Maybe it's because they're hotter. Concupiscence forgives much.

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