IN THE NEXT ROOM Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 1:01am

After making its world premiere at Berkley Rep, Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room or the vibrator play, opens tonight at the Lyceum Theatre. Tony Award winners Laura Benanti and Michael Cerveris star. Preview performances initially began October 22nd.

The Lincoln Center Theater production marks the Broadway debut for the Pulitzer Prize winner, known otherwise for such works including Eurydice, The Clean House and Dead Man's Cell Phone, which have previously been staged Off-Broadway.

Benanti and Cerveris are joined onstage by a company that includes Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Maria Dizzia, Thomas Jay Ryan, Passion Play), Wendy Rich Stetson and Chandler Williams.

Here's how Lincoln Center characterizes the play: "Set at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat 'hysterical' women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife (Laura Benanti and Michael Cerveris) and how his new therapy affects their entire household."

Tickets are currently on sale through January 10, 2010.

My absolute to everyone involved.

Best,
- Mike

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 1:27am

Is INCHES reviewing the show?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 1:35am

What Pulitzer did she win? If you're referencing The Clean House it was a finalist not winner.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 6:57pm

Associated Press looks very Positive

"This provocative, often quite funny play, which Lincoln Center Theater opened Thursday at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre, is Ruhl's most entertaining work to date. Not only because of its sexual subject matter but because she has created a parade of appealing, fully drawn characters, starting with the husband and wife at the center of her play. And Ruhl is dealing with some serious issues, too, most prominently the often difficult relationships between men and women and their misreadings of each other."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/19/entertainment/e152727S54.DTL


Updated On: 11/19/09 at 06:57 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 6:59pm

Hollywood Reporter is extremely Positive
bottom line: stimulating

"The play, seen at the Berkeley Rep, has been given a pitch-perfect Broadway staging that beautifully balances its humor and pathos. Under the sensitive direction of Les Waters, the ensemble delivers sterling performances, with Benanti a particular delight as the woman for whom electricity turns out to be a marriage saver."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/in-the-next-room-or-the-vibrator-play-theater-1004044611.story

Updated On: 11/19/09 at 06:59 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:01pm

Another very Positive. Is this the Star Ledger?

"A frisky new comedy equally naughty and nice in contents, "In the Next Room or the vibrator play" is Sarah Ruhl's thoughtful consideration of sex and the Victorian woman."

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/new-broadway-comedy-explores-victorian-sex-lives

Updated On: 11/19/09 at 07:01 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:02pm

Murray is Mixed

"As it is, In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play is a superb 80-minute lark locked in a 150-minute playâ??s lumbering, pent-up body. The chances are that it could be just as free-spirited as it thinks it is if, like Dr. Givingsâ??s patients, its own base needs were better recognized and met."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/IntheNextRoom.html
Updated On: 11/19/09 at 07:02 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:29pm

Backstage is very Positive, but isn't a fan of Chandler Williams' performance/character. It is a Critic's Pick.

"Farce and drama blend in Sarah Ruhl's odd but endearing new work, "In the Next Room or the vibrator play." This is the type of play no commercial producer in his or her right mind would ever mount on the Main Stem, but Lincoln Center Theater is presenting it at the Lyceum because "South Pacific" continues to run at the Vivian Beaumont. It's challenging and strange and addresses the uncomfortable issue of women's sexuality. Conventional Broadway audiences won't know what to make of it."

http://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-ny-theatre-broadway/ny-review-in-the-next-room-or-the-vibrator-1004044614.story

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:31pm

Variety is Mixed, but looks more Mixed-to-Positive.

"Victorian repression gets a rude poke in Sarah Ruhl's typically idiosyncratic rumination on women's struggle to understand and explore their sexual selves, "In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play." While the signature 19th century ailment being treated is "hysteria," the chief weakness is the bipolar disorder of the inconsistent second act, which shifts uncertainly between serious developments and the more farcical business of romantic cross-currents. But there are so many lingering moments of emotional truth, and even more of daring comedy, that the play amuses and charms even if it doesn't quite satisfy."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941643.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
Updated On: 11/19/09 at 07:31 PM

[Sauja]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:32pm

My congratulations to all involved, but I have to confess that I'm surprised by the strong reviews. I so deeply disliked this show with the exception, ironically, of Chandler Williams.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:34pm

Wow, I SO disagree that this is Ruhl's "most entertaining" play yet. I'm glad the reviews so far are mostly good. I was worried they wouldn't be.

Updated On: 11/19/09 at 07:34 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 7:34pm

I liked act 1, but was bored to tears in act 2.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 8:50pm

Wow. I wish I'd seen the play these reviewers saw, instead of the badly directed piece of sh*t they were doing the night I went.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 8:52pm

Word of Mouth


http://www.broadway.com/videos/show/next-room-or-vibrator-play/word-of-mouth-review-in-the-next-room-or-the-vibrator-play/

[dshnookie]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 9:15pm

what happened to the discount code? yesterday afternoon it was up and by last night it was down. I guess I'll rush it and hope for a good seat.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:09pm

ELLEN!!!! LOVE HER!!!!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:22pm

I love how on the Word of Mouth page, in one blurb it's a "comedy" and in the one just below it, it's a "drama." Good job, Broadway.com.

That was the first one I've watched in about a year, because they positively make my skin crawl, but it was so worth it, lol. God, where do they find these people?

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:26pm

It says something that Joe thinks that Thomas Edison discovered electricity. Nope... that was Ben Franklin, Joe. Edison just invented stuff with it.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:31pm

Tommy. They were tight!

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:31pm

USA TODAY is Very Positive. 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

"More than a decade after Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues premiered downtown, an equally provocative and not unrelated v-word is making its Broadway debut."

"The actresses all do justice to this vivid, bittersweet humanity that Ruhl affords them, as do their male castmates. By showing how women and men struggle with both pleasure and pain, In the Next Room offers something a lot more satisfying than cheap thrills or cheesy self-empowerment."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2009-11-20-nextroom20_st_N.htm

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:35pm

Theatremania is a Rave. David Finkle loved it.

"Indeed, Ruhl is so accomplished in her aim as she progresses toward a dazzling Edenic conclusion that Sigmund Freud himself might have applauded her bold grappling with civilization and its discontents. He might even have conceded that Ruhl supplies the correct answer to the question that baffled him, "What do women want?""

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/11-2009/in-the-next-room_22844.html

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:38pm

Isherwood loved it, of course. Though he admits it is a bit overplotted.

"â??In the Next Room,â?? a Lincoln Center Theater production, is directed by Les Waters with a fine sensitivity to its varied textures. Insightful, fresh and funny, the play is as rich in thought as it is in feeling."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/theater/reviews/20innextroom.html
Updated On: 11/19/09 at 10:38 PM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:48pm

John Simon, who admitted to not being a Ruhl fan, loved it. RAVE!!! 4 stars out of 4.

"Wonders will never cease. Sarah Ruhl, whose previous work I execrated, has written a smart, charming, iridescently funny-serious jewel, “In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play.”"

"How neatly Ruhl’s dialogue crackles with sass or flows into lyricism, as when Leo declares, “I have loved enough women to know how to paint. If I had loved fewer, I would have been an illustrator; if I had loved more, I would be a poet.”"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aOXKrBrOlXFc

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:55pm

“In the Next Room” is a true novelty: a sex comedy designed not for sn*ing teenage boys — or grown men who wish they were still sn*ing teenage boys — but for adults with open hearts and minds.

What about the sn*ing 40-ish housewives seated around me who giggled the entire play, including during the nude scene. You'd think they've never seen a penis before.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/19/09 at 10:58pm

Newsroom New Jersey is Positive:

"Not an easy piece to perform — balancing period manners with contemporary humor is tricky — the play benefits from Waters' sure but gentle staging and the excellence of his actors. Best known for her musical theater roles, the Kinnelon-bred Benanti is perfectly adorable as the ultra-ingenuous Catherine. If her acting style seems a trifle modern in comparison to the others, kindly remember her character represents a fresh spirit in a musty world. Another notable from musicals, Cerveris portrays the doctor earnestly with a cultured voice and a preoccupied manner.

The remainder of the company is top-notch, with special kudos to Dizzia for embodying Mrs. Daldry's electrifying experience so adroitly."

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/new-broadway-comedy-explores-victorian-sex-lives