Tea At Five Boston Reviews

[Boston_Theatre]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 3:13pm

Starting to see the reviews come in for Faye Dunaway in Tea At Five.  What do we all think?

https://www.theatretalkboston.com/post/review-tea-at-five-huntington-avenue-theatre-pre-broadway-engagement

[morosco]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 6:40pm

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190629/tea-at-five-dunaway-lack-spontaneity

[Sho-Tunes-R-Us]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 6:50pm

Should this show be retitled "Spill The Tea!" to appeal to a younger generation? That otter pack 'em in.
Sorry...I just could knot resist.
Per Ess, Ms. Dunaway attended Leon high school in Tallahassee, Florida, along with my sister-in-law. When she toured Master Class to San Francisco I had the pleasure of meeting her.

[AADA81]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 7:34pm

I hope this does well and I would love to see Dunaway have a great success with this on Broadway.  She's one of the great actresses of her generation and she's given several classic film performances.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 8:38pm

AADA81 said: "I hope this does well and I would love to see Dunaway have a great success with this on Broadway. She's one of the great actresses of her generation and she's given several classic film performances."

Sadly, your hopes are a far reach for this one.  I hope it doesn’t cancel it’s Broadway run but Faye’s struggles with the dialogue will be a nightly issue so expect comments about this until the show ends.  

[CityLights3]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 8:59pm

Just from those two reviews alone, I suggest the money pushing this thing to broadway save themselves and the theatre going public from this chore. When did a Matt Lombardo play ever manage to be a success on broadway? Looped with Valarie Harper ran for 33 performances. High with Kathleen Turner lasted a whopping 8. Please just save us all the embarrassment this has written all over it. Against the likes of Laura Linney in My Name is Lucy Barton, Marissa Tomei in The Rose Tattoo, Mary-Louise Parker in The Sound Inside, Debra Messing In Birthday Candles, Eileen Atkins in Height of the Storm, and Laurie Metcalf in Virginia Wolfe...an artificial performance from Faye Dunaway going up against all those other powerhouse dames seems like a big mistake.

[EthelMae]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 9:06pm

Dick Cavett: How do you deal with the problem of having to go back and tell a friend that he or she was lousy in a play?

Katharine Hepburn: Oh I think that’s the biggest bore in the world. I hate it when people come back and don’t tell me I was wonderful. I mean what can I do about it?  I’ve already done it. I mean I was trying as hard as I could. Oh I think that’s the biggest bore in the world.

 

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 10:39pm

Yeah, I think the Hepburn play we need is Cavett/Hepburn.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 12:04am

Also how can a woman with so much plastic surgery play a woman who was very comfortable in her wrinkled, lived-in skin. The pictures of Faye in costume do not elicit Kate in the least. The two reviews are practically blogs. Didn't the Boston paper review this? It sounds unfortunate. Had Faye been given a new play with a new role she could slay it. This just sounds like a bad fit, cheap and tacky. Kind of a set up. I'm still not convinced Lombardo isn't gathering material for a play about working with Faye or a book. 

[logan2]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 5:34am

Can you imagine that great book? He was there when Harper discovered she was ill, then worked with Powers replacing her, then the short lived High with Turner, and now this careening vehicle with THE Dunaway.

I would buy that in a heartbeat. A play would also be great with actresses playing Harper, Powers, Turner and Dunaway.

Even after hearing all this gossip a friend of mine is flying to Boston just to see Faye on the stage for the second time in his life.

Can't wait to see what happens next. 

Updated On: 6/30/19 at 05:34 AM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 10:54am

Perhaps 30 years ago, I was teaching high school English and moderating the schoo's newspaper. We had secured an interview with an Off-Broadway actor who had done a TV series that had a cult following.

In the course of the interview, the actor spoke of a movie he'd done with Dunaway and what a miserable experience it was. He said she was impossible to work with and felt she really needed "professional help".

On the train ride home, the newspaper staff and I decided not to use that information in the article because it was so harsh and because we couldn't get other witnesses who could back up the actor's comments about Dunaway.

The next day the actor called me and asked if we could omit his words about Dunaway. He breathed a sigh of relief when he learned we'd already done so.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 11:25am

Dollypop said: "Perhaps 30 years ago, I was teaching high school English and moderating the schoo's newspaper. We had secured an interview with an Off-Broadway actor who had done a TV series that had a cult following.

In the course of the interview, the actor spoke of a movie he'd done with Dunaway and what a miserable experience it was. He said she was impossible to work with and felt she really needed "professional help".

On the train ride home, the newspaper staff and I decided not to use that information in the article because it was so harsh and because we couldn't get other witnesses who could back up the actor's comments about Dunaway.

The next day the actor called me and asked if we could omit his words about Dunaway. He breathed a sigh of relief when he learned we'd already done so."

If someone mentioned the name Faye Dunaway, most people of a certain age or movie fans will know her name and the iconic roles she has portrayed.  If someone mentioned the name of this Off Broadway actor, for most people, the response would probably be who?

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 12:48pm

ArtMan said: "If someone mentioned the name Faye Dunaway, most people of a certain age or movie fans will know her name and the iconic roles she has portrayed. If someone mentioned the name of this Off Broadway actor, for most people, the response would probably be who?"

And your point is?

Incredibly talented people are not a fortiori nice people. When people are not nice, they get called out on it; they do not get a free pass. Would you say the same thing about Kevin Spacey? Abuse, bullying, and other unpleasantness to co-workers (or others) should not be shoved under the rug. You maybe wanna reconsider?

[ArtMan]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 1:20pm

HogansHero said: "ArtMan said: "If someone mentioned the name Faye Dunaway, most people of a certain age or movie fans will know her name and the iconic roles she has portrayed. If someone mentioned the name of this Off Broadway actor, for most people, the response would probably be who?"

And your point is?

Incredibly talented people are not a fortiori nice people. When people are not nice, they get called out on it; they do not get a free pass. Would you say the same thing about Kevin Spacey? Abuse, bullying, and other unpleasantness to co-workers (or others) should not be shoved under the rug. You maybe wanna reconsider?"

I would say that Kevin Spacey is nasty, because my own personal encounter with him he was nasty.  My three encounters with Faye Dunaway were not.  I don't base my opinions on someone on gossip, rumours and innuendo.  I form my own personal opinion, based on my own encounters.  Something you may wanna reconsider?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 1:29pm

I’ve had great repeated encounters with many known artists known to be horrible and I’ve had horrible encounters with artists known to be sweethearts. Everything is subjective. I also only go by my own experiences regardless.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 2:11pm

HogansHero said: "ArtMan said: "If someone mentioned the name Faye Dunaway, most people of a certain age or movie fans will know her name and the iconic roles she has portrayed. If someone mentioned the name of this Off Broadway actor, for most people, the response would probably be who?"

And your point is?

Incredibly talented people are not a fortiori nice people. When people are not nice, they get called out on it; they do not get a free pass. Would you say the same thing about Kevin Spacey? Abuse, bullying, and other unpleasantness to co-workers (or others) should not be shoved under the rug. You maybe wanna reconsider?"

I agree with you that talented people's bad behavior "should not be shoved under the rug".  As I stated I base my own opinion of the person on my own personal experience and facts.  You brought up Kevin Spacey, as example. I agree with you, but for my own personal reasons.   Can I then ask, why for years, your avatar, is of Bob Crane?  Although extremely talented, he was proven to be a sexual addict, who tricked hundreds of star struck unsuspecting women into bed and video taped their sexual encounters without their consent.  He cheated on his wife hundreds of times and had a drug problem.  Certainly not the person you see on tv.  Why celebrate his behavior with an avatar?

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 2:21pm

@ArtMan is your experience with Dunaway as a fan or as a co-worker? we are talking about the latter. 

re the avatar, it is of Colonel Robert E. Hogan, not Bob Crane. Col. Hogan is worth celebrating IMHO and my connection to the name relates only to the character. 

[mar6411]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 3:27pm

HogansHero said: "re the avatar, it is ofColonel Robert E. Hogan, not Bob Crane. Col. Hogan is worth celebrating IMHO and my connection to the name relates only to the character."

LOL

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 5:31pm

Not that I am comparing the two, but in the early 1980s I worked on a pay TV comedy special featuring 70s superstar comedian Robert Klein.  The whole time that I worked with him he was trying to be funny (but not succeeding), and not much of a team player.  Right before we were getting ready to record the show, the director told me to ask him what stage preparations he needed.  I opened to door to his dressing room to find in bikini briefs and inhaling what I could see to be some powdered incentive.  He told me that he needed the microphone to be at his appropriate height.  I returned to the stage and lowered the microphone as low as it could go.  The show began, they introduced him and his first line was, "I want to thank the technical crew for the correct height estimation for myself and the microphone..."  It was really the only joke that landed from his entire set!...

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 5:43pm

THE BOSTON GLOBE gives Ms. Dunaway a great review but not so much the play.

Still looking forward to seeing it

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2019/06/30/tea-five-dunaway-delivers-full-flavor-hepburn/UjiU5FQrSMYJKElK3lIYEP/story.html

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 6:05pm

What an odd review! I loved his, though -

“In fact, when Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton saw the play in 2002, she said, “If my aunt saw this, she’d slit her wrists.”

[carnzee]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 7:34pm

Jordan Catalano said: "What an odd review! I loved his, though -

“In fact, when Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton saw the play in 2002, she said, “If my aunt saw this, she’d slit her wrists.”"

Perhaps Houghton was less critiquing the play and more commenting on her aunt's loathing of seeing any play or movie about herself. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 8:03pm

Maybe. Or maybe her Aunt became suicidal at the theatre. I guess we’ll never know.

[logan2]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 8:10pm

Dollypop, you've told that story before on another thread. I love that story.. Can you at least tell us which movie it was? I'm assuming by your time line it was in the 80s. 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/30/19 at 8:13pm

In the abstract, a play that the subject would not like would be considered a good thing. I realize there is nothing abstract about this play...