Rope Off-Broadway Reviews

More compelling and sturdily articulated is Rope’s interest in the dinner party as a kind of shambolic theatre. The boundaries for good taste — in conversation, music, and decor — are sparklingly realized as the play asks which parts of ourselv...

More compelling and sturdily articulated is Rope’s interest in the dinner party as a kind of shambolic theatre. The boundaries for good taste — in conversation, music, and decor — are sparklingly realized as the play asks which parts of ourselves we reveal to acquaintances and when. The characters' intriguing transgressions, particularly when it comes to their furtive ability to mask their sexuality, class, or ethnicity in social spaces, offer more dramatic stakes than the body in the trunk.

There is a pivotal relationship between Garrett and the professor, Robert Cadell (Jason Butler Harner), a closeted gay man who introduced him to Nietzsche. There is an intriguing if faint suggestion that Garrett has been warped by the tyranny of the...

There is a pivotal relationship between Garrett and the professor, Robert Cadell (Jason Butler Harner), a closeted gay man who introduced him to Nietzsche. There is an intriguing if faint suggestion that Garrett has been warped by the tyranny of the closet, but the few throwaway efforts at intellectual content in “Rope” do little to enhance what is essentially a genre play meant for thrills and chills.

But this New Group production, under the direction of Scott Elliott, never achieves the compelling creepiness of the material’s previous iterations. What makes Hitchcock’s film such a cult favorite is not only the novelty of its subliminal gay me...

But this New Group production, under the direction of Scott Elliott, never achieves the compelling creepiness of the material’s previous iterations. What makes Hitchcock’s film such a cult favorite is not only the novelty of its subliminal gay messaging and the stagey set-up that made it appear to have been shot in one long take. It was the exquisite suspense that Hitchcock built into the criminals’ audacity, the threat of exposure that might come at any moment. With all the flashbacks and spotlighted soliloquies to the audience, the tension in this Rope keeps going slack precisely when it should be tightening.

Following their incredible revival of The Adding Machine earlier this year, The New Group has produced another banger. Their new permanent home at the Theatre at St. Clement’s is proving to be the perfect synthesis of space and company. With Rope, ...

Following their incredible revival of The Adding Machine earlier this year, The New Group has produced another banger. Their new permanent home at the Theatre at St. Clement’s is proving to be the perfect synthesis of space and company. With Rope, they have another audacious, stylish, and captivating production.

Derek McLane’s set design is handsome and practical, and Catherine Zuber’s costumes serve the production well (particularly Gillies’s red and black outfit). Jeff Croiter’s lighting is beautiful, especially in shifting moods and tensions durin...

Derek McLane’s set design is handsome and practical, and Catherine Zuber’s costumes serve the production well (particularly Gillies’s red and black outfit). Jeff Croiter’s lighting is beautiful, especially in shifting moods and tensions during the multiple flashback sequences. The thriller is a genre that has gone out of fashion, and every effort to bring it back should be welcome. But my frustrations with this production are best summed up by saying, “Skip Rope.”

Disappointingly, the tension among the story’s several cat-and-mouse games never grows sufficiently taut to grip one’s attention. In my experience, some among the company’s previous shows looked under-rehearsed, so perhaps Rope simply wasn’t ...

Disappointingly, the tension among the story’s several cat-and-mouse games never grows sufficiently taut to grip one’s attention. In my experience, some among the company’s previous shows looked under-rehearsed, so perhaps Rope simply wasn’t ready for a press preview.

There is, bizarrely, a cost to bringing the subtext out of the closet. Greenberg may wish to amplify what’s already in the play, but instead he drowns it out. The gay-crime fetish drama, rooted in the Freudian belief that our true desires are opaqu...

There is, bizarrely, a cost to bringing the subtext out of the closet. Greenberg may wish to amplify what’s already in the play, but instead he drowns it out. The gay-crime fetish drama, rooted in the Freudian belief that our true desires are opaque even to ourselves, requires something more than the occasional toss on the sofa. It wants a sense that the important clues are all hidden away in a chest — whether the one in the center of the room, or the one encasing a character’s heart.