The Realistic Joneses
1 hour and 30 minutes
The Realistic Joneses - 2014 Broadway History , Info & More
Lyceum Theatre
(Covent Garden/Charing Cross) Wellington Street, just off Strand London
Will Eno's new play The Realistic Joneses comes to Broadway starring Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winner; Academy Award and Tony Award-nominee Toni Collette ("Hostages," "United States of Tara," The Sixth Sense, The Wild Party), Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award-winner Michael C. Hall ("Dexter," Chicago), Tony Award-winner Tracy Letts (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; August: Osage County; "Homeland"), and Academy Award-winner and Gold Globe-nominee Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny; The Wrestler; Salome). The production is directed by Obie Award-winner Sam Gold, who was recently represented by Fun Home at the Public Theater.
This new American play comes to Broadway after a critically acclaimed run at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 2012. The Realistic Joneses is produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jam Theatricals, Stacey Mindich, and Susan Gallin/Mary Lu Roffe.
Further details about this production will be announced at a later date.
In The Realistic Joneses, we meet Bob and Jennifer and their new neighbors John and Pony, two suburban couples who have more in common than their identical homes and their shared last names. As their relationships begin to irrevocably intertwine, the Joneses must decide between their idyllic fantasies and their imperfect realities. This contemporary comedy explores how our joys and sorrows - and how we choose to face them - can come to define our lives.
The Realistic Joneses - 2014 - Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Realistic Joneses
Theater Review: The Realistic Joneses Are All Talk
7 / 10
Which pair of Joneses, if either, is the 'realistic' one is not made clear, or even addressed, though a certain merging of identities in the Albee manner makes the question moot. This is not altogether unappealing. The jokes are funny, and when their content supports character development, as sometimes randomly happens, they even land quite nicely. The growing tension between Bob and John - a matter of peacock territoriality and something darker, it would seem - naturally finds expression in such conversational gambits...Eno brings a decided intellectual panache to the genre (as opposed to, say, Lisa D'Amour's more emotional Detroit) but I'm not sure that's an improvement if the aim is to produce meaning; it's like producing water by squeezing a hamperful of damp clothes. You might be able to do it, but is it worth the effort? So even though The Realistic Joneses is smart and witty and beautifully produced, it's not exactly enjoyable. As Groucho Marx, who knew from paraprosdokians, once said, 'I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
Death and dark humor in 'Realistic Joneses'
7 / 10
To some extent, Eno seems to be asking which of the Joneses is, in fact, realistic? Any of 'em? This is a play about confronting mortality for sure, which is what underscores the gobs of intellectual and linguistic stimulation that flows from the stage: Letts' Bob, for example, no longer sees the point of painting the house, given that it only has to be redone. That being what you do is no longer sufficient for him. Bob, for the record, has many more caustic zingers, even though the character barely has the energy to spit them out. Hall's John, meanwhile, keeps trying to talk risks of new enterprises and new ways to communicate (why not?), but he mostly flails. Of course. Death is a brick wall. But the play's emotional appeal - and this one, weird as it most surely is, has more of that than any Eno work to date - comes from its equal recognition of the stress of taking care of the ill, the dying, the declining, the angst-ridden...Gold clearly understands that Eno is a writer with heart and compassion (and a useful touch of insecurity).
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The Realistic Joneses History
Other Productions of The Realistic Joneses
| 2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
The Realistic Joneses - 2014 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Michael C. Hall |
| 2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Tracy Letts |
| 2014 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | The Realistic Joneses |
| 2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | The Realistic Joneses |
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