We round up the reviews for the Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza‘s comedy, playing for a strictly limited 17 week run.
The New York Times: “Corden also makes a meal of a meal in a scene in which he eats olives by hungrily nibbling them one by one, like an oversize squirrel trying to appear polite while devouring his loot in company. Harris and Cannavale don’t fare quite as well, making Ellis’s production feel a little underpowered — though that may change once the actors have more performances under their belts, as this show very much depends on tight chemistry.”
The Guardian: *** “Harris and Cannavale make light work of these two politely adversarial aesthetes – the former crisp and tightly wound, the latter swaggering and easily wounded, both a little detestable. But it’s Corden, returning to Broadway for the first time since winning a Tony in 2012 for One Man, Two Guvnors), who steals the show, in a bit of stage image rehab post-Carpool Karaoke and, for the chronically online, Balthazar ban. As both the heart and the court jester for the show, Corden is superb, a perfectly calibrated level of hysterical, sincere and crisp.”
Deadline: “But such questions aren’t really Reza’s point here. She is at her best – and certainly Art is at its best – when using the painting and the various interpretations it inspires as a McGuffin, an excuse to tease out the gripes and grudges and resentments that can fester for years in even the best friendships. Watch the way Marc seizes on Serge’s hoity-toity use of the word “deconstruction,” unpacking the sort of hidden insults, real or imagined, that only the closest of friends can detect in the most offhand comment. Start pulling at those loose threads and an entire sweater – or a 25-year friendship – can be left in a discarded heap.”
Vulture.com: “Reza, though, doesn’t get into it, apart from making some easy jabs at “conceptual art” and “deconstruction” and the chichi gallery world. These things aren’t legitimate concerns but coat hooks on which to hang generic contention and an overall icky view of human nature — which is why some of the play’s actually funniest stuff, in both writing and performance, occurs in a frantic two-page monologue delivered by Yvan, who hurtles into Serge’s apartment mid-meltdown over complications with his upcoming wedding.”
Variety: “This review isn’t meant to slight Cannavale and Harris: The former is characteristically able to conjure smartest-guy-in-the-room umbrage, as if irritated to even be forced to explain himself, while the latter is at his best when preening over his new investment. (Just under the surface, Harris lets us understand, is a fear that there’s a joke he’s not quite getting.) But it’s Corden, who wraps up his scene of rage pallid and gasping in a manner that somehow doesn’t feel showy and unearned, who’s the standout.”
The Wrap: “Watching this revival, you might wonder why Harris and Cannavale didn’t switch roles; the change would have given their characters’ ongoing fight more frisson. The two actors are cast to type here, with Harris playing the persnickety pretentious one who has bought the painting and Cannavale playing the rough philistine whose idea of art ended sometime before the Impressionists.”
Time Out *** : “Although Art is not especially deep—Reza paints her characters in broad strokes but thin layers—it is solidly built for comedy, and all three men are armed with effective one-liners as their mutual exasperation builds to a climax. With his raspy voice and commanding physical presence, Cannavale is less waspish than the usual Marc, but his bluster hides a core of hurt feelings; this plays nicely off Harris’s self-satisfied but prickly and defensive Serge. It is Corden, however, who dominates the stage and the audience’s affections.”
New York Stage Review: **** “David Rockwell designed the handsome production, which as the friends’ locales switch remains the same three-section, predominantly grey-blue apartment space, so much so that spectators may become briefly confused, scene for scene, as to exactly where they’re supposed to be. But maybe it’s Rockwell astute societal observation that at the end of the disputatious day, the three friends are more alike than not.”
Theatrely.com: ” There is just no believing that such a situation could happen in as culturally impoverished and illiterate a place as the United States in 2025, where this production is firmly based in spirit. Somewhat aptly, its men are out to win the audience as distinct individuals, intricate relations be damned. You can’t really fault them: That’s the state of the art here.”
The New York Post: “So, Reza’s play of petty bickering makes my eyes glaze over. But plenty of people, including former Post critics, have lapped it up over the years. Such is “Art.””
amNY.com: “Director Scott Ellis, a longtime Roundabout Theatre Company mainstay, is best known for his many revivals of both plays and musicals, which tend to be straightforward in execution. That approach is evident here. There’s nothing flashy or conceptual in his staging. The clarity is admirable, but it also exposes the limitations of the text.”
New York Theatre Guide: “Art has humor, a wonderful cast, and the timeless clash of differing opinions. What’s missing from the script is a clear sense of place and purpose for this friendship. Where did it begin? If a 25-year bond is on the verge of breaking, the audience needs a glimpse of what’s truly at stake.”
To find out more about the production visit: https://artonbroadway.com/