Written by Howard Korder
Directed by Michael Grief
Synopsis:
Boys' Life is a stinging and candid look at three college buddies making their way in the big city. As they maneuver between life and sex in New York, Korder lacerates the prolonged adolescence that often takes the place of modern manhood.
NEW YORK TIMES:
"The production ultimately succeeds in evoking the mood of aching, hopeful despair that the play memorializes effectively. "
Read the whole review HERE.
NEW YORK POST:
"LIKE the overgrown male children at its core, Howard Korder's 1988 "Boys' Life" has an immaturity it can't quite overcome. A pungently witty and insightful portrait of arrested development, the comedy/drama revived last night lacks the depth to make it truly interesting. "
Read the whole review HERE.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
"The surprise factor is gone, and the play feels like virtually any episode of any sitcom.There are a few chuckles, however, and the surefooted staging by Michael Greif gets a boost from the novel scenic design (sets by Mark Wendland are inside big movable boxes) and two very charismatic performances. "
Read the whole review HERE.
THEATERMANIA:
"Widely acclaimed when it first appeared -- and even short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize -- this 90-minute study of three former college roommates' uneasy journey into adulthood now comes off as little more than a newer playwright trying to out-Mamet Mamet. "
Read the whole review HERE.
VARIETY:
"Men behaving badly and unrepentantly toward women and each other have been so thoroughly exposed in sitcoms, movies and the collected works of Neil LaBute that it's hard to imagine this actor-y exercise ever having had much sting. It's even harder to imagine what prompted Second Stage to consider honoring it with a 20th anniversary revival. "
Read the whole review HERE.
NEWSDAY:
"Twenty years after the serious comedy opened to considerable yet baffling acclaim, this remains a remarkably shallow piece of second-generation David Mamet - full of staccato tough talk but sentimental concern for the fate of lost "boys" who lust after and loathe brittle neurotic women. "
Read the whole review HERE.
amNY:
"But overall, “Boys’ Life” is just not meaningful or memorable enough to be worth performing again. "
Read the whole review HERE.
BACKSTAGE:
"Greif's staging is energetic and inventive. In between the short, sharp scenes, the actors remain in character and shift Mark Wendland's detailed set units, which are mounted on wheels. This keeps the action going for a breathless 90 minutes. "
Read the whole review HERE.
TIME OUT NY:
"The three college buddies swap sex-war stories in this 1988 comedy-drama, which seemed naughty back then, but now comes across as cheap and not terribly profound. Men are pigs and they refuse to grow up. Got it. "
Read the whole review HERE.
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