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Writer: Harold Pinter
Director: Daniel Sullivan
Synopsis: Concerns the ultimate dysfunctional family, presided over by its patriarch Max (McShane). Living under his dilapidated roof are his younger brother Sam (McKean), and two of his sons: Lenny (Esparza), the town pimp, and Joey, a boxer-in-training. Tensions begin to flair with the arrival of Max's eldest son Teddy, who returns home after six years with his new wife Ruth. Seduction, betrayal, and divisiveness ensue, as the family welcomes the homecoming of its estranged brother and vies for the attention of his dangerously alluring wife.
NYTHEATREREVIEWS.COM:
It's ok. Great acting. Boring direction. Nothing more to see than good actors taking on juicy roles. I wish the director had added more style and substance to the production. That being said, it's a very traditional and solid Broadway drama. If you know the story, skip it. If you don't know the story, it's sort of worth seeing if you can't get tickets to August: Osage County.
NEW YORK TIMES:
"First of all, it really is that good. You would expect it to have shrunk over the years, the way buildings that loomed large in your childhood seem smaller when you revisit them. But as the first-rate revival ... makes electrifyingly clear, “The Homecoming” is every bit as big as its reputation."
Read the whole review HERE.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
"Forty years after its original Tony-winning run, "The Homecoming" by Harold Pinter is no longer so shocking. But its provocative nastiness and pitch-black humor remain intact in the lucid production." & "Daniel Sullivan's astute direction captures the distinct rhythms of Pint-er's dialogue, as the production casts a strange spell that grips you tight."
Read the whole review HERE.
NEW YORK POST:
"It's a fascinating and entertaining piece, but the play, 40 years on, has not worn as well as I would have expected. Once Pinter was generally regarded as a possible successor to Samuel Beckett in nihilistic existentialism. Now he seems a markedly lesser talent. Yet it's difficult to imagine an all-over better cast or a more persuasive reading; led by McShane's ugly and embittered patriarch, Esparza's smoothly confident Lenny, Frain's shiftily ambivalent Teddy and the wonderful Best, whose smugly conspiratorial smile, caps the play's ending."
Read the whole review HERE.
STAR LEDGER:
"For all of its brooding effectiveness, "The Homecoming" is not an easy work to digest and tends to leave a sour taste." & "The ability to enjoy Pinter's subtle plays is strictly an acquired taste -- not everyone has it -- but this ably staged production of "The Homecoming" offers aficionados a solid rendition of one of his best-known works."
Read the whole review HERE.
NEW YORK SUN:
"The last 42 years have not necessarily been kind to "The Homecoming." As the play's once unclassifiable sexual politics (misogynist? feminist? both?) have lost much of their punch..., Daniel Sullivan (is) a director capable of honoring the play's still potent confrontations while compensating for the inevitable dip in unpredictability. This shabby all-male North London home may reek of sweat and cigar smoke, but Mr. Sullivan's forceful mounting, led by Ian McShane and Eve Best as the two primary combatants, breathes vivifying air into several of the play's mustier corners."
Read the whole review HERE.
BLOOMBERG:
""The Homecoming," has been lovingly revived on Broadway with good direction, a fine cast and convincing production design. Though every prospect pleases, only the play is vile." & "Harold Pinter, staggering back and forth between naturalism and absurdism, never settles down in either. Made homeless by ambiguity, he does his damnedest to drag us into the cold with him. Follow at your own risk."
Read the whole review HERE.
VARIETY:
"In "The Homecoming," his enigmatic 1965 masterwork about power and desire, Pinter aimed to leave his audience unsure, unsettled, stimulated and appalled. That result is undimmed in Daniel Sullivan's diamond-edged Broadway revival. The director's lucid, unblinking work is matched by a riveting ensemble, their vileness inching under the skin in ways as psychologically disturbing as they are theatrically bracing."
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