AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

TheaterMania

Review: Exit the King
Geoffrey Rush, Susan Sarandon and Lauren Ambrose give excellent performances in Neil Armfield's beautifully calibrated revival of Eugene Ionesco's absurdist comedy.
My review is appearing here, in lieu of ATW-AP

New York Times

Sorry, Your Highness, but You’re So Over
This brutally funny revival of Eugène Ionesco’s play stars Geoffrey Rush in a knockout performance.

New York Daily News

B'way's 'Exit the King' is a 'rush'
In the revival of Eugene Ionesco's 1962 play "Exit the King," Geoffrey Rush's portrayal of a dying monarch makes this absurdist comedy about death lively and loopy - for a while.

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of Exit the King
Things don’t look too great for 400-year-old King Berenger. His madness and incompetence have destroyed the entire country. And when it looks like it can’t get any worse, Queen Marguerite informs the royal court that their egomaniacal king has only 90 minutes left to live. He refuses to come to terms with his impending death or relinquish control, but time is ticking.

Newsday

Review: 'Exit the King' with Rush and Sarandon
If an evening-long death scene isn't your idea of exhilarating theater, you haven't been to "Exit the King." This inspired revival of Eugene Ionesco's seldom-seen 1962 absurdist tragicomedy has been conceived as the unlikely love child of a fractured fairy tale and "King Lear."

New York Post

It's Rush hour!
'King' star ascends to B'way royalty
ny1

NY1 Theater Review: "Exit The King"
"Exit The King" is a play about the meaning of life in all its wondrous, mundane glory from the perspective of death. It's not Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," but Eugene Ionesco went in a completely different direction and his absurdist riff on the theme is no less profound.

Time Out New York

Review: Exit the King
Geoffrey Rush rules the stage.

Hartford Courant

New York Stage: 'Exit The King' Resonates As Absurdist Farce
Geoffrey Rush and his director/co-translator Neil Armfield have made a very funny but penetrating absurdist farce of Eugene Ionesco's "Exit the King."

Associated Press

A Mesmerizing Geoffrey Rush Sparks 'Exit the King'
We haven't seen a star turn like this in quite a while.

Wall Street Journal

Beating Up the Bourgeoisie
[God of Carnage, Exit the King, Impressionsim reviews]

Bloomberg.com

Sarandon, Rush Play Doddering Royal, Consort in Ionesco Farce: John Simon
If you enjoy clown shows, the new Australian production of “Exit the King” has everything but the sawdust.

USA Today

Broadway's 'Exit the King' is a crowning achievement
In the new Broadway revival of Eugene Ionesco's absurdist classic (***½ out of four), we witness the last moments of an autocratic regime and its leader, King Berenger, who is told in the first act that he'll die before the final curtain

Variety

Review: Exit the King
"Nothing's abnormal when abnormal has become the new normal," declares Geoffrey Rush, a short distance into his astonishing performance as the dying monarch in "Exit the King."

Hollywood Reporter

Theater Review: Exit the King
Bottom Line: Geoffrey Rush's dazzling turn makes this revival of Ionesco's rarely performed absurdist classic a must-see..

Back Stage

Exit the King reviewed by Erik Haagensen [critic's pick]
Who knew Exit the King was so funny? Certainly not the 14-year-old Ohio lad who saw the play's Broadway premiere in 1968 as his very first Main Stem show

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Exit the KingXIT THE KING Review
You’ve undoubtedly heard that your life flashes before your eyes when you die. Well, no one’s lived a greater life or faced brighter and more prolonged flashing in his terminal moments than King Berenger I, the ruler of creation and assorted

 

The stage is full of 17 performers dancing and kicking to Marvin Hamlisch’s well-loved score played by a particularly good band (conducted by John C. O’Neill), but in A Chorus Line, at The Bushnell in Hartford, the elements never seem to come together for one singular sensation that would give this tour of an aging classic some pizzazz.

In its day (1976, to be exact), the musical won nine Tony awards including best musical and choreography (by original director and choreographer Michael Bennett) and was innovative in its combination of big dance numbers with poignant life stories from the characters, a group of actors trying out for a Broadway show chorus line. (Book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante). The show’s director, Zach (Sebastian La Cause), needs something besides a headshot and resume to help him determine who will make the final cut, so he asks each actor to share a little about himself. Through their stories and songs (lyrics by Edward Kleban), the personalities, failures and hopes of each are revealed.

While some of the dialogue from 1975 (when the show opened) is just as relevant today (angst over finding a job; the impending death of big shows on Broadway), it's offered within a production that's not much more than dated, lackluster reproduction of the original. The tour’s inability to excite is most evident in the numbers “At the Ballet,” Hello 12, Hello 13, Hello Love” and “The Music and the Mirror,’ which fall short of expectations. “It’s no Jersey Boys,” said one exiting theatergoer referring to the high-tech, high energy musical which has taken this earlier show's place as the new standard (and which just finished a run at The Bushnell, making a comparison between the old and new inescapable).

If the tour fails as a singular sensation, there are a few standouts that shout “I Can Do That!” For starters, the band (music supervision by Patrick Vassariello) is exceptional and it’s a pleasure to hear the Hamlisch classics “What I Did for Love” and “One.” The dancing is good (Avian was co-choreographer on the original production; choreography re-staging is by Baayork Lee) and the performers are showcased nicely with set and lighting design (Robin Wagner and Tharon Musser with Natasha Katz, adapter) and costumed by Theoni V. Aldredge. The sound (Acme Sound Partners) could use a little tweaking, however, as much of the time solo singers are drowned out by the band and full chorus voices sound like they are muffled in a box.

Bethany Moore shines as the charming fresh-faced Peggy. Shannon Lewis gives a nice turn as Sheila, the aging chorus girl who relies on her looks. Kevin Santos’ acting skills give Paul’s story about struggling to find his identity as a gay man additional depth and Gabrielle Ruiz ,who offers the strongest singing voice in the ensemble, does justice to Diana’s “Nothing” and the signature “What I Did for Love.”

Adding a little love and passion for performing to the precision of the choreography would go a long way to upping this tour’s pizzazz points. “This is whatcha call trav-ling." Now if they could only strut their stuff a bit more.”

--Lauren Yarger

---

A Chorus Line plays at The Bushnell (166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT) through March 29. Performance times are Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 8 pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm and Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are $20-$65 and can be purchased by calling 860-087-5900 or by visiting www.bushnell.org.

Printer-friendly version