Plenty by David Hare

A boy can dream! I am in NYC during its run but the whole run is sold out. I would love this and her hubby's Iago to come to London after they complete their NYC runs.

1999! Where does the time go?

I too would love for this to happen keeping my fingers crossed....

Just discovered that Today Tix are doing $20 lottery tickets for this, so will be entering every day and hoping for the best!

You'll probably enjoy next Saturday. The stage play at the National Theatre, London, in the 1970s was far better than the later-made film.

Odd review, which bangs on about how terrible the set is, but then sums it up in a way which nails EXACTLY what the play is saying about England and most of the characters Susan meets in the post war scenes "it whirls on, dignified and unconcerned". Nails it for me, anyway. I saw the Cate Blanchett led revival in 1999 and from what I recall of that, it fits in with what I took from it.

Well, I saw it today and, as much as it pains me to say it, Ben Brantley's review pretty much nailed it. (Here's another from the Hollywood Reporter which also captures my feelings well: www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/plenty-review-940569

It just wasn't very good. Since I am only familiar with the movie (and saw that eons ago), I can't tell how much of the blame rests with the cast, the director, the play itself -- or some combination of all 3.

The first act moved at a fairly glacial pace, frequently teetering on boredom. And things weren't helped by the abrupt change in Susan Traherne's character during the "Suez Canal Dinner Party" that ends the act. Whereas she had merely seemed headstrong and unconventional before that, she suddenly broke out into outright craziness. Said craziness continuing, then, throughout the second act (which at least made it less boring than the first).

I'm sure the final scene was supposed to be an ironic knockout, but it just fell flat.

Audience response was polite, with maybe half standing for Rachel's curtain call.

A major disappointment.