"Time has been good to 'Frankie and Johnny.' Its sentimentality hasn’t curdled the way it has in some of Mr. McNally’s many other plays...The obvious overstretching of the plot to fill two acts doesn’t matter as the play’s bigger mysteries click into place. What begins as a basic inquiry into the nature of love — is it blind or, as Johnny says, 'the exact opposite'? — slowly transforms into something deeper and eerier."
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"When Johnny refuses to leave Frankie’s apartment, the creepiness factor is hard to avoid, especially since Shannon has used his lanky frame and craggy face to convey menace so successfully in the past. But for more than two hours, these highly gifted actors—directed by Arin Arbus, and beautifully lit by Natasha Katz—keep a sensitive focus on the gawky humanity of their characters, holding steady through the ups and downs of McNally’s emotional ride. They connect, and they draw us in."
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"While McDonald and Shannon are both fun to watch, their turbulent chemistry alone doesn’t sustain McNally’s somewhat overstretched play...There’s also, for all the play’s wisecracking, just something not quite enjoyable in the way 'Frankie & Johnny' romanticizes a man pushing and pushing until he wears down a woman’s resistance...There’s a sweet, off-kilter, earthy chemistry between the down-to-earth McDonald and the hepped-up Shannon."
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"The trouble is that Ms. McDonald is being called upon to play a working-class waitress who, according to the script, is a woman of 'striking but not conventional good looks' with a 'fairly tough exterior.' Ms. McDonald, by contrast, is an exceptionally beautiful woman...McDonald’s arresting physicality—every move she makes seizes the eye—goes a long way toward making up for her lack of Frankie’s natural earthiness, and it helps that Michael Shannon is more believably cast."
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"Arin Arbus seems fully aware of newfound and hard-won sensitivities, and neither dismisses them nor entirely clarifies the shadow they cast on this pre-Me Too era work. Whether that absence of resolution is an intentional commentary or a dramatic shortfall will likely have as many interpretations as there are audience members...That it survives instead as a testament to human connection speaks well of both the play and this production."
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"A sentimental reading would mean death for this surprisingly delicate two-hander...But helmer Arin Arbus and her high-toned cast of two – Michael Shannon, who can do anything, and Audra McDonald, who can do anything while looking gorgeous – bring this historical artifact to warm-blooded life...There’s always the danger that the story might seem shallow because nothing more than a love story is at stake. Nothing more, perhaps, than a love story, but my, how those lovers can love."
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"It could be argued that the casting is not ideal...And yet, the brilliant actors make it work. McDonald superbly conveys her character's cynicism through world-weary body language and vocal inflections. And Shannon unveils his formidable, and too rarely seen, comic talents to hilarious effect; his Johnny is the funniest I've ever seen. If the resulting laughfest slightly dilutes the play's poignancy, McNally's writing is strong enough to provide the requisite emotion."
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"McNally navigates the sexual politics of his losers-in-love hit with exquisite verve and sensitivity. Thirty-two years later, the play may show wrinkles in surface detail (what’s a VCR?) but its emotional terrain is fresh and exciting—and evergreen...I’m glad that this is my first exposure to a beautifully wrought piece of romantic naturalism, from a playwright who caresses and kisses each scar and mole on his protagonists’ well-traveled bodies."
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