"What you do doubt is that they are members of the same family, bound by blood ties that will ultimately strangle them. That, unfortunately, is an omission that can make 'Long Day’s Journey' feel even longer than it is…Mr. Byrne gives a beautiful performance — a haunted and haunting incarnation of fraying majesty…His character, an emblem of squandered potential, paradoxically turns out to provide this disjunctive production with its one memorable instance of great potential fulfilled."
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"Jessica Lange brings stunning colors to the role of a woman clawing her way through fog. You can’t take your eyes off her…The other actors orbit around Lange’s blazing star turn in painfully believable patterns of resignation...Although 'Long Day’s Journey' is nearly four hours long, and deals centrally with stasis it passes quickly...You’re grateful for every minute you get to spend in the beautiful, miserable company of a family whose abiding devotion is hopeless."
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"Kent’s direction and Ms. Lange’s performance really keep the character’s descent under choreographed control...It is a portrayal that sustains the audience in rapt voyeuristic attention almost to the end…This ensemble makes for a compelling evening. If the impression doesn’t last much longer, the fault is partly O’Neill’s. For all the careful choreography of spiritual descent, you don’t watch this play to see characters evolve (or devolve). There is nothing really to be surprised at."
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"The revival is transfixing. It may sound like no fun at all to spend nearly four hours with the Tyrone family, but by the time this journey was done, I was completely given over to the dark and dangerous spell of O’Neill’s masterpiece. It was as though I was seeing it for the first time. This would have been impossible without one of the rarest convergences on Broadway: an all-star cast and director that works as well on stage as they promised on paper."
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"Even a perfectly tuned production can be an endurance test. Performances aren’t all equal in Jonathan Kent’s staging...Jessica Lange maximizes her meaty role’s potential…And when she’s not onstage, Lange is missed. Actors playing the Tyrone men—each in love with the bottle—have varying degrees of success. As the tightwad James, Gabriel Byrne has the presence of a matinee idol...John Gallagher, Jr., fails to summon much grace or gravity."
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"As staged by Jonathan Kent, the outstanding revival has a lighter tone and softer edges that, paradoxically, impart a deeper sorrow onto this classic domestic tragedy...Lange brings both grace and gravity to Mary’s futile efforts to deny reality…Byrne’s performance as James Tyrone, Sr., is quietly commanding…Michael Shannon delivers a strong performance as Jamie…As Edmund, the focus of so much of the family angst on this terrible, terrible day, John Gallagher, Jr., is likely just miscast."
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"Kent's starry production, led by a transfixing Jessica Lange, invites us to see reflections of our own closest relationships in the haunted Tyrones…Shannon puts such a unique spin on so much of his dialogue that the play's final act takes on invigorating new life…But the production belongs to Lange…Lange inhabits those unearthly spaces with fragility but also with the fierce narcissism and cunning of the addict."
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“Lange applies a relatively light touch here...The show simmers at a low, but effective, boil. It’s striking to consider how minimal it is and how epic it feels...Byrne fares best whenever he’s opposite Lange...Still the stage belongs to Shannon and especially Lange, who slowly builds to Mary’s operatic aria of desperation — few actors can express vulnerability so achingly. You don’t need shock tactics to rivet an audience in its seats.”
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