CRITIC'S PICK: "That 'Flex' manages to garner such interest in its characters’ potential is a testament to the extraordinary synergy among Jones, Blain-Cruz and the cast members, who are as present and engaged in dialogue as they are nimble at the net."
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“At 2 hours and 20 minutes, the play-turned-game goes too far into overtime. But ‘Flex’ is an action-filled play that energizes the audience, who cheer on the Lady Train with hometown team enthusiasm.”
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"The end of Lileana Blain-Cruz’s production does get a little faint in the paint, but for most of the show’s two hours and twenty minutes the director steers all her players to a consistent level of excellence."
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“The most tension-generating part of 'Flex' is the actual basketball that Blain-Cruz has her cast play onstage...It’s one of the riskiest moves I’ve ever seen attempted in live theater and the payoff is an entire audience holding its collective breath and celebrating the ecstasy of victory. With that kind of pressure, even an expected ending gets an infusion of suspense.”
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"Director Lileana Blain-Cruz deploys a varsity squad of fresh faces in Flex, starting with playwright Candrice Jones, who shows how a lively new voice can revivify what might otherwise be a fairly standard sports drama... [Flex] has its formulaic aspects -- including, but not limited to, a tart confrontation between a hard-charging coach and a hot-dogging star player, and a big game on which several futures hang -- but she has a feel for time and place, writes zinging dialogue, and creates freshly imagined characters. Lincoln Center Theater may have a major summer crowd-pleaser on its schedule."
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“The biggest surprise may come late in the play, when even those in the audience for whom basketball is not a way of life will find themselves rooting and cheering for Lady Train as they throw everything they have into the championship game.”
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“What’s truly important in 'Flex' is the emphasis on teamwork on and off the court...Regarding teamplay, it must be said that this acting squad gives a rousing demonstration.”
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Whether you follow basketball or not, Candrice Jones’ "Flex" is exciting theater. Actually, the play is not only about women’s high school basketball but also passions, future plans, romance, sex, ethics, friendships, rivalries, betrayals, and possible dreams deferred for all of the play’s five teammates as we follow them from their home town games in Plainnole to the 1997-98 Arkansas High School State Championship. Using a cast of relatively unfamiliar performers all of whom are making their Lincoln Center Theater debuts, director Lileana Blain-Cruz best known for her work on new plays has kept the performance as taut as a real game throughout its two hours and 20 minutes length.
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