Review Roundup: LA BETE

American playwright David Hirson's rollicking 1991 play, LA BÊTE, is a comic tour de force about Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theater, and Valere (Mark Rylance), a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Joanna Lumley) decides she's grown weary of Elomire's royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: In the bombastic, flatulent title role of David Hirson's play "La Bête," which has its own problems with uncontrolled gas, Mr. Rylance delivers a comic performance of such polished crudeness that it easily ranks with his Tony-winning tour-de-farce in "Boeing-Boeing" of two years ago. In that production (which, like "La Bête," was directed by the inventive Matthew Warchus), Mr. Rylance portrayed a classically passive, put-upon patsy, the innocent rube to whom wild and crazy things happen.

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: The new Broadway revival of La Bête (* * *) also finds fresh relevance in the past. Set in 17th-century France, David Hirson's comedy asks just how low popular art can go - a question that resonates even more today than it did when the play bowed in 1990.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press: This time around, "La Bete" is certain to last longer than the 25 performances it played on Broadway in 1991. This seems the perfect time - in our age of thoughtless, abbreviated text messages and half-baked opinions - to revisit a play that loves words but also a sophisticated debate about what they mean. This cast, with this script, have proven there is beauty in the beast.

Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal: So why in the name of the bottom line is this awful play-for it is truly, excruciatingly awful-back for a second go-round? The answer is Mark Rylance, who starred in "Boeing-Boeing" and is now giving another over-the-top performance as Valere, a fathomlessly vulgar, monstrously vain street player who has been thrust upon Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), the celebrated 17th-century playwright, and his resident drama troupe by the princess (Joanna Lumley) who is the company's all-powerful patroness.

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: While the new production, direct from London, can't keep the play from being a windy enterprise, it succeeds in making it ever accessible and wildly funny. Credit a crack director, Matthew Warchus, an ace cast and appealing design work.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: In the end, though, the message couldn't be clearer. With its mix of flatulence gags and learned references, "La Bete" proves that it's possible to be sophisticated and entertaining at the same time. Elomire and Valere aren't as irreconcilable as they seem to be.

Linda Winer, Newsday: Absolutes are hazardous to the credibility, but here goes. I'm betting Broadway has never seen a greater portrayal of obnoxious grossing-out than the one Mark Rylance is splattering all over "La Bête."

Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News: Four stars (****) for this unmissable jewel.

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: But I think the last 20 years have, on balance, been kind to this script. After revealing the idiocy of its hero, "La Bete" suggests that the cultural establishment is vulnerable to these pretenders because of its reluctance to venture outside its own elitist bubble - a tendency deftly suggested by Mark Thompson's shrewdly intimidating setting of towering bookcases filled with volumes that nobody really wants to read. There are plenty of Valeres out there, pontificating on cable, the blogosphere and at political rallies, all ready to pounce.

Michael Sommers, NJ Newsroom: The original Broadway production of "La Bete" was an extremely stylish but fatally under-performed folly of a comedy that shut like a bad clam back in 1991. Believe me, I saw it (and smelled it). David Hirson's play returned on Thursday, still very much a folly as a piece of stagecraft, but now acted to much finer effect by Mark Rylance and a smart company at the Music Box Theatre.

Scott Brown, NY Magazine: With all due respect to his excellent co-stars, David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley, and the fine ensemble that embroiders the show's frilly edges, Rylance is clearly the show's raison d'être. His performance as the irresistibly loathsome street clown Valere - a lowbrow bête noire visited upon the tidy playwright Elomire (Pierce) - is the grand prize at the bottom of a box of confetti.

Robert Feldberg, NorthJersey.com: The overall experience is little better the second time around. The play is still dead in the water.

Roma Torre, NY1: There's a message in "La Bete" pertaining to the corruption of art in a populist culture and it certainly resonates today. But even more resonant is the mastery of craft on such vivid display.

Peter Marks, Washington Post: Still, "La Bête" is so raucously front-loaded, thanks to Rylance, that even though the rewards diminish as the 110-minute play unfolds, the piece manages to maintain a giddy afterglow. Entering with a mouthful of melon and a wildly miscalculated sense of self-importance, Rylance's Valere terrorizes Elomire and an actor in his company (Stephen Ouimette) with a monologue of a length to match the size of his ego.

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Bottom Line: The brilliant Mark Rylance and David Hyde Pierce bring whatever comic life there is to this spoof of 17th century theatrical conventions.