Review Roundup: MORNING'S AT SEVEN Opens Off-Broadway

Morning's At Seven, Paul Osborn's treasured comedy classic, returned to New York this fall for the first time in 20 years. Directed by Obie Award winner Dan Wackerman (artistic director of The Peccadillo Theater Company), Morning's At Seven will play a strictly limited 12-week engagement, October 20 - January 9 at Theatre at St. Clements, 423 W. 46th Street, NYC).

Featuring an all-star cast including Academy Award nominee and Obie Award winner Lindsay Crouse (The Homecoming), Obie Award winner Alma Cuervo (On Your Feet!, Uncommon Women and Others), two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey (Steaming, Hurlyburly, The Heiress), Dan Lauria (Lombardi, A Christmas Story The Musical, TV's "The Wonder Years"), Academy Award nominee Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed, Frost/Nixon), two-time Tony nominee Tony Roberts (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Annie Hall), Tony Award winner John Rubinstein (Pippin, Children of a Lesser God), Keri Safran (Typhoid Mary at Barrington Stage), and Jonathan Spivey (The Front Page).

See what the critics are saying...

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Alexis Soloski, The New York Times: As expected, these practiced actors perform with relish and finesse. Crouse is nicely sour as Cora, the villain of the piece until she isn't. And Cuervo neatly represses some of Ida's hysteria. Roberts, as David - the husband of Esty (Patty McCormack), the eldest Gibbs sister and the only one who doesn't effectively live with them - earns outsize laughs for some of the play's meanest speeches. As the younger couple, Spivey and Safran overplay their roles, but seemingly with Wackerman's encouragement.

Elysa Gardner, Time Out NY: John Rubinstein brings both appealing goofiness and nuanced pathos to Carl, whose recurring minor breakdowns (or "spells," as the others call them) underline the existential searching that is the character's true legacy to his son. And Jonathan Spivey's Homer, the role that earned Rounds fame, is a standout, blossoming with witty vigor from an awkward man-child into a fellow ready to take charge of his fate, to the delight of Myrtle, whose nervousness and simpleness are relayed rather too relentlessly by a high-pitched Keri Safran. Still, you'll leave the theater rooting for Morning's at Seven's youngest couple, and tickled and moved by their elders.

Deb Miller, DC Metro Arts: Dan Wackerman directs a stellar cast of seasoned veterans of the stage and screen who flawlessly deliver all the inherent humor and heart in this old-fashioned slice of Americana and uproarious send-up of the inter-relationships of an average American family. It's a period piece that recalls the artistic sensibility of the iconic painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell and holds appeal for theatergoers of a certain age (the predominant audience at the performance I attended), as well as younger fans of classic works in the history of the American stage, while also offering a veritable master class in acting.

Suzanna Bowling, Times Square Chronicles: The cast however is stellar. I have long been a fan of Alma Cuervo, since Quilters and Assassins. It was great to see Dan Lauria, Tony Roberts and John Rubenstein whose work is always first rate. The standout though is Patty McCormack, best known for her stage work in The Bad Seed from 1954 - 1955 and then Oscar-nominated in the 1956 movie. I hope someone will write her something she can really sink her teeth into, because she is a marvel to watch.

Robert Massini, Times Square Chronicles: Under Wackerman's direction, Myrtle (Keri Safran) and Homer (Johnathan Spivey) are played beautifully as a rather strange couple that have been engaged for seven years, on top of dating for five. At forty years old, Homer feels he is not ready for marriage. It is not until his father wants to lease his house that he built for him five years earlier that he decides to step up and marry Myrtle. With a few fibs along the way, things work out for this farcical family and Morning's At Seven with its big cast, strong direction as well as costumes and genteel lighting makes this show a long awaited hit.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: It's worth noting that almost all the characters are supposed to be in their sixties, but the actors are in their seventies (and one, Tony Roberts, in his eighties.) Casting older was one of the many wise choices by director Dan Wackerman. Life expectancy in the U.S. was 65 years for women, and even younger for men, in 1939, when Osborn wrote his play. It's now almost 79. Still, some of the regrets and ruminations that the characters express about the lives they have lived so far, and the changes they want to make, might strike a chord even with theatergoers who are too young to have seen the last revival of "Morning's at Seven" on Broadway, in 2002.

Joe Westerfield, Newsweek: McCormack as Esty, is sharp, quick-witted and smart and can do as much with a look and an inflection, as she can with a line of dialogue. Her Esty is a perfect match for the curmudgeonly husband David, played by Tony Roberts. Lauria, too, is pretty far removed from Jack Arnold. There is no bluster in his performance. In fact, he is very understated most of the time. He has done two Broadway plays and a several off-Broadway, but he actually has an extensive theater background away from New York, and it shows.

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: The estimable ensemble works together like a well-oiled machine, with nary a weak link. Special praise must be afforded, however, to McCormack, who will forever be known as "The Bad Seed" but here, looking absolutely beautiful, delivers a performance of elegant comic precision. Spivey and Safran more than keep up with their elders, with the latter amusingly reminiscent of Julie Hagerty, who played the same role in the last Broadway revival. And it's a special treat to experience the reunion of Lauria and Mills, who played the parents in the classic sitcom The Wonder Years, with the latter deserving extra points for learning her role in a record amount of time (at a late preview, she was still on book for merely one scene).

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: In 1939, Osborn with his now weighty list of credits (On Borrowed Time, the South Pacific screenplay, only a few), was recalling 1922 as it appeared to him. As of this revival, audiences are watching activities taking place 99 years ago. No matter. Attitudes are always shifting, but human behavior doesn't change. Therefore, if at first Morning's at Seven seems only a backward glimpse at dated Americana, it's not. Wackerman and company expertly see to the truth of that.

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