Review Roundup: THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX Opens Off-Broadway

Lincoln Center Theater welcomes Mamoudou Athie, Diane Lane, Gayle Rankin, and Tony Shalhoub in its production of The Mystery of Love and Sex, a new play by Bathsheba Doran. The production, which is directed by Sam Gold, opens tonight, March 2, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX has by Andrew Lieberman, costumes by Kaye Voyce, lighting by Jane Cox, and original music and sound by Daniel Kluger.

THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX is the story of four individuals whose lives remain inextricably intertwined over time. Charlotte (Rankin) and Jonny (Athie) are two college students and long-time friends since the age of 9. As their relationship turns romantic, over her parents' (Lane and Shalhoub) objections, an onslaught of truths about their past is unleashed, threatening not only their relationship with each other, but with their families as well.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times: The detective work in "The Mystery of Love & Sex," a perfectly wonderful new play by Bathsheba Doran...extends well beyond the matters of high importance referred to in the title. In this tender and funny exploration of the lives of two couples from two generations, Ms. Doran also probes such fertile mysteries as the fluidity of identity, our ability to keep secrets from both our family and even ourselves, and the difficulty -- and the rewards -- of forgiveness...Nevertheless, love and sex are very much at the center of the play, which is among the season's finest so far. Ms. Doran ("Kin") delves into so many matters of the heart that her play gains an almost dizzying momentum. By the end you may feel giddy, as if you'd just stepped off a whirling theme-park ride. Although there are just four characters onstage (very briefly a fifth), Ms. Doran's drama is so packed with humanity that it seems infinitely larger, like a chart depicting the sexual and emotional anatomy of us all.

Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press: The quirky, bittersweet relationship drama is filled with one-liners and jokes that are often politically incorrect but funny. An engaging production, directed with compassion and sensitivity by Sam Gold, opened Monday night off-Broadway...Tony Shalhoub...plays a charmingly condescending, witty liberal Jewish author named Howard, living in Georgia and long married to a smart Southerner, Lucinda (Diane Lane). Shalhoub is a delight, making Howard lovable despite his pompous pronouncements and latent racism and homophobia. Lane...is quite winning as well, smartly underplaying the Southern belle...Gold...is expert at allowing the actors to reveal little everyday epiphanies in Doran's seemingly mundane scenes...Despite many arguments and estrangements, and anger over secrets, Doran's play is ultimately about the endurance of all kinds of love.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: In what looks like a classic case of incompatibility between form and substance, scenes about the droll efforts of these permissive parents to keep up with their daughter's irregular love life could easily be played in a darker vein. Helmer Sam Gold seems more or less okay with letting the play follow its nose. So, what begins in a realistic style begins to lose its grip on reality and slips into surreal fantasy as the evening wears on -- and on and on...Lane and Shalhoub are supremely confident players at this game...But the younger generation hold their end up beautifully. Rankin luxuriates in Charlotte's quicksilver personality while protecting her vulnerable core, and Athie maintains impressive command of virginal Jonny's tentative but increasingly bold -- and eventually reckless -- flights of self-discovery. But by the second act, all this role-playing has brought everyone to the edge of exhaustion and taken the play beyond believability.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: The chief reward of The Mystery of Love & Sex -- and it's not an inconsiderable one -- is the pleasure of watching the magnetic Diane Lane on a New York stage for the first time since she was 13. Still looking radiant at 50 and in effortless command, Lane finds humor and warmth not entirely evident on the page, as a Southern shiksa goddess whose defining act of rebellious attention-seeking was to shock her good-old-boy father by marrying a New York Jew, played with equally enlivening comedic notes by Tony Shalhoub. But while Sam Gold's production for Lincoln Center Theater is never dull, Bathsheba Doran's long-winded play lacks cohesion.

David Cote, Time Out NY: ...Love is a verb. Easy to say, harder to do. That paralyzing gulf between feeling and acting is one of the enigmas gently held up to the light in Bathsheba Doran's wise and exquisitely crafted The Mystery of Love & Sex...Doran is not after a millennial rom-com with adorkable bi-curiosity and postracial frisson sprinkled to taste. She broadens her canvas to include older, if no wiser, adults-Charlotte's parents, Howard (Tony Shalhoub) and Lucinda (Diane Lane). Just as Doran sketches her younger characters with the right amount of fuzzy instability, she draws the supposed authority figures with deceptively confident, crisp strokes...There's a pulsing, warm sense of lives lived in Doran's script, which unfolds over five years and organically touches on several potent themes, fully humanized: filial betrayal, homophobia, white-liberal microaggression and, above all, forgiveness. These characters are flesh: tangible, fallible and superbly rounded. For all its writing strength, though, Mystery might have lapsed into preciousness were it not for Sam Gold's cool but coiled staging.

Linda Winer, Newsday: Mysteries, love and sex do co-mingle around the handsome stage in this emotionally rich, sparky, smartly unpredictable play about relationships...there is nothing generic about these compelling actors or the five-year journey in the lives of a Southern-Jewish couple (Diane Lane and the deliriously wondrous Tony Shalhoub), their beloved college-age daughter, Charlotte (Gayle Rankin), and her best friend since childhood, Jonny, the black Baptist boy next door (Mamoudou Athie)...the new piece -- also directed by the virtuosically sensitive Sam Gold -- resists declaring anything as simple as a main character. All four people...keep changing in surprising yet altogether believable ways...Ambiguities about gender, race, religion and identity -- both tribal and personal -- linger across the human spectrum, probing the meaning of soul mates, family and other unpredictable demands of the generous heart.

Robert Kahn, NBC New York: ..."The Mystery of Love & Sex," a complex and gratifying family drama...illustrates the fallout of following a misguided path but promises it's never too late to turn back and start over...Doran addresses an array of themes...among them racism, homophobia, religion and presumed differences between North and South. At times during the overstuffed first act, you'll wonder if the playwright will be able to tie together the dissonant themes...Athie...is marvelous as a young man shedding the burden of his own familial expectations...The talented Rankin allows us to see her as both a naive girl...and a more jaded adult. Doran ultimately sketches a warm portrait of four people intent on carving out their own identities, though it means they crash into each other from time to time. A climax set on the eve of a wedding brings the group and their differences into stark contrast, even as we see them as parts of one wholly functional modern family.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: Despite the teasing title, Bathsheba Doran's "The Mystery of Love and Sex" isn't really about carnal knowledge. The play, which marks a celebratory Off-Broadway comeback by Diane Lane, is a well-acted but overstuffed look at another of life's most intricate and intimate puzzles -- friendship...[Doran's] writing here, especially in the overlong first act, herky-jerks between sitcom glibness and serious concerns, and can't settle on a firm focus. Talking-point topics speed by -- racism, sexism, homophobia, interfaith relationships and more...While the story alternately entertains and frustrates, the cast rocks steady. Rankin...impresses again. She's all passion and raw nerves as the needy Charlotte. Athei is measured and carefully spoken as Jonny, making a perfect foil. Shalhoub brings warmth and humor as Howard...Lane, an Oscar nominee who's been away from the New York stage for 37 years, makes an auspicious return. She's funny, earthy and touching as a marijuana-toking Steel Magnolia.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: "The Mystery of Love & Sex" takes on so much that it could have been titled "The Mystery of Love, Sex, Racism, Sexism, Religion, Confused Romantic Feelings & Dealing With Your Parents." Sure, that title would have been a handful, but then so is Bathsheba Doran's new play. Although the characters driving the action are 20-something Charlotte and Jonny, the most compelling people in this Lincoln Center production are Charlotte's folks, played with relaxed wit and a steely undergirding by Diane Lane and Tony Shalhoub...But the show isn't as sharp as it seems to think it is...Rankin and Athie are very good despite thankless roles, but they pale next to Lane and Shalhoub, who expertly carve intriguing traits out of stock characters. Lane's fallen belle -- drinking and smoking up a storm -- is a perfect foil for Shalhoub's wily, manipulative writer. They're an unlikely couple, yet make odd sense. As with love and sex, experience counts when it comes to theater.

Jesse Green, Vulture: A new play that reads very well on the page risks getting staged above its station. Sad to say, The Mystery of Love & Sex, by Bathsheba Doran, is that kind: engrossing in theory, a botch in practice. Commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, and given a top-flight production there, it might, ironically, have benefited more from shabbier treatment, a process that could have revealed its substantial flaws while there was still time and freedom to do something about them. But when you've got Tony Shalhoub and Diane Lane engaged to play two of the four leading characters, and Sam Gold directing, plus all the professional polish LCT typically provides, there's not much to be done but leave the audience to enjoy what it can and wish the rest were better.

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Photo Credit: T. Charles Erickson