Dead Accounts
Opening Night: November 29, 2012
Closing: January 6, 2013
Theater: Music Box Theatre
The hilarious story of a brother, a sister and the 27 million dollar secret that turns their surprise family reunion upside down.
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November 29, 2012
Any analysis of the chemical makeup of Norbert Leo Butz would surely reveal traces of gunpowder. How else to account for the fireworks that Mr. Butz is conjuring out of thin air at the Music Box Theater, where Theresa Rebeck’s “Dead Accounts” opened on Thursday night?
READ THE REVIEWNovember 29, 2012
Ridiculous, I know, to worry about Katie Holmes. She has beauty, money, family and appears to be a very nice person. Similarly, it feels silly to be concerned about playwright Theresa Rebeck. Yes, she was noisily dumped at "Smash," the TV show she created, but she’s had five major productions here in the past six years. "Dead Accounts" — Holmes’ first move to establish herself as more than a celebrity divorcee — is the sixth.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 29, 2012
You might expect Katie Holmes to have something to prove in her first acting appearance since splitting from Tom Cruise. You might expect her to emerge onstage in a gown by Valentino and shoes by Jimmy Choo.
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November 29, 2012
Watching Katie Holmes play a woman chafing against a stifling situation in Dead Accounts, just a block from the New York headquarters of the Church of Scientology, the symbolic parallels are irresistible. When the character played by Josh Hamilton finally overcomes his timidity and declares his love for her with a kiss, the moment signifies the escape of this frustrated Midwesterner to a more fulfilling life. The exhaustive tabloid chronicles of Holmes’ recent flight to independence provide an amusing subtext, something otherwise lacking in Theresa Rebeck’s superficial new comedy.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 29, 2012
Norbert Leo Butz is no stranger to playing shady characters, from the con artist in the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (for which he won a Tony) to real-life felon Jeffrey Skilling in Enron. In Dead Accounts, Theresa Rebeck’s engaging but unsatisfying new dramedy, he brings a fast-talking charm to a New York banker named Jack who suddenly shows up at his parents’ suburban Cincinnati home with suspicious stacks of cash. In the linoleum-floored kitchen, he deflects inquiries from his super-Catholic mom (a reliably dowdy Jayne Houdyshell) and his kid sister Lorna (Katie Holmes), who’s helping care for their ailing offstage dad.
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