‘The Height Of The Storm’ Broadway Review: Jonathan Pryce & Eileen Atkins, Haunted And Haunting

“Haunting” is a word critics overuse, but sometimes nothing else will do. Still, I’ll do my best to avoid it – after this review of The Height of the Storm, the thoughtful and engrossing new play by Florian Zeller, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton, opening tonight at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway.

See, haunting here makes extra sense because the word conjures haunted, and serves well this play of death and ghost-like presences and what happens when the living can’t let go of their beloveds. With just a few shifts in direction and a horror movie score, Height could be one of the best haunted house tales since Nicolle Kidman got spooked by The Others.