Brief Encounter
Opening Night: September 28, 2010
Closing: December 5, 2010
Theater: Studio 54
Brief Encounter is an imaginative new work that combines elements of Noël Coward’s beloved screenplay, and the one act play on which it was based, with song, dance and Technicolor displays of emotion.
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September 28, 2010
Doomed extramarital affairs are usually heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, squalid little disasters. They’re not fun to be in, and not fun to watch. They do not end prettily. Then how does one explain a Broadway adaptation of Noel Coward’s "Brief Encounter" – the classic 1945 film about a secret affair – that is utterly infused with happy energy, facetious wackiness and outsized hilarity?
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September 28, 2010
In 1945, master imp and conscientious keeper-of-British-values Noel Coward adapted his one-act Still Life into Brief Encounter, the seminal stiff-upper-lip-tearjerker film now beloved by millions. Coward’s work has now been reinvented once again as Brief Encounter, which England’s Kneehigh company is presenting for the second time in New York, this time on Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54 space.
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September 28, 2010
Bottom Line: Technological gimmickry never overwhelms the charms of this adaptation of the classic film. London’s Kneehigh Theatre has had more than a brief encounter with "Brief Encounter," its exhilarating multimedia adaptation of the classic David Lean film written by Noel Coward.
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September 28, 2010
The acrobatics of love are performed in high style in “Brief Encounter,” which is surely the most enchanting work of stagecraft ever inspired by a movie. It’s not erotic, Kama Sutra-style contortions that I’m talking about. The physical activities that occur in this exquisite British-born production, which opened on Tuesday night at Studio 54, are both more everyday and exotic than that, routinely described but seldom enacted.
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September 28, 2010
We’ve seen any number of stage attractions derived from motion pictures, and some of these have incorporated actual footage — either vintage or shot-to-order — into the proceedings. But Broadway doesn’t seem ever to have seen live actors interact with, and actually step directly into, the movie.Kneehigh Theater’s production of Noel Coward’s "Brief Encounter" might lose some of its impact in its relatively large Main Stem house, especially on the extreme sides and in the mezz; previous runs in London and Brooklyn played venues that were well under 500 seats. Even so, the play should get a warm reception here.
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September 29, 2010
The new Broadway season got off to a romantic start last night as "Brief Encounter" opened at Studio 54. The show arrives there by way of the U.K., where it was created by the Kneehigh Theatre company in 2008, and St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. There, it proved to be a 100% charmer last winter.
READ THE REVIEWSeptember 28, 2010
When Kneehigh Theatre’s multimedia stage adaptation of the classic Noël Coward–penned film "Brief Encounter" played St. Ann’s Warehouse this past December, this Coward fan attended with great trepidation, only to fall head over heels for it. I felt similar trepidation when I heard that Roundabout Theatre Company would bring the show to Broadway at Studio 54. St. Ann’s is a decidedly intimate space. Would the show fill a much larger house? Happily, the answer is ringingly affirmative.
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