Grey House
Opening Night: May 30, 2023
Theater: Lyceum Theatre
Website: greyhousebroadway.com
When a couple crashes their car in the mountains, they seek shelter in an isolated cabin. Its inhabitants, though somewhat unusual, are eager to make their guests feel right at home. But as the blizzard outside rages on and one night turns into several, the couple becomes less and less sure of what’s true—about their hosts, themselves, and why that sound in the walls keeps getting louder.
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June 1, 2023
“Grey House,” at the Lyceum Theater, is certainly an in-your-face assault, more in the manner of John Carpenter movies than anything seen onstage since the age of melodrama. It is so expertly assembled from spare parts by the playwright Levi Holloway and the director Joe Mantello that you may not notice, between the jump scares and the shivery pauses, how little it has on its mind. Something about cycles of abuse? The legacy of misogyny? Sure, let’s go with that.
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June 1, 2023
At times, the psychological slow burn of his new dark comedy moves at a snail’s pace — lethargizing the play’s momentum and stretching entire scenes beyond comprehension — but “Grey House” cracks open in its final moments. And by its end, the play accomplishes what only the best of its genre is able to: It reminds us that the scariest monster of all lives in mankind.
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June 1, 2023
The script can drag and the metaphors pile higher that Jenga blocks, but the oblique text of “Grey House” never lacks for intrigue and edge-of-your-seat fascination. And the show’s fine cast and creatives do their best to make it all less impenetrable.
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June 1, 2023
Together, they deliver a savvy tale that might be likened to a dark, lonely lake on a moonless night – scary enough on the surface, scarier still when one ponders what’s below the surface. There are some stretches that start to feel dull or repetitive, possibly the result of confusion as to what, exactly, is going on, but such moments fade with the next scream.
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June 1, 2023
But if you’ve seen a lot of this onscreen, capital-H horror of this kind is less often done on Broadway, and in that context, the scares are fresher. The production makes a good case for more full-on spookiness onstage, even if it’s a less convincing one for this play in particular.
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June 1, 2023
Holloway similarly uses elements of horror to dissect intergenerational cycles of male violence, and to interrogate the lengths to which women must go for protection and preservation. The play’s deployment of horror in attacking these themes, particularly its more surreal turns, is often highly effective in director Joe Mantello’s freaky, disquieting staging. Yet the play lands on a vague, sentimental conclusion that blunts its overall power.
READ THE REVIEWJune 1, 2023
While the eerie beginning may draw inspiration from tried-and-true horror tropes, Grey House, which recently opened at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway, succeeds in subverting both the genre and audience expectations by weaving together a haunting story of horror and heart. Unfortunately, Holloway’s puzzle-box mystery doesn’t give viewers all the clues they need to fully comprehend the tragic tale it’s trying to tell.
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June 1, 2023
This puzzling, undercooked, but still arresting play, set in 1977, knows and accords to the genre conventions from whence it derives.
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June 1, 2023
Director Joe Mantello has given the script a first-class staging, masterfully balancing shades of light and dark while deftly delivering the bumps, thrills, and chills that are an essential part of what makes Grey House so satisfying.
READ THE REVIEWJune 1, 2023
Although the 110-minute production oozes mystery and a ghostly vibe, it doesn’t deliver intense shivers. It’s too vague to stir psychological chills or, for that matter, good old-fashioned goosebumps. It’s as much a head-scratcher as it is a hair-raiser.
READ THE REVIEWJune 1, 2023
I’m not sure those are the right initial expectations to raise, just as I am not convinced everyone around me at the matinee I saw understood what was going on, not least because Holloway wrote a much stranger play than anything typical of this genre and he refuses to pander. Good for him, and for Mantello for backing this young writer all the way, but I bet there will be plenty of question marks on the audience feedback surveys.
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