The New York Idea
Opening Night: January 26, 2011
Closing: February 26, 2011
Theater: Lucille Lortel Theatre
Cynthia Karslake is a freewheeling young divorcee in 1906 New York City society. She has decided to settle down again into a much more stable, reliable relationship with the prominent Judge Philip Phillimore. Little does she know, however, that neither of their impetuous and blowsy ex-spouses, nor her beloved race horse Cynthia K is yet down for the count. In this sharp-tongued comedy, David Auburn sheds vibrant new light on a little known play from a century ago that offers a surprisingly contemporary look at social mores, status and attitudes about sex and divorce in upper crust New York.
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
January 26, 2011
Cosmetic surgery — as the celebrity tabloids and society pages make clearer every day — is not always a fortunate undertaking. Under the homogenizing hands of certain doctors, a creature of eccentric charms can be made to look positively plain. This, by the way, is known to happen not only to desperate, perfection-seeking people but also to aged, overweight plays.
READ THE REVIEW
January 27, 2011
You’ve seen her: A woman with a face-lift who looks dewy from the neck up but whose crepe-y hands give away her age. So it goes with "The New York Idea," a 105-year-old play by Langdon Mitchell that’s been rehabbed for the Atlantic Theater Company by David Auburn, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Proof."
READ THE REVIEWJanuary 25, 2011
One of the most applauded American plays of the early 1900s, Langdon Mitchell’s "The New York Idea" is a social comedy regarding divorce among impulsive, well-to-do people. Since the play was so up-to-the-minute in 1906 thought and style, the dear old thing today is a pretty if cumbersome antique that still retains considerable period charm and cleverness.
READ THE REVIEW
January 27, 2011
In 1906 — well before Noel Coward chronicled the foibles of a divorced couple still in love with another in Private Lives — Langdon Elwyn Mitchell introduced a pair of exes whose lives and emotions are inextricably entwined in The New York Idea, now being presented by the Atlantic Theater Company at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in a new adaptation by Tony Award winner David Auburn. While the production, directed by Mark Brokaw, proves uneven, there is still something satisfying about encountering a play that remains decidedly ahead of its time.
READ THE REVIEWJanuary 27, 2011
The Atlantic Theater Company has produced enough outstanding plays to have a loyal following of theater goers who wouldn’t miss a production, whether a premiere or a revival. This season, with their Main Stage in Chelsea undergoing renovations, they’ve soldiered on as guests in other theaters. Their last offering was a terrific double header of two Harold Pinter plays, The Collection and A Kind of Alaska at the Classic Stage’s home, The 13th Street Theater. Now, another revival, this one a comedy of manners that takes us all the way back to the first decade of the last century, is at the Lucille Lortel in the West Village usually home to MCC. It’s an adaptation of Langdon Mitchell’s 1906 The New York Idea, by David Auburn, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Proof
READ THE REVIEW
January 24, 2011
“Marry for whim!” fumes Philip Phillimore (Michael Countryman). “The New York idea of marriage.” It also seems to be the New York idea of programming plays. Who knows why the Atlantic Theater Company chose to refurbish and remount Langdon Mitchell’s forgotten 1906 social comedy about a quartet of quarreling divorcées. (The cynical term subscriber porn comes to mind, but we’ll banish it.) David Auburn’s trim, cheeky rewrite is quite amusing, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re at a superior production at the Mint, or a revival by the Roundabout—during a rare burst of unpredictable curating.
READ THE REVIEW