The Citiblog

Review: Leopoldstadt Is Simply Shattering
October 2, 2022, 11:45.24 pm ET

Print


Photos: Joan Marcus

By Brian Scott Lipton

When seeing a Tom Stoppard play, one expects to be intellectually dazzled, if not emotionally devastated. That changes with “Leopoldstadt,” now getting its U.S. premiere at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre, which magnificently succeeds at both challenging the brain and piercing the heart. (So yes, it’s worth the sometimes-painful effort to sit for two-plus hours without intermission.)

Directed with a keen eye and ear by fellow playwright Patrick Marber, this semi-autobiographical play spans over 50 years in the lives of an upper-class Austrian Jewish family, whom we first meet in the elegant apartment of Grandma Emilia (the invaluable Betsy Aidem) in turn-of-the-century Vienna on Christmas Day 1898. Continue reading...


Comments:
^Top