A DELICATE BALANCE, Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning masterwork returns to Broadway with an extraordinary cast.
In A DELICATE BALANCE, Agnes (Glenn Close) and Tobias (John Lithgow), a long-married couple, must maintain their equilibrium as over the course of a weekend they welcome home their 36-year-old daughter (Martha Plimpton) after the collapse of her fourth marriage, and give shelter to their best friends (Bob Balaban and Clare Higgins), all the while tolerating Agnes' alcoholic sister Claire (Lindsay Duncan).
The Daily News calls A DELICATE BALANCE "a beautiful play- easily Albee's best and most mature, filled with humor and compassion and touched with poetry." It "proves that old-fashioned stage virtues- originality of voice, depth of feeling, richness of language- can still provide a thrill" (TIME Magazine). "If you really care about serious theatre, brilliant theatre, great acting, and great playwriting, this is the only play to see on Broadway" (New York Post).
MacKinnon's feisty if occasionally restless revival...makes intriguing work of Albee's portrait of WASPy retired couple Agnes and Tobias (Close and Lithgow) contemplating family and friendship in the final act of their lives...The production can feel like it's oscillating speeds, but the constant is shimmering character work, and why wouldn't you expect that from such a cast of heavy-hitters? In her first leading Broadway appearance since 1994's Sunset Boulevard, Glenn Close makes a comfy return to the stage as the self-important Agnes, whose self-pity is as dramatic as her pashminas. Close exudes the kind of veteran flair and magnetism you'd presume from such a marquee name. But although this seems to be Close's marquee, it's John Lithgow who runs away with the show. As insular dilemmas pile on for the pensive, settled Tobias, Lithgow offers a tremendous master class in the art of the slow burn, cautiously placing weight on Tobias until he hits his emotional tipping point with touching resonance. B
'A Delicate Balance' proves to be the perfect vehicle for Close...On the surface, Agnes seems like an easy role to play -- a cold, emotionless monster who always appears to be in control. But Close paints a much more complex portrait. Her Agnes is a woman carrying layers of sadness and loss under that strength; A woman who allows herself to breathe through humor and love. It's a transfixing performance. Understated, yet the glue that holds everyone together. And Albee's words -- often presented in long, compound, poignant paragraphs -- will sound like pure poetry coming out of Close's mouth...Lithgow never lets us think that Tobias is a fool. He's just walked away from the battlefield. And when Tobias eventually returns to the fight in a pivotal scene in the play's third act, Lithgow leaves him raw, exposed and completely defenseless. MacKinnon, who won a Tony for directing the 2012 revival of Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,' guides these greats through the author's lengthy literature wisely, striking her own delicate balance between pacing and performance.
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2014 | Broadway |
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2022 | Off-Broadway |
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