"On paper, the new Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza's Art sounds like a winner: three Tony Award winners Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden trading barbs in a sleek comedy about male friendship and the value of modern art. The result is hardly terrible, but it is slight. The laughs are modest, the pacing drags, and the play never builds beyond its simple conceit."
"The setup is simple. Serge (Harris) spends a fortune on a modernist painting essentially an all-white canvas which his longtime friend Marc (Cannavale) dismisses as worthless. Their hapless friend Yvan (Corden), caught up in wedding-planning chaos, is dragged into the conflict. What follows is 90 minutes of circular bickering that trudges along, punctuated by a manic monologue from Yvan and a final dramatic gesture involving the canvas itself."
"Director Scott Ellis, a longtime Roundabout Theatre Company mainstay, is best known for his many revivals of both plays and musicals, which tend to be straightforward in execution. That approach is evident here. There's nothing flashy or conceptual in his staging. The clarity is admirable, but it also exposes the limitations of the text. Art is essentially a boulevard comedy, witty in moments but thin overall."
Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden star in a Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza's Art, portraying three friends in conflict over a modernist, mostly white painting. Serge's expensive purchase angers Marc, while Yvan is drawn into escalating bickering amid wedding-planning turmoil. The production runs about 90 minutes, punctuated by Yvan's manic monologue and a final gesture involving the canvas. Scott Ellis directs with straightforward, uncluttered staging that emphasizes clarity over flash. Performances are capable, but the play feels lightweight and underwhelming, offering modest laughs, slow pacing, and limited depth compared with more probing contemporary plays.
Read at www.amny.com
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