'Grey House' review: Horror falls flat on Broadway
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One game played in “Grey House” dictates that a mother will die if the “it” person tells a lie. Well, many lies are told and Raleigh, while tortured, somehow survives. Raleigh survives because if she didn’t, “Grey House” would end well before Holloway delivers his climax, which is a very unappetizing dinner party that involves way too much exposition to make narrative sense of what’s happening. “Grey House” starts scary with that big boot being dropped into a pile of other big boots. Even earlier, as the curtain ascends in the totally dark theater, there is Tom Gibbons’s sound design that never stops punctuating the air with creaking wood and blowing wind and moaning humans.
Film
Grey House still lacks the gravitas and scope of some of the best horror movies, but it’s far and away the scariest thing that’s currently on Broadway and guaranteed to please and scare horror and theater fans alike. There’s The Crucible, The Elephant Man, Bug, and even horror-adjacent musical experiences like Sweeney Todd and Jekyll & Hyde, as well as musicals that ambitiously adapt movies like Beetlejuice, Carrie, Young Frankenstein and The Evil Dead. Arguably, none of these are true horror that leave audiences shuddering and gasping instead of humming to the curtain call.
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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. Grey House tells a story that’s intentionally cryptic and symbolically dense. This may leave some audiences unsatisfied, but it fosters a natural need to discuss and dissect what’s been seen the moment that audiences funnel out of the theater. This is what the very best horror stories trigger and The Grey House is almost as much fun to deconstruct post-mortem as it is to get lost in its free-roaming darkness throughout its hour-and-forty-minutes runtime.
Squirrel
Written by Levi Holloway, this new horror play under the direction of Joe Mantello opened Thursday on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre after a 2019 run in Chicago. Those interested in knocking on Grey House's door should know that it's much more of a psychological thriller than a classic horror tale. Audiences in search of jump scares won't find them here, but the play's dramatic conclusion — in all its sick, twisted, and agonizing glory — is well worth the wait.
Review: In 'Grey House,' Broadway Gets an Expert Haunting - The New York Times
Review: In 'Grey House,' Broadway Gets an Expert Haunting.
Posted: Thu, 01 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
From eldest to youngest, the cast, guided by Mantello through the gloom of night, finds all the shadings Holloway can dream up, from Universal Horror to the heady disquiet of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child and Bug-era Tracy Letts. The playwright, making his Broadway debut, has a way to go before matching those two savants of lurking, surreal horror, but Grey House shows him knocking on all the right doors. All of the adults here shine and this claustrophobic story provides plenty of opportunities for tense showdowns to take place between every combination of Metcalf, Maslany, and Sparks. That being said, it’s the children that are the real stars in Grey House. The group collectively function like a haunted Greek chorus that inexplicably shifts into sporadic songs and telekinetic displays of sisterhood. Each of these children contribute a different vibe to Grey House’s atmosphere and at their best there are shades of Ils, The Orphanage, or even Children of the Corn.
The play, directed by Joe Mantello and also starring Tatiana Maslany, had a well-reviewed debut in Chicago. We might be comforted, but just for a second, with the arrival of Metcalf’s Raleigh, who one might assume to be the mother of this sisterhood (and of one little, mostly silent boy, affectionately called Mister Man as if there’s just been a family fun night watching Misery). 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. She shows up occasionally, as if from another play, to badmouth the children around her.
‘Grey House’ review: Horror falls flat on Broadway
After surviving a car accident, the couple have sought refuge in a ramshackle cabin in the woods in order to escape the raging blizzard outside, and hopefully call for help. Sent every Tuesday and containing a selection of the most important news highlights. Sent every Thursday and featuring a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. LA kitchens tend to be large, mostly open plan, and gourmet with top-of-the-line professional appliances. But there’s not as much carving, ornate moldings, over-the-top use of stones.
Production stage management is handled by Juniper Street Productions, with William Joseph Barnes serving as production stage manager and Michael Altbaum serving as company manager.
At a haunted house, at least, performers get in your face and sometimes freakily touch you. You have to applaud any play for taking chances, especially in the very expensive Broadway district, for having something that is a horror, without a musical element, is a risk. Luckily, for the most part, it pays off for "Grey House" and while it isn't perfect, some of its flaws strictly are about patrons luck of the draw regarding seating, and only a few, fixable issues, are about what the playwright and actors deliver. Marlow is the leader of the children, who has a complicated relationship with her name and a voluntary hard time calling people by their given name.
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. Played out on Scott Pask’s terrifically clever cabin design, in which the remote outpost can seem cozy one moment and loaded with very hungry furniture the next, Grey House features top notch creative choices. Natasha Katz’ lighting design might just as easily be called shadow design, so adept it is in concealing whatever Grey House wants concealed at any particular moment.
And it is through Marlow as a ring leader, Raleigh as a tired old woman, who has mostly given up a sense of authority and mainly vents, that you get laughter, eyebrow-raising moments, and then with the other girls? Be it Squirrel or this being known as “The Ancient,” you get a certain creep factor. In regards to the story, whether it be the occult elements or the various hints that something nefarious has happened and continues to go on, you remain engaged, leaning forward even, despite it doing little to help you see what’s going on. Also, the set, with creaking doors, places for characters to disappear or suddenly appear, and it borderline being its own character, just without dialog, helps set an inviting tone for those who enjoy the horror genre that doesn’t need to pursue grandeur moments. There’s retribution coming, justice of sorts for a long, unforgivable history of male-on-female violence, murdered girls and the boys-to-men who get away with it all. Stories of horror are fantastical, but need to follow their own inner logic once the parameters of that fantasy have been established.
Heck, even “Mister Man,” as quiet and shy as he can come off, there is always a lurking potential of a dark side to him. So combine that with each given a backstory which makes them more than some spooky kids and their caretaker, you get what can be a satisfying horror tale – to some. Yes, there are a handful of jump scares (maybe 2), there is imagery that can creep you out, the closer you are to the stage, and young girls who grew up isolated from civilization make the perfect eccentric and off-putting characters. “Grey House” could be staged in such a way that the play begins with a semblance of normalcy and then slowly get weird. His direction exhausts every cliché of stage terror about half an hour into this 100-minute one-act.
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