Los Angeles Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...The work is exquisitely mounted by veteran director Daniel Sullivan and features a striking performance by Anna Gunn in the title role, but Alda hasn't so much dramatized his material as assembled watershed moments from Curie's career and personal life."
LA Weekly - Recommended
"...Alda's play tells the story enchantingly - well-directed by Daniel Sullivan, and well-acted on Thomas Lynch's ingenious set."
Backstage - Somewhat Recommended
"...Unfortunately this Marie is shades of gray, not particularly helped by a too-ambivalent though technically excellent performance by Anna Gunn."
Entertainment Today - Recommended
"...Under the direction of Daniel Sullivan, the rest of the performances are airtight. Thomas Lynch's set is simple, clean, and makes smart use of projections that turn the mood in an instant. Most impressively, Alda spins a gripping story out of two potentially dry topics - science and history. You might just learn a thing or two."
LAist - Not Recommended
"...The Geffen Playhouse production has assembled a top-notch cast and secured a fine director, but the show's mundane recitation of facts and misplaced focus on Curie's love life fails to become a fitting tribute or quality drama."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...Unfortunately, though it may be dealing with matters of truth, this second act plays like melodrama, as if its story was stitched together from shards of Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Balzac. Radiance has been given a good showcase; but would so much good work have been lavished on the play were it not written by Alan Alda?"
StageHappenings.com - Recommended
"...The production is superbly directed by veteran director Daniel Sullivan and features a cast of stirring actors headed by a remarkable performance by Anna Gunn as Marie Curie."
Examiner - Recommended
"...Alan Alda's "Radiance" entertains, educates, and involves the audience. I was held captive by the untold story of this courageous, charming and passionate scientist and woman. Playwright Alan Alda gives us a well-balanced story that satisfies on many levels."
CurtainUp - Recommended
"...Alda has a keen sense of character and, with the help of an excellent cast, brings the story vividly to life."
BlogCritics.org - Recommended
"...I enjoyed the play very much, especially the actors. Besides Gunn and Donahue, Sarah Zimmerman was also a standout as Langevin's estranged wife. I also enjoyed de Lancie, Hugo Armstrong as Emile Borel, Natasha Roi as Marguerite Borel, and Leonard Kelly-Young in the dual roles of Tornebladh and Terbougie. Dan Sullivan did his usual straightforward directing which enabled the actors to shine."
Campus Circle - Recommended
"...Undeniably, at times, the subject matter can go over the audience's head or grow a bit tiresome, but thanks to Gunn's incandescence and vulnerable potency, the show surges forward."
TheatreTimes.org - Recommended
"...Within days of opening, the play had extended two weeks. That's a tribute to the woman at the heart of the story, the wherewithal of one of America's great directors to execute such a demanding staging, and a playwright passionate about his subject."
TheatreMania - Recommended
"...Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie, the new play by Emmy winner Alan Alda premiering at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse, is an enjoyable evening that walks a fine line between education and soap opera, but never falls over into pedantics nor melodrama. He's aided in his mission by a wise director (Daniel Sullivan) and a passionate performance by Anna Gunn as two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie."
Culture Vulture - Somewhat Recommended
"...But "Radiance," despite its beautiful production, becomes bogged down in an attempt to balance the personal with the science. The message of Curie's feminism is delivered better than the essence of her science. Personally I would prefer to read more about Marie Curie and her discoveries than to try to sift out what part of a fictionalized biography is fact, what part is poetic license. The science is shortchanged (and probably impossible to grasp for anyone with no prior knowledge) and the personal is dragged down by the science."
