Long Day's Journey Into Night Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Recommended
"...O'Neill, staring into the abyss of his own photo album, plunged into the paradox of family relationships, the push and pull of these untenable, inescapable, irreplaceable bonds. "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is a harrowing and often grueling journey into the elusive myth of home, the broken promise that hope keeps eternally alive. This Geffen revival, while patchy in places, reminds us why actors and audiences keep returning to O'Neill's haunted house."
Edge- Recommended
"...But the standout here is Woodell (The CW's "The Originals") as youngest son Edmund. Wracked with consumption, you can feel the illness creeping through his body. The wounds of his family have almost created his sickness, and it is only when he stands up for himself that the coughing and weakness seem to subside. He's the lone voice of reason in the house, and the weight of having to deal with everyone's transgressions and emotional immaturity has taken its toll. The dreamy Woodell is a find, like a young Paul Newman or James Dean, and I expect we will see a lot more from him in the future."
Stage and Cinema- Somewhat Recommended
"...The performances are loud and large, the movement good, the stage pictures handsome. But the pacing is lethargic, the scenes as incremental, episodic and redundant as on the page. And the actors, all of them very good, seem mostly miscast. When a stage full of excellent talents spend most of their time yelling desperately, even when they're whispering, I usually attribute the problem to casting and insufficient rehearsal time. In a show like this, there's a lot of work to be done only after the lines have been learned, and that's a lot of lines."
Stage Scene LA- Highly Recommended
"...It's a long summer day's journey into the darkest nighttime of their souls for the illness-and-addiction-plagued Tyrones of Eugene O'Neill's 20th-century classic Long Day's Journey Into Night, now getting a superbly acted and designed Geffen Playhouse revival under Jeanie Hackett's inspired direction."
Stage Raw- Somewhat Recommended
"...Hackett's production rarely achieves the emotional heights that would mark it as memorable. Instead, it's a good iteration of O'Neill's tale - great if you haven't seen the show before, but otherwise surprisingly workmanlike."
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
"...Los Angeles audiences now have the chance to see brilliant performances as The Geffen Playhouse is presenting O'Neill's masterpiece featuring Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek and Tony nominee Alfred Molina as leads Mary Cavan Tyrone and James Tyrone, along with Angela Goethals as Cathleen, Stephen Louis Grush as James Tyrone, Jr., and Colin Woodell as Edmund Tyrone. This production marks the first major staging of the classic play in Los Angeles in nearly a decade, and even though it runs almost three and a half hours, each of the actors give amazing performances, making even the longest of scenes riveting to watch thanks to Jeanie Hackett's direction and the actors' skills."