BECKY SHAW Previews — Page 2

Be sure to check TodayTix for discounts on this show, mostly mezzanine. Row C center mezz is offered for around $100 vs $154 from the box office. Row E center mezz for around $90 vs $125 box office. (TodayTix had a sale on this show end of Feb. and we scored Row A center mezz for $109 vs $179, but that's not being offered currently.)

Updated On: 4/4/26 at 06:02 PM

So, just as I remember thinking the first time years ago off-Bway, Becky Shaw is an almost perfect play. What makes it stand out is it seems so cynical, but there's such a great big beating heart underneath. And the comic writing is so expert! But so human. My friend was crying at the end, and he didn't understand why. That's the greatness of the piece. Alden was almost as good as the original (now deceased)guy who played Max (can't remember his name, but he seemed so essential to the play). But Alden's was a brilliant stage debut and the rest of the cast were all wonderful. Such great direction, too. A season highlight! Best Play Revival Tony? Could be!!!

Linda is pretty exceptional in this and is my personal pick for Best Featured so far. This is probably a perfect play.

quizking101 said: "Just got through Act I. This whole show is a clusterf**k of personality disorders and I am LIVING!!!!"

This is the best post I've ever seen on this board. You're about halfway through Act Two as I type. Have a grand time.

Wow. Wow wow wow.

Having gone into this almost completely blind as from knowing a bad first date was involved, this has turned into one of the major surprises of the season.

From the jump, you are already staring down the barrel of a maelstrom of personality disorders - borderline, avoidant, dependent, histrionic, narcissistic. The gang’s all here and with knives out. It’s a slow build through Act I as we establish the wobbly and blurry relationship between Max and an unstable Suzanne, complicated by Suzanne’s blunt and icy mother. The sudden, unexpected entrance of Andrew into the mix changes the dynamic and stabilizes (so we think) Suzanne and destabilizes Max. Once Becky comes in with smiles, a lifetime of possibly confabulated baggage, and a manipulative streak that would unsettle some professionals (As a psych nurse, I was quite disturbed), the games begin. By Act II, relationships are questioned, motives are assumed, trust is shattered, and the worst traits of everyone’s damaged ego have been set off by Becky’s interloping.

By and far, the walk away winner of the night was Alden Ehrenreich’s Max. He is a man of more than two faces - almost sociopathically code switching between aloof, sarcastic, wounded, and caustic depending on who he is up against, with the only formidable character going against him being Linda Emond’s histrionic, yet calculated mother. (A subtle example of game recognizing game). Ehrenreich is all but guaranteed a Tony nomination, though Linda Emond did not fully make the same case for me, especially since she opens and closes the play and so much happening in the interim can make one forget she was even there. I will say that the most caustic and cutting lines come from both of them and some of them you feel on a visceral level.

Ball does well as the put-upon Andrew, and Madeline Brewer all but nails the classic borderline personality symptoms in a remarkably convincing and clinically accurate way without giving into the very tempting impulse to oversell it.

A note on Lauren Patten - I do have to push back on the idea that she appears miscast and giving herself over to “capital A acting”. As her character is a dependent personality, she has to rely heavily on her character being a bit more erratic as Suzanne’s psyche can only be regulated by outside validation, especially when it’s compounded by grief. I thought Patten actually struck that balance quite well.

I agree that the set is confusing and hideous, but thankfully the play itself was strong enough for me to just ignore it.

I know this sounds like a lot of psychobabble to some, but this is all to say that there is a gold mine of richly drawn messes at the Hayes and to sleep on this would be an absolute mistake

Updated On: 4/5/26 at 12:13 AM

Jordan Catalano said: "I went into this today having never seen it, read it or even knowing the plot and I can tell you that if this isn’t my #1 at the end of the year, it’ll be damn close to it. This was one of the most perfect plays I’ve see in a very long time and gave me a treasure trove of one-liners I’m sure to be quoting from now until I die. Tony nominations for everyone, I say."

Those one-liners! My God. They were basically expertly aimed missiles. Not a single shot fired was missed.

I think something has to be said about the silly and fun, but almost psychological things happening during the scene changes! You have to pay attention, but it proves what a wonderful director Trip is.

I really wanted to love this, especially after hearing so many positive thoughts during previews. But after a really intriguing setup in the first two scenes...I felt like the play completely loses focus and has no idea what this story is actually about. I was begging for it to end about 30 minutes before it finally did. So many ideas are introduced and compete with one another over which one gets to be the central thesis of the script, but it feels like none of them win. I missed this Off-Broadway and am genuinely mystified as to how this was a Pulitzer finalist.

Ehrenreich was fabulous and made it worth watching to completion. Linda Emond is great as always, but it's a part she could probably do in her sleep and there's not enough of her. Madeline Brewer is an intriguing presence and I thought that after Act 1 the script was gearing up to let her let loose and do something truly bats**t crazy. But she never actually gets the chance to explode. She's just SUPER clingy and wants to dive into any relationship full force at the drop of a hat. We've seen this done a thousand times in a thousand more interesting ways. Ball and Patten are fine, but making very surface level choices and leaving too much air between their dialogue. And this is surely one of, if not the, ugliest sets I've ever seen on Broadway. The thing mostly looks like a college black box production that had a budget of $200. Overall I Ieft feeling completely "meh" and disappointed that I felt like I attended a totally different show from the one other posters described here. I just did not get this script at all.

I’m going to pile onto the praise for this one. This has to be one of the best theater experiences I’ve had all season. The play is razor sharp, cruel, funny, maddening, and while I hear the criticism that it pulls as so many strings I think that what makes it so compelling beyond merely being a comedy. Every time you think you know what it’s about, it reveals another layer of humanity that is wrapped up in this messy connections between these people. I found myself wondering what could have been so good the year this was nominated for a Pulitzer because it’s jus so damn good and relevant—how could it not win?



Trip Cullman’s direction here feels like a master conductor working on a symphony. Every little moment feels so cleanly crafted and mined fir its depth, which often makes it even funnier.

Alden Ehrenreich deserves all the praise he’s getting—a Tony nomination if not a win is for sure in his future.



Emond is the next standout of the cast, though I wish she had more.



The rest of the cast is wonderful—I think I felt the same hesitation about Patten as others did early in the show but in the end she massively won me over and in may ways felt like the heart of the piece. Her performance is proving to stick with me more than some of the others



Can’t recommend this one enough. It’s a revival that feels as fresh as a new play.

Updated On: 4/6/26 at 12:48 PM

EDSOSLO858 said: "BroadwayGirl107 said: "I found myself wondering what could have been so good the year this was nominated for a Pulitzer because it’s just so damn good and relevant."

RUINED won that year’s Pulitzer Prize. The other 2009 finalist was IN THE HEIGHTS."

Which is crazy, because if we’re comparing Ruined to Nottages’ other plays, my vote would have been for Becky Shaw.

I was definitely cooler on this than most people here. It’s stylishly directed and designed, and the ensemble is largely fine, but the play itself still feels very much of its time. I realize 2008 isn’t that long ago, but so much has shifted since then - especially in how we think about gender roles and dating, which are really the show’s bread and butter thematically.

It’s not quite aged enough to read as nostalgic, so instead it just feels dated. I laughed here and there, but overall it landed as a pretty big “meh” for me. I just kept thinking “why this play and why now…?” Still haven’t figured it out, honestly.

Updated On: 4/6/26 at 04:39 PM

Becky's manifestation of BPD is refreshing, if that word can be used, in that she's not a cliched rabbit-boiler who stalks. She's far closer to the people I've known who control through passive aggression. I appreciated the nuance in both writing and Brewer's subtle performance, that she's as likely to implode as explode - to fold inward and assert herself in unguarded moments. Without spoiling the play, Gionfriddo makes a case that even BPD people can be yin to someone's yang (or the reverse), if temporarily. Gionfriddo makes a persuasive case that Becky is a Pandora's box of teachable moments for the solipsistic Max, who uses his rigid yardstick to judge everyone. It's part of the play's edge that Becky is given real agency in the catharsis and resolution.

Updated On: 4/6/26 at 08:45 PM