JoannaGleason.com Blog

With Sons of the Prophet closing today I thought it might be fun to look back on the reviews that the show received.  We need only look to StageGrade.com’s list of reviews to find both a good collection of reviews and a summary of them.

Overall the critical reviews averaged out to an A- with 14 out of the 21 reviews giving the play some sort of A review.  The community of reviews gave it a solid A rating.

To give you some perspective on this A- raing, consider that War Horse received an overall A rating from both the professional critics and the community, and has been made into a movie.  Love, Loss, and What I Wore (a show that Joanna also took part in) gets an A- from the critics and a B from the community.

Okay, this is techinally old news by now, but I wanted to preseve the link and the important information.  I hadn’t started the blog back when this was news so I hope you’ll forgive me.

Sons of the Prophet was extended one week to run through today Jan 1, 2012 and this was announced on the NY Times Blog on October 26, 2011.  That’s just one week after the show officially opened in New York on October 20.  Amazing!

This means that the show was very sucessful for the theater and that the theater was very optimistic about the show.  Theater bookings are a tough business.  Sometimes shows are a flop and the theater can’t wait to move on.  Other times they have a hit and would love to keep showing it, but they have other commitments that they need to fullfill.  It was amazing that the show got the one-week extension and so soon after opening.  This speaks highly of its cast and playwright perhaps more so than any critic’s review.

I am hopeful to see the show move to an actual on-Broadway theater in the future.  Again, this is all dependant on Broadway theater’s bookings.  Surely there are threaters that would love to put on this production and make some money, but they may already have commitments to other shows.  I’m not sure how long the wait might be for the show to make the leap, but I hope it does happen and I hope it happens soon.

I’ve seen the show three times.  Once being its world preiemer in Boston and I did get to see it in New York as well and I enjoyed it each time.  For those of you who don’t know there were significant changes to the plot/characters between its first showing in Boston and its New York run.  While the changes had an overall reduction in Joanna’s character’s involvement in the various conflicts seen in the show it did make the show less complicated and likely more easily understood by wider audiances. 

Personally, I consider these changes an overall “push.”  While any day of the week my knee-jerk reaction would be that having Joanna play more complex characters is a good thing since she is so talented.  But, if it is at the expensive the show in general then perhaps it is not a good thing in the long run.

But back to the link itself.  There is mention from the playwright, Stephen Karam, that he has always envisioned this play as part of a trillogy.  I can’t wait to see what the future will bring for the Douaihy family of characters but also for the amazing playwright.