Review: ‘The Mystery of Love and Sex’ Looks at Identity and Secrets Too

This is the perfect play for Charles Isherwood. That is not a compliment. Ms Rankin as wonderful.

On the way out of the Mitzi Newhouse after the Sunday matinee of this mess of a play, I overheard a theater patron say to his wife, "Oh, the standards."

That about sums it up.

Having just seen the play this week and witnessed the deeply unenthusiastic response of the audience -- mostly longtime LCT subscribers -- I'd suggest that before buying tickets, you might want to read Jesse Green's take in New York Magazine for an alternate view. Here's the link: http://nymag.com/listings/theater/mystery-love-sex/

What I appreciated about the play is the shifts in relationships happened in the present on stage. So many plays are lazy monologues starting with "When I was little..." or "When your dad and I first married..." The playwright plants such notions quickly and then unfurls them in the present. The audience around me stayed in their seats during intermission to trade stories about relatives and friends whose lives have also taken such turns on dimes. The word I keep hearing was "it's human." I ask for little more from plays presented in LCT's Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Let's deal with the fact that I plunked down one hundred bucks to see the lovely Diane Lane and the ultra talented Tony Shaloub who have precious little to do in this seemingly recycled sex comedy of errors. The stars play second fiddle to the unappealing "young" couple... I feel so cheated... If the play had been better, more honest, truer.....?

I was surprised by the NYT review. Like most of the others who left comments I found the play packed with too many coincidental developments.

I sympathize with the actors who gamely submit to nudity that serves no purpose.

I do not agree with the Times review of the play.. may be the reviewer saw a different play: Mine was confused: confused ideas, confused thoughts, confused acting. Too many emotions, most of them with limited resonance. It just did not sound true at all. Ms Lane and Mr Shalhoub were very good with the little material they had, but the younger "pair" was lamentable., especially Ms Rankin. I kept trying to put out of my mind 'SNL Cecily Strong's "girl you wish you never started a conversation with", but I couldn't.. it was dead on!

I wish Ben Brantley had been the reviewer. The preview I saw was not worthy of staging, for reasons of the script and the performances. The play as written is problematic: it's just a skeleton of dangling trendy issues presented heavy-handedly and punctuated with shallow laugh lines. It's choppy, with a lot of jarring physical movement. There's no depth, cohesion, or real exploration. The play needs to be tighter, with the young woman as the focus. The two young actors weren't what one expects from a New York performance. Unfortunately, while Tony Shalhoub and Diane Lane do the best with what they're given, it's not much and it's very weak. It was an honor to see them; if only they'd been given a better vehicle. Having seen the episodes of Masters of Sex written by Ms. Doran, I expected much better, and this production wasn't even television quality.

***SPOILER ALERT***
Isherwood must have seen a different play! While the performances are fun to watch, it all just falls apart with one silly development after another: The mother's revelation of her infidelity (this truly comes out of nowhere), dad finding Jonny's "published" paper critical of him on the internet by doing a self-google (!) (since when do academic journal articles appear for free on-line?? Plus supposedly Jonny's professor submitted it to the journal for him -- huh?), the ridiculousness of finding mom's old wedding dress on ebay (or whatever --don't ask!) just in time for the wedding (and don't worry, the tailor can come in the morning to make it perfect right before the wedding!). It's all laughable -- and not in a good way!

Simply one of the worst things I have seen in years. Ms Rankin & Mr Athie were painful to watch. I wish I could say I am shocked that this is the kind of talent that Julliard & Yale is turning out these days, but I'm not.

This was a wonderfully acted play that, unfortunately, never rose above the level of an intelligent sit com. Thank God for Tony Shalhoub and Diane Lane, they gave some depth to roles that were as underwritten as a TV ad. Their marriage failed because he looks at porn? Really? She was once a Yale student that now finds solace in smoking pot and hooking up at the supermarket? Perhaps I expect too much from my theatre experience but if I'm asked to shell out dollars and time for a show that has nothing more to say than "coming out is hard," I guess I'll stay home.

Got to see this at Lincoln Center and was really floored by the performances and much of the dialogue. The characters are all delightfully nuanced - although Lucinda doesn't quite make sense - Lane is stuck working with some camp/over-the-top Southern "hippie"-rebel (closet progressive) junk that wouldn't have even fit in well in Steel Magnolias. Howard's internal contradictions are beautifully rendered, as is the perfectly grating earnestness of Jonny. Shalhoub delivers the best performance of the group; Athie's too-serious stiffness works well for the character even if he's not acting, but Rankin's doesn't so much. Still, a really fantastic play, and a great cast.

hmmm… when I saw this play in previews it seemed painfully obvious, throwing in what has become every cliché of identity in recent plays: race, sexual orientation, jewish, Baptist, Southern WASP. A number of plays have done this recently, and a far better one with somewhat similar themes is Disgraced. The nudity is gratuitous, since it i totally unbelievable in the contexts where it appears. Th acting, on the other hand, is superb, especially Tony Shalhoub. I found it on of the most disappointing efforts of Lincoln Center Theater, which usually has very high standards. I am bemused that Isherwood finds such an obvious and contrived play so dandy. Most of the people around me were shaking their heads.