Review: Look Up! It’s Amy Schumer in ‘Meteor Shower’

The abstract witty dialogue was all over the place, like meteor showers it’s impossible to connect the dots. Maybe that’s Steve Martin’s point! Just go with it and you’ll laugh a plenty thanks to great writing and a stellar cast of sketch comics. Amy Schumer is terrific and Laura Benanti is Broadway royalty. Loved it!

We must've seen different shows! At today's matinee, everybody was taking it for exactly what it was: a lite comedy featuring some very skilled actors. There were plenty of laughs to go around and nobody walked out feeling cheated. Thematically it didn't break any new ground, but I didn't go seeking revelation, or deep, dark philosophical soul-searching. And really, complaining about cheesy specials effects? It was written by a guy who was known for having an arrow through his head as part of his schtick! Our audience got it, enjoyed it and like me, still chuckled when talking about it a few hours later. Definitely worth your 90 minutes.

Just saw Meteor Shower, and LOVED it. I laughed almost the entire time. I thought the cast was spot on, and that Amy Schumer was amazing. I had some mixed expectations after reading reviews, but I am so glad I saw this. I thought Amy Schumer had fantastic stage presence, and was very very good. (Perhaps, having been in the role for some time now, she has grown more comfortable in it than at the time some other commenters saw it.)

Just saw Meteor Shower and loved it -- very funny with an interesting theme and great performances. After reading this mystifying review, I almost didn't go, Not sure what Mr. Green was expecting -- "Death of a Salesman" only funnier?

The show I saw that was worse was "china doll".

Really? I thought it was lots of fun! I - and those around me, and pretty much the whole theater - laughed throughout, and I can be tough. Also? Not a huge fan of Amy Schumer's brand of comedy, but I thought her delightful in this role, almost playing against type. Some of the things she did using only facial expressions were hilarious. It wasn't slapstick. It wasn't a farce. It wasn't Steve Martin from the 1970s (or 1980s?) with an arrow on his head. It was fun. Self-deprecating, silly, sometimes over the top in a good way (I'm looking at you, Keegan-Michael Key). It was an hour and a half of some good giggles (with a couple of crack-ups) that had nothing at all to do with the news...and that is a really, really good thing.

As someone who flies up from Houston 4 times a year just to attend Broadway, I usually wait until the critics have posted their critique before I buy a ticket, thus minimizing the opportunity cost of a bad decision (i.e., China Doll with Al Pacino). Unfortunately, I succumb to the hype - as I did then - and purchased a ticket for January. Should I stay or should I go ? (The Clash - 1982).

Why do I always get the impression Jesse Green is writing "a Paper" for college credits rather than reviewing a comedy. I suggest he write the words Banana Peel one hundred times and try not to smile.

Love Schumer but this she did not seem comfortable in this play. We saw previews and she tried but it was not authentic. Benanti walked away with the show-great comedic timing. Not well written and the cast puts forth big effort but it really is not that funny. Most of the audience around us sat stone faced at the awkward jokes. Was worth it seeing this cast work within constraints of not a great play.

She's not even funny...

Yup, a cosmic black hole. Talented actors doing their best in a tricky undertow, at sea.

Alright I'll bite, (not so off kilter), and so I say, it was authenticity funny. Green missed the finely tuned geography of Ojai, California and the mountain inland/coastal bug wall. Hilariously funny when symbolized in the play as everyone in California knows. Most missing in the review was the absurdity of personality type as adroitly played by the actors. Steve Martin teased out with setting/dialogue so many ego and id dilemmas that the audience careened between Sigmund F and Samuel B on a whirligig. This is a terrific play worth your time and money and a much better NYT review. Lastly, I mention, Meteor Shower in current context of Broadway productions is spectacular (unless) you need to see Cats, again.

Both Neil Simon & Edward Albee cast long shadows across Broadway. Both reached a plateau speeding downhill after seminal successes. This unfortunate, derivative work embodies what s wrong with many American theater works. Instead of an iconoclastic vision inspiring a unique work of art we experience a desperate attempt to shimmy phenomena into a show business stew. A shower of passe devices with Xeroxed thoughts sent to Broadway as a very very slow meteorite is not authentic art. In our topsy turvy surreality TV zeitgeist this mishmash seems to be the mirror appropriately responding to what's coming down. The meteor shower we are experiencing is not this banal, mediocre drivel. However as major newscasters & actors are harnessed in dunking stools, here it is. This is a play written all in the head & remaining there. Too bad audience members cant just be tested these proceedings. It has no kinetic drive, no immediacy, no subtextual structure, no transcendence. What is more authentic is the actuality of the desperate ushers & souvenir hackers working there. They want to be part of "the Broadway magic" which resembles Madam Tussaud s figures lately.

A play by Steve Martin may get my attention to read this review. Amy Schumer a comedy actress who best talks about or depicts character's who show's her vagina as a joke-spoof, to see in a play? no way ever.

I saw it at the Old Globe in San Diego and then the other night on Broadway. Even with the great cast in San Diego the reception was less than lukewarm. Another Steve Martin experiment that would work maybe at The Public but like i will not mention another one of his San Diego transplants to Broadway not worth the ticket price or the NY cast. Come on 80 minutes of sitcom gay jokes trying to be absurd Albee . I actually felt bad for Amy Schumer.

Talk about not funny..... This woman isn't funny at all.

We paid full Broadway prices for 80 minutes of "Meteor Shower." That's $4.54 cents a minute. It's a funny, yes, but mostly a total rip off.

Why can’t people just accept this very funny, very well acted 90 minutes for what it is; 90 minutes of a very amusing, relatable surreal comedy that offers welcome relief from this apocalyptic world.

Maybe it will get better...I must have hope with expensive tickets for January ! oy

It can't be as bad as anything by Will Eno, can it? (I say this as someone who has sat through a few of Eno's unbearable, unfunny and idiotic plays.)

I don't think I laughed once.

Looks and sounds tedious but with Schumer in it, sloven.

Don't agree with this slightly sour review. We saw the show last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. Really fun and well acted. Amy Schumer was great--she stayed in character and gave just enough of an wink to the audience to let us know Amy was in the house!

Saw it in previews. Loved it. Go see it. For the price of a decent therapy session you get 90 minutes instead of 50 and you laugh the entire time instead of whine. Anyway, I paid with Amex points so it’s like the ticket was free. It’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf meets Groundhog Day, but farcical and weird and clever and hilarious. And if you’ve ever been part of a couple, you will appreciate these four characters as they maintain, take, or lose control.

I think I saw a different show three weeks ago. It was tight, sharp, and well-acted. The audience's laughs were frequent and genuine. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded. Steve Martin is a treasure and I hope he keeps writing for the theater. I left the theater happy.

Agree. Liked the Realistic Joneses very much. The foursome better balanced, the writing tighter, more theatrical weight and depth. For sure. That said, saw Meteor Shower in previews and laughed for at least 80 out of 90 minutes. These days that's a good thing. Benanti was quirky, Shamos funny, liked Keegan-Key the least. Amy Schumer's timing and facial takes were hilarious. All in all a fun hour and a half.

Or in other words, if an unknown playwright had submitted this to a major regional theater, it wouldn't have made it past the initial read.

Sounds like one could split-screen watch "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and some episodes of "Friends" and gain the exact same insight into the human heart, and save oneself hundreds of hard-earned dollars, which can then be donated to a favorite environmental cause.

I saw this play in previews, so I read this review from a slightly different perspective. I mostly agree with Mr. Green's assessment. The play is funny but far too slight for a (very expensive) Broadway show. The performance that I attended was full of Ms. Schumer's fans who laughed and whooped at her every gesture. I left the theater vaguely disappointed, but within five minutes the whole experience vanished from my mind, painless except to one's pocketbook.

Mr. Green initially welcomes METEOR SHOWER to the Booth Theatre, says it's "definitely funny," and then gives two not very funny examples of Mr. Martin's "wit bombs." Mr. Green then proceeds to deconstruct the play, and the import of his review is that (a) the play is not very good and is actually a total misfire;(b) Amy Schumer, in her long awaited Broadway debut, is miscast in a role that is, to begin with, seriously underwritten: I mean who wants to see any actress flounder in bad material and only have one shining moment late in the play that's "worth waiting for;" (c) this is the umpteenth version/ rewrite) of the play by Mr. Martin; (d) it's on Broadway charging ridiculously high prices and running only one hour and twenty minutes; (e) this really sounds like it should have been a one act play ( or SNL skit) running off-Broadway with an intermission followed by another one act play (hopefully better than this one) and written by someone else. Mr. Green-- you're better than this, and so is Mr. Martin, an excellent actor who should stop writing third rate Neil Simon shtick.