“Three Tall Women” Opens to Rave Reviews

Edward Albee Play Revived with Direction by Joe Mantello

On March 29, 2018, Three Tall Women opened at the John Golden Theatre, where it had played previews since March 1. This Edward Albee play, first written in 1994, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. That year, for the New York and London productions, it also won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and Best Actress (Maggie Smith), the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play.

This production is directed by Joe Mantello (The Humans, An Act of God,The Glass Menagerie). Albee’s extensive playwriting credits include A Delicate Balance, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Seascape and The Goat or Who is Sylvia? In this revival, “A” is played by Glenda Jackson (Rose, Strange Interlude, Macbeth), “B” is played by Laurie Metcalf (A Doll’s House Part 2, Misery, The Other Place), and “C” is played by Alison Pill (The House of Blue Leaves, The Miracle Worker, Mauritius).

Excellent Reviews from the Major Critics

The New York Times raved about Jackson in “a role that’s big enough to need her.” He concludes that the play, “despite its frailties and wrinkles has aged beautifully, into a burning, raving classic.” Deadline praised Mantello’s “superb staging,” and states that “Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning late-career masterpiece has been given the loving, impeccable production that Albee apparently thought was beyond Broadway’s reach.”

The Hollywood Reporter stated that “stage acting doesn't get any better” than Jackson’s, lauding this “brittle but moving play about death and self-knowledge,” and that in this production, the writing “feels revitalized.” Variety says that watching Glenda on that stage was like “looking straight into the sun,” because “it’s the voice that really thrills.” Entertainment Weekly was a bit less enamored with the production, saying that it’s “far from an easy evening of theater,” and that “many of the hallmarks of great Albee — pitch black humor, verbal takedowns, delightfully indulgent cynicism — are initially in short supply here.”

Good But Not Great Box Office

In the last week of reported box office figures, the week ending April 1, 2018, Three Tall Women brought in $599,626, which represents 73.79% of its gross potential. In the five weeks of reported box office figures thus far, the average percentage reached of box office gross potential has been 72.59%. With an average top ticket price of $287.40, the average paid admission thus far has been $97.74, and the audience has been filled up to 96.14% of its capacity on average.

Therefore, this is far from a sell-out production, but there is a fair amount of interest for this revival, seeing the Broadway stage for the first time. In general, these numbers are not bad for a drama with actresses of renown. The play is scheduled to run until June 24, 2018.