Jacob’s House Review: Laurence Klavan, The Jewish Daily Forward

(Photo: Justin Hoch @ jhoch.com. Pictured: Jane Lincoln Taylor)

Every once in a awhile, you actually come close to that perfect review you wrote in your head to calm your nerves and help you sleep; it’s positive, of course, but more importantly, it makes you feel the whole of the play has been fully felt, and a measure of it set down right.

Such a review is Laurence Klavan’s take for The Jewish Daily Forward. I’m especially grateful that he connected with Dinah’s final monologue, which is at the heart of what the play is really about.

I’m also thrilled by the note about Kia Rogers lighting magic, which builds subtly throughout the play to create the several last haunting moments.

And as far as favorite quotes go, this closing paragraph ranks very high up:

Replacement in the Bible often has tragic consequences, but those for the Flux Ensemble are happier. For one thing, it’s prevented the ensemble from producing “J.B.,” a play that read today is an intermittently powerful but self-serious and probably unplayable 1950s chestnut. And there’s another play to which a favorable comparison can be made: “Enron.” The multimillion-dollar extravaganza that quickly closed on Broadway also purported to expose American corruption in a fantastical style, only to emerge as obvious and inflated. To anyone willing to travel downtown, climb four flights and sweat a little, the intrepid “Jacob’s House” will say more with a lot less about the American idea.

This review is a long happy exhale after the white-knuckle process of putting this play up.

So, read the whole review here, then get your tickets, and after you’ve seen the show, please share your thoughts here.