Les Jones

A&E > Reviews of "Three Days of Rain" Starring Julia Roberts

NY Post - Julia's 3 Dull Days of Rain a Soggy Eternity:

I understand that it's virtually impossible to buy tickets for the 12-week limited run, although it seems there may be some "premium" seats available at $251.25, which I presume includes tax. Don't feel bad about it if you can't get in. Count your blessings.

Reuters - Julia Roberts makes a modest Broadway debut:

While the actress delivers a reasonably effective performance opposite co-stars Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, the star wattage so evident on the screen doesn't seem, at least in this case, to transfer to the stage.

Chicago Sun-Times - Save your money for 'Rain'-y day:

So, you ask, is it worth all that money and effort to see Roberts, still a very pretty woman, making her Broadway debut? Let's just say that she is watchable in a very challenging play, and that she has her moments, especially in the second act. But those who caught Steppenwolf Theatre's staging of this play back in 1999 (with Amy Morton, Tracy Letts and Ian Barford in the cast) saw a production that was far richer and stronger than the one now onstage in New York.

Boeston Herald - Roberts gets lost in lackluster 'Three Days':

The failure of ''Three Days" can't completely be tied to Roberts's inability to find her way into the neuroses of a pretty complicated woman. (Actually, two pretty complicated women.) Even the reliable Paul Rudd seems lost in Joe Mantello's wimpy restaging of Richard Greenberg's drama.

Toronto Star - Pretty Woman pretty flat:

There's tremendous excitement on W. 45th St. these days, where Julia Roberts opened on Broadway last night in Richard Greenberg's play Three Days of Rain.

Unfortunately, almost all of it is outside the theatre.

For the record, Roberts does not deliver a train wreck of a performance. She's careful and controlled, though some of her line readings have that tentative "I'll get this right on the next take or else we can loop it later" screen-acting sort of feeling.

In fact, the whole problem with Roberts is that she's a movie star, not a theatre personality. There are many people who've succeeded in playing both sides of the fence, but there's something about Roberts that doesn't make the leap.

That's more or less what we heard when we were in Manhattan three weeks ago when the play was in preview mode - Roberts wasn't very good and her accent was worse.