Would Broadway Critics Die For Patrick Stewart's Macbeth?

Patrick Stewart opened on Broadway last night in Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre. Critical response to the production began during its run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last month. The transfer of that production to Broadway is complete, and today we offer a selection of reviews. Overall, reviews for the production are mixed. A majority of the critics commend Stewart for his performance, though not all do. Several critics take issue with director Rupert Goold's choices arguing that they confuse the story, with multiple reviews referencing the "kitchen sink" approach both literally and figuratively. Goold's vision of the play receives a less than positive response generally. However, with blood, gore, spectacle, and Stewart's celebrity, it is likely the production will have great success on Broadway. Below are excerpts from reviews of the Broadway and BAM production. For a look at the Macbeth Curse on Broadway,visit

"Intermittently blizzarding the action with projected film of marching men, cheering crowds, and whatnot, Goold also pads it out with meaningless repetitions and parlor-game stunts, stretching this shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies to a three-hour running time..."
-Michael Feingold, Village Voice

"What makes this one a must-see is Mr. Stewart's thrilling recognition that his character is as close kin to the fatally introspective Hamlet as he is to power-wielding men of ill will like Richard III..."
-Ben Brantley, New York Times

" 'Macbeth' was Shakespeare's shortest play -- until Patrick Stewart and his director, Rupert Goold, stretched it to three hours, perhaps on the assumption that if tomorrow can 'creep at this petty pace,' why not today?"
-John Simon, Bloomberg

"Stewart's witty, nuanced work, which reveals Macbeth as an intelligent, rational person driven to madness by outside forces and his own violent transgressions..."
-- Elysa Gardner, USA Today

"Rupert Goold adds quite a lot to the play -- in fact, far too much..."
-Matt Windman, AmNewYork

"...for sheer thrills and excitement, you probably won't see as good a "Macbeth" for years...."
-David Cote, New York 1

"Exactly what all of director Rupert Goold's elaborate toil and trouble is meant to signify, however, is anyone's guess..."
--Michael Sommers, Star-Ledger

"...business should be booming for this limited engagement, and a Tony nod for its star seems a distinct possibility..."
--Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

"This is 'Macbeth' as arty action movie, beautifully spoken by a cast that seems relatively at home in the modernist whirlwind Goold has conjured..."
--Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times

"...firmly anchored by a wrathful Patrick Stewart, Mr. Goold's daring and diabolical mounting turns all of Scotland into a virtual abattoir, peopled with little more than a pile of corpses that an ever-dwindling coterie of survivors must climb over on the way to a gore-slicked crown..."
--Eric Grode, New York Sun

"...through all this it is Stewart we watch as he paints great swatches of color on an invisible canvas, then adds detail and nuance and heart..."
-Tulis McCall, Blogcritics.org

"Sometimes Goold's ambition got the better of him. Patrick Stewart speaking is music enough..."
-Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News

"Sometimes Goold's ambition got the better of him. Patrick Stewart speaking is music enough..."
-Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News

"Watching Goold's macabre take on the Bard's familiar tale of vaulting ambition and corrosive guilt is like groping through a carnival funhouse and whispering to a happily thrilled-and-chilled companion,,,"
-David Finkle, Theatermania

"The critic's toughest moment comes when he or she must recognize something innovative and mesmerizing without coming to personally like it...."
-Leonard Jacobs, New York Press

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