THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Center Theater Group / Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles

 

“Keeley’s endearingly defeated Laura”

“Underneath all the humorous hostility of this household lies the exquisite tenderness of a compassionate writer. One moment, incidental probably to some, epitomized this quality for me. It occurs when Laura has run out of the apartment on an errand and is heard stumbling outside. The alarm and fluster of Amanda and Tom tell you all you need to know about the play’s stakes and the playwright’s heart.”

 --Los Angeles Times

“Keira Keeley is luminous as Tom's self-defeating sister Laura, a physical and emotional cripple, lost in her fanciful world of glass figurines. Keeley and a terrific Ben McKenzie, as the cocky yet compassionate gentleman caller Jim O'Connor, create magic in the lengthy candlelit Act 2 scene, which shows us Laura's finest moment of resiliency prior to a crushing letdown. This segment epitomizes the breadth and passion that imbue Edelstein's rendition with a special glow that's often missing in productions emphasizing slavish faithfulness over creative imagination.”

--Backstage LA

“As Laura, Keira Keeley's frail figure is crumpled in on itself, as though she were hiding. She gradually opens in her last scene with Jim and shows what the actress can do, especially with a playwright like Williams.”

--Curtain Up (1)

 

“Keira Keeley looks just right for the part and is an aptly sensitive Laura.”

“Keeley is at her finest in this scene [the candlelit dinner party] and it really is breathtaking.”

--Curtain Up (2)

 

“the production is polished with excellent acting”

“Keira Keeley as Laura is effective as she navigates around the stage effortlessly with her disability, revealing it to us without overdoing it. She is completely believable in her scene with the gentleman caller, moving from introverted and shy to effervescent and hopeful, and from nervous and neurotic to normal and then back again.”

--Opera Theater Ink

"Keeley’s Laura is beautifully fragile. A squeal of girlish glee erupts when she lays eyes on her glass animals, and Keeley looks physically ill at even the thought of a Gentleman Caller much less the ring of the doorbell signaling that he has actually arrived. In Keeley’s hands, the doubly tragic conclusion of Laura’s one happy moment feels like a sock to the gut. Truly, we want some exit for Laura from Wingfield prison--and from her own damaged psychosis-- even more desperately than for Tom.”

“when you look into Keeley’s so sad eyes or notice the way Patch Darragh clutches his drink, even a corny line like “Go to the moon, you selfish dreamer” can feel resonant. Even still.”

--The Examiner

“kudos to Keira Keeley who's broken Laura comes alive when gentleman caller Jim comes to visit"

--Broadway World

 

 

THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Roundabout Theater / Laura Pels, NYC

 

“Mr. Darragh and Ms. Keeley performed alongside Ms. Ivey in this production when I first saw it last season at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven. They have both grown in the roles.”

“Ms. Keeley exudes the awkwardness of a newborn foal, her dark eyes wincing away from her mother’s pleas and exhortations, or the beaming inquisitiveness of the gentleman caller, Jim, played with appealing dash by Michael Mosley.”

 --The New York Times

 

“...it builds in intensity as the actors delineate their characters in light, precise brush strokes.”

 

“Barely lit, the key scene in which Laura opens up to Jim shows a young woman with untapped humor and warmth. But all the while, the menagerie glows almost malevolently on its table, a constant reminder of the depth of Laura's problems. If only she realized that strength can grow from sensibility.”

 --New York Post

 

“No matter how well you know "The Glass Menagerie," you'll feel as though you're watching it for the first time. Every line, every pause, every gesture is as fresh as a shaft of sunlight.”

 

“In addition to rethinking the play in so innovative a way, Mr. Edelstein has assembled a masterly cast whose members perform without the faintest hint of sentimentality.”

 

“This is the kind of revival that, once seen, becomes a golden yardstick by which all future productions of the same play are measured.”

--The Wall Street Journal   

 

“Keira Keeley's touching Laura is notable, surprisingly, for her strength. As long as she can stay in her own world at home, this Laura is comfortable, making a strong contrast to Tom's insecurity and unhappiness. Keeley emphasizes Laura's bravery in her encounter with gentleman caller Jim O'Connor, Tom's friend from the warehouse, here played by the pitch-perfect Michael Mosley. Most of Laura and Jim's famous scene of re-acquaintance appears to be lit by designer Jennifer Tipton solely with candlelight, and her careful interplay of light and shadow provides Laura enough safety to connect with him. Mosley and Keeley make a romance tantalizingly possible, so the dashing of it is all the more devastating.”

--Backstage

 

“And the pellucid, trembling Keeley...is almost unbearably effective as a girl destined to have her heart crushed as surely as her glass unicorn figurine will be broken.” 

--Time Out New York

 

“The long, candle-lit second act—in which Jim, a decent guy, first slowly brings Laura out of her shell and then unintentionally crushes her, and her mother, when he reveals he’s already engaged to be married—is both beautiful and devastating. By the time the audience leaves, we’ve been wounded, too.”

--The New York Observer

 

“one scene (the best in the production)—Laura’s heartbreaking candlelit flirtation with the Gentleman Caller.”

--The New Yorker

 

“Laura (the suitably grave and lyrical Keira Keeley)”

--Newsday

 

“watching Laura trying to engage Jim in her little glass fantasy world is like watching a fawn try to play with a bear.”

--Theatermania

“Crucial to this is Keira Keeley’s Laura: Her greatest affliction isn’t her lame leg, but her resignation to a life far less than the one she should be willing to live. Keeley plays the character with no self-pity, which lends fuel to her lengthy “date” with the gentleman caller, Jim O’Connor (Michael Mosley).”

--Talkin' Broadway

“Like her character, performer Keira Keeley (who plays Laura) comes to life when Mosley's Jim O'Connor enters…It's easy to see why Laura falls for him so quickly, and endearing when she does.”

--Variety

“shy, emotionally damaged sister, Laura, portrayed by the lovely Keira Keeley.”

“It's up to Keeley to provide the pathos that propels much of the production's lengthy second half. And those moments of sorrow are most apparent in Laura's touching, candlelit meeting with Jim, a gentleman caller Tom brings home for dinner. Their scene together brings out the best in Williams' writing, an honest emotionalism that doesn't descend into sentimentality if played right. And Keeley and Michael Mosley, as the invited guest, do just that.”

--Associated Press

“The production comes alive in an intimate scene between Laura and her "gentleman caller," which is gorgeously presented with candlelight.”

“Keira Keeley is believably fragile as Laura”

--On Off Broadway

“Portraying a painfully tremulous, sober-faced Laura with an ugly limp and a sweet voice, Keira Keeley assumes a fleeting glow when she basks in the genuine warmth of Michael Mosley's gleaming, gentlemanly Jim.”

--New Jersey Newsroom

“The biggest risk of all comes in the scene between Laura and the Gentleman Caller, which is staged almost entirely by candlelight, augmented only slightly by stage lighting. It should be impossible for this delicate dramatic pas de deux to work in near darkness, but Keira Keeley has already made such a strong impression as Laura -- loping clumsily across the room and slipping into a childish trance as she plays with the little glass animals of the title -- that somehow the darkness seems to enhance the overall effect. She is partnered beautifully with Michael Moseley, as Jim, the high school boy she loved from afar, now a shipping clerk disappointed by life but still dreaming of a kind of Dale Carnegie success. Even in the near darkness, we see Laura blossom under Jim's attentions, and when we learn that he can never be her suitor, the news is delivered with especially crushing force.”

“Over three decades I've seen many first-class productions of the play -- starring the likes of Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, and Jessica Lange -- none of which attained the power of this one.”

--Lighting And Sound America

 

"Keira Keeley...is sublime in the role and shows the painfully shy woman who bears her mother’s wrath”

--The Bergen Record

 

"When Laura begins to bloom in the presence of Jim, Ms. Keeley’s hunted, furtive look dissolves, and a beaming young girl emerges in the flickering candlelight. The process is deeply touching."    

 --New York Times

 

"Keeley has the required fragility for Laura and even displays hints at a deeper psychosis beyond merely being "terribly shy." Her tentative blooming in the scene with "gentleman caller" Jim (Josh Charles) is heartwarming and ultimately heartbreaking." 

 --Variety

 

"Keira Keeley's Laura captures the wounded bird fragility wonderfully but you also see glimmers of possibility as well. It's heartbreaking to see her almost-bloom and then wither in that final scene amid the haze of candlelight."    

-- Hartford Courant 

 

"Most productions turn Laura into a grotesque object of abject pity, a delusion hermit who is suckered by the slightest show of sympathy from a polite visitor….but Keira Keeley brilliantly underplays Laura, making her decent and genuine and never freakish."

-- New Haven Advocate

 

"Keira Keeley’s Laura, evoked with particularly powerful physicality"

 

"The chemistry of the ensemble…makes for a splendid evening in the theater" 

--New Haven Independent

 

"sister Laura (the concomitantly fragile Keira Keeley)"

 

"Keeley has the broken body language down"

--TheaterMania

 

“Along the way, Keeley offers a Catherine who evolves from numb and wasted — passively allowing Claire to set the course — to tentative and then increasingly willing to leave the safety of her comfort zone. Her winning mix of quirky and funny makes us root for Catherine as she struggles to emerge from her role as caretaker. Auburn’s delight in mathematical discovery — which the play’s practitioners describe as a lot of hard work, often frustrating, sometimes exhilarating — serves as an apt metaphor for the effort required of a young woman stepping out of her father’s shadow and into her own life.”

“a rich and rewarding two hours”

“Keeley and Pemberton deliver all the affection and concern these two have for each other in the play’s warm and gentle opening scene”

“Director Christian Parker supplies the requisite light touch, anchoring his quartet of actors deeply in their characters.”

 --The Boston Globe

 

“To start with the obvious, Keira Keeley is nothing short of magnificent as Catherine, the mathematician’s brilliant and sardonic daughter. This role is the heart of “Proof,” and the actress must succeed on several levels.

"She must be convincing as a math geek, a loving daughter and a young woman of incisive perception, yet fragile enough where depression and serious mental illness seem real possibilities. She must convey the pain of sacrificing her prime college years to care for a father whose mind had descended darkly from brilliance to the deepest psychosis.

"As Catherine falls for her father’s former student, the actress portraying her must somehow balance the social awkwardness of a sheltered brainiac with the sexuality of an attractive woman entering her prime.

"Keeley excels at all of these traits to the extent one wonders if, when Auburn created Catherine, he somehow presciently had Keeley’s Catherine in mind. She delivers one of the best performances I’ve witnessed in live theater."

--The Telegraph Encore

 

 

“the brilliant Keira Keeley”

 --The Philadelphia Inquirer

“the quality of the play, the writing, and the performances is unmistakable.”

“The main characters in this play were all magnificent."

“Keira Keeley’s Emma is pubescent angst, dealing with her entrance into adulthood and the conflicting love/hate for her family.”

--Stage Magazine

 

“a stunning reminder of the power a play can wield.”

 --CurtainUp

“Keira Keeley (Mary Warren) is a knockout as the simple servant girl who tries to do the right thing.”

--Riz's Blog Review: The Courant

 

 

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