Wings OFF-BROADWAY REVIEWS

• NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF Wings

  

  The Shadows of an Airborne Life

  Ben Brantley

  October 24, 2010: Jan Maxwell is an actress of such natural authority that she becomes the center of gravity in almost every scene in which she appears. Even when she does demented, as in the child-hating cartoon villainess in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” or the drab but deranged sexual flytrap of “Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” I always feel that her character’s perspective is the sanest. I trust Ms. Maxwell to show me the world — or the world of a play — as it is.

  READ THE REVIEW

• BACKSTAGE REVIEW OF Wings

  

  Wings

  David Sheward

  October 24, 2010: When the right emotionally expressive actor and the right creatively imaginative director meet, the results can be searing and soul-wrenching. That’s what has happened with the Second Stage Theatre’s revival of “Wings,” Arthur Kopit’s 1978 play about a woman relearning language and perception after suffering a stroke. Jan Maxwell and John Doyle have collaborated to create a harrowing portrait of a nightmarish world of illness and the slow road to recovery.

  READ THE REVIEW

• ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY REVIEW OF Wings

  

  Wings

  Melissa Rose Bernardo

  October 24, 2010: The playwright who goes inside a character's head is a very brave one indeed. The one who goes inside the damaged brain of a stroke victim as it is happening — and puts the entire jangly linguistic puzzle on stage — well, Arthur Kopit's Wings succeeds on sheer audacity alone. (Wings was first written as a radio play for NPR in 1976, just months after Kopit's father suffered a severe stroke.)

  READ THE REVIEW

• NY POST REVIEW OF Wings

  

  Well-conceived drama never quite soars

  Frank Scheck

  October 24, 2010: Like its central character, Ar thur Kopit's "Wings" has proved remarkably resilient. This abstract drama about a former aviatrix turned stroke victim premiered to raves on Broadway in 1978, winning a Tony for Constance Cummings.

  READ THE REVIEW

• NY THEATRE REVIEW OF Wings

  

  Wings

  David Gordon

  October 21, 2010: Few things are more exciting to theatre lovers than the prospect of a very fine actor taking on a daunting role and performing it so exquisitely that it seems as natural as breathing. Such is the case with Jan Maxwell, delivering a 65-minute tour-de-force, with a great deal of skill and care, in John Doyle's revival of Arthur Kopit's brief 1978 drama Wings at Second Stage Theatre.

  READ THE REVIEW