Were Critics Dazzled by Manhattan Theatre Club's Doubt?

John Patrick Shanley's Doubt had a Broadway producer, Carole Shorenstein Hays, attached before previews even began at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I. The topical play, headlined by Tony winners Cherry Jones and Brían F. O'Byrne and directed by Doug Hughes, officially opened off-Broadway on November 23. Were critics certain that the play has what it takes to make it to the Great White Way?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "Shanley, whose work is being mounted by three major off-Broadway houses this fall, has written a gentle whopper of a play, an intricate character study that never stints on plot. He addresses deadly serious topics like faith and moral responsibility with warmth and generosity. He invests a memory play, set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, with tremendous relevance but doesn't succumb to anachronism. And he has given Cherry Jones and Brían F. O'Byrne roles worthy of their immense gifts."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "While all the performances are excellent, Ms. Jones's and Mr. O'Byrne's are extraordinary, master classes in the use of body language and vocal inflection to convey internal conflict. Each has one especially stunning moment. In Mr. O'Byrne's case, it involves his framing his mouth with the fingers of one hand. For Ms. Jones, it is simply a matter of dropping her voice an octave. Doubt is an unusually quiet work for Mr. Shanley, a writer who made his name with rowdy portraits of bruising love affairs. But gentleness becomes this dramatist. Even as Doubt holds your conscious attention as an intelligently measured debate play, it sends off stealth charges that go deeper emotionally."

Frank Scheck of The New York Post: "Engrossing, moving and even amusing, this old-fashioned play about the conflict between a Catholic nun and the priest she suspects of pedophilia, though set four decades ago, couldn't be more timely. Impeccably directed by Doug Hughes, presented by the Manhattan Theatre Club and acted by a superb quartet of performers, the drama is set in 1964 at a Bronx Catholic school… Written with the sort of skillful theatrical canniness and intelligence that makes it seem almost an anomaly, Doubt should be considered a prime candidate for a Broadway transfer."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Given what we have learned about the church's handling of such issues in recent years, it would have been easy to write a polemic. Instead. in his powerful play, Shanley has created genuinely conflicting, equally valid concerns. It gains huge strength from yet another beguiling portrait of a child molester by O'Byrne, who won a Tony for a similar portrayal in Frozen… Goldenhersh has a poignant diffidence as Sister James. Lenox conveys the depth of concern of the boy's mother, though one wonders if, as an African-American in 1964, she would have been quite so assertive in an all-white setting. But it is Jones whose work makes this rich play so moving. From her first appearance you sense she stands for something much more important than this jurisdictional squabble."

David Rooney of Variety: "All the elements come invigoratingly together like clockwork in John Patrick Shanley's provocative new play, Doubt, a gripping story of suspicion cast on a priest's behavior that is less about scandal than about fascinatingly nuanced questions of moral certainty. A remarkable mid-career high for a playwright here looking at broader themes with subtlety, maturity and complexity, the perspicacious writing superbly balances gravitas with considerable humor, backed in Manhattan Theater Club's world-premiere production by a peerless cast, crisp design and impeccable direction from Doug Hughes."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Doubt wakes up this slumbering theater season, jolting the audience with a tough, timely story, rich in character, language and ideas. In a fast 90 minutes, Shanley skillfully examines the uncertainty surrounding a priest and his relationship with a young male student in a Catholic grade school. Rumors swirl. But are they true? Shanley lays out the situation's ambiguity with astonishing theatricality. He's helped by a remarkable, four-person cast and the taut, tight direction of Doug Hughes, who doesn't allow a word to be wasted."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "We don't know whom to believe in Doubt, the important and engrossing John Patrick Shanley drama that the Manhattan Theatre Club opened last night in its Off-Broadway playhouse. How splendid it feels to be trusted with such passionate, exquisite ambiguity… The drama about pedophilia in the Catholic Church manages to be both unlike anything we have seen of the prolific playwright's unpredictable output and its culmination so far. Directed with toughness and great sympathy by Doug Hughes, the four- character play has a dream cast.. Blunt yet subtle, manipulative but full of empathy for all sides, the play is set in 1964 but could not be more timely. In just 90 fast-moving minutes, Shanley creates four blazingly individual people, not to mention a vibrant sense of neighborhood, of the deep reach of bigotry against gays and of the isolating effects of the male-dominated church hierarchy on strong and caring women."