How Entertaining Did Critics Find Mr. Sloane?

Alec Baldwin always brings people into the theater, so the fact that he is starring in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane off-Broadway is a big deal. For the production, Baldwin is joined by theater veterans Jan Maxwell and Richard Easton and New York stage newcomer Chris Carmack The O.C. and Related. Did critics think the mounting, which opened at the Laura Pels Theatre on March 16, was truly entertaining?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "Director Scott Ellis emphasizes the play's seedy, dark side without neglecting its humor. At times the pace slackens somewhat, but Ellis picks up the tempo in the third act… While Baldwin delivers such barbs with expert timing, his performance is the least grounded and believable. Wearing big black glasses and an ascot, Baldwin looks a bit like Charles Nelson Reilly; in fact, he seems to have partly based his characterization on the flamboyant actor-director. Baldwin's comic acting is so broad that he could be appearing in an extended Saturday Night Live sketch… The other three actors manage to be both funny and believable."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Ms. Maxwell, who last year snatched personal victory and a Tony nomination from the yawning jaws of the defeat called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, again demonstrates that she is one of our most ingenious actresses, retailoring an ill-fitting part to her own specifications and making it as snug as a glove. Watching this canny exercise in bespoke dressmaking is what holds the attention in a production that otherwise doesn't quite know what to do with itself… This production doesn't stop to smell and savor the sweet rottenness, the cheap perfume, of its characters' self-serving language. It coasts on the shock value of its situation. Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Carmack efficiently draw the silhouette of that situation, to sometimes hilarious effect, but they don't really color between the lines."

Frank Scheck of The New York Post: "Baldwin demonstrates the same comic chops and versatility he's been showcasing for years on Saturday Night Live. The SNL comparison is apt, since Baldwin - as skillfully funny if not quite accent-perfect as he is here, as the effeminate Ed - seems at times to be commenting on the material even while performing it. This sketch-like aspect tends to permeate director Scott Ellis' production, which is played far more for laughs than psychological truth. It would be unrealistic to expect the play to have anywhere near the same impact now that it must have upon its premiere. But this staging, broadly played and lacking the necessary menace, is disappointing nonetheless."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "The play gets off to just the right comic note with the entrance of Maxwell, who is both desperate and dizzy as the lovelorn Kath. There is something poignant about her aggressiveness in assaulting the savvy Sloane. As Ed, Baldwin makes a droll transformation from a stolid, no-nonsense businessman to a doting, helpless lover… He seems an assured comic actor. There is never any worry with Easton, who has a wild-eyed pomposity that makes us cheer his violent demise. Carmack could not be more perfect as the calculating, cynical Sloane. He is especially funny when he feigns innocence. A former Abercrombie model, he has acting skills comparable to his looks."

David Rooney of Variety: "While Scott Ellis' grip on the material loosens as the play's tone grows darker and more menacing, Orton's delicious dialogue and his gleeful skewering of middle-class morality still offer plenty to savor in the hands of this capable cast… While she's too slender, handsome and charismatic to be a natural fit for the nympho hausfrau, Maxwell's fluttery body language and manic awkwardness are hilarious, her quicksilver shifts between schoolmarmish propriety, girlish flightiness and slutty single-mindedness timed to off-kilter perfection."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "By emphasizing the humor over the horror, however, director Scott Ellis has forced us to question the resilience of the play's legacy. Orton was at his best when breaking the rules - theatrical as well as psychosexual - with the brazen pleasure of a naughty, nasty, adorable boy. With those rules broken long ago, however, we are left with little more than farce. Despite the missing menace, the cast appears to be having a swell time with Orton's amoral characters. This enthusiasm is often contagious."