The New York Post’s Clive Barnes<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> terms it a
\n“fascinating play … too complex to call a one-woman show. … Feldshuh gives a blazing
\nperformance, less an impersonation — with a prosthetic nose, straggly wig, padded legs and
\nenough makeup to sink a thousand Helens of Troy, she’s a ringer for Golda — than a heroic
\nconcept. … The play’s only fault is that in trying to humanize Golda Meir, Gibson has slightly
\ndiminished her with a shrugging comedy too stereotypical to be entirely lifelike.”<\/P>
\nMichael Sommers of Newark’s
\nStar-Ledger<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> raves about Feldshuh as “one fierce actress [who]
\ndelivers a spellbinding performance. … It’s the role of a lifetime. … Looking every inch like the
\nlegendary Israeli leader from her potato nose to her orthopedic shoes, Feldshuh energizes Meir
\nwith burning intensity. … It’s early in the Broadway season to start handicapping the Tonys,
\nbut she sets a hot pace for the best actress race in June.”<\/P>
\nNewsday’s Linda
\nWiner<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>, in the most balanced review of “Golda’s Balcony,” calls it “a
\nhandsomely crafted, tough-minded story of a complex woman and an international force who [had
\nan] undeniably inspirational life [and] a wise, bittersweet skepticism about miracle workers.
\n… Despite the limitations of one-person biographies and the downward spiral of Middle
\nEast realities, Gibson finds an admirably pragmatic way through the emotional and literal
\nminefields.” Feldshuh, as Gold Meir, “is very strong — fervid and kindly, fierce and decent, willful
\nand generous.” <\/P>
\nBruce Weber of The New York Times<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> slams the
\nplay, the production and Feldshuh: “It’s a ponderous essay wrapped in melodramatic
\nautobiography. … [There] are some devastating, movingly narrated nuggets of history. But
\nover all his script … offers less a genuine portrait of this important figure than a m\u00e9lange of show
\nbusiness tricks by a polished audience-pleaser. … [The] cheesily overwrought production …
\nsubscribes to Jerry Bruckheimer’s blow-the-morons-out-of-the-joint theory of entertainment.”
\nAbout Feldshuh’s performance, he writes: “Her fierceness is fierce; her tenderness is tender. She
\ndoes impressive voices and is adept in caricaturing the postures of male world leaders; you’ll laugh
\nat her Kissinger. But in the end her achievement is not the animation of Golda Meir but of Mr.
\nGibson’s artificial, overly literal imagining of her. And Ms. Feldshuh is unable to enliven a
\nconstruct into a character.”<\/P>
\nI had my own say a couple of days ago<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>. I called it “a
\nhuman tale of confession — a sentimental, occasionally hokey, one-woman show so gripping as a
\nflesh-and-blood Broadway entertainment that it’s almost embarrassing to admit it’s an instance of
\nHolocaust literature which, believe it or not, can make you laugh (not just cry). … I’m betting
\nword-of-mouth raves will be unstoppable; ‘Golda’s Balcony’ will be a smash; and when Tony time
\ncomes around next June, Tovah Feldshuh will be nominated for her portrayal of Golda in a
\nperformance made of both steel and chicken soup.” I’ll leave it at that.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gotham reviews are in. The score so far for “Golda’s Balcony”: two raves (Clive Barnes and Michael Sommers), one near-rave (Howard Kissel), one positive notice (Linda Winer), and one huge slam (Bruce Weber). If the variations make you wonder whether critics are worth their weight in newsprint, that’s not a surprise. Artists themselves, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-6v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}