The New York Times - Recommended
"...Now 86, Ms. Parsons has lost little, if any, of her energy, and absolutely none of her ability to bring sustained, animated life to a well-drawn character. Chris isn't drawn with the natural felicity of Alexandra but Mr. Spinella infuses the character with a life-worn gentleness that makes his disappointment in himself touching Ms. Parsons's starchy, sentiment-free performance never allows us to get too comfortable in her presence. In these moments, and in Ms. Parsons's more than capable hands, Mr. Coble's play rises above its slightly formulaic structure to become a dry-eyed, moving rumination on the hard fact that the progress of human life being what it is, truly happy endings are rare indeed."
NY Daily News - Not Recommended
"...There's a compelling and worthwhile story out there about an age-addled woman's battle to live out her life in her own home. The Velocity of Autumn isn't it. Toggling between glib one-liners and florid speeches, Eric Coble's two-hander adds nada to this topical conversation, along the way wasting a meaty subject, the talents of Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella and the audience's time and money director Molly Smith's production is static, which means park here and holler (for Parsons) and stand there and speak softly (for Spinella). Performances are likewise unshaded this play elicits a definite response: avoid."
Associated Press - Recommended
"... in a wry, spirited Broadway production [with the] Academy Award-winner Parsons here powerful and ingratiating and her co-star, the equally skilled Stephen Spinella. Both of these pros imbue their characters with genuine poignancy, rueful humor and their own adept timing. Molly Smith's deft direction also creates a sense of urgency during the 90-minute showdown about a seeming no-win situation. Spinella, winner of two Tony Awards, is a delight as a downtrodden, middle-aged man fighting inner despair over his failures in life. Parsons ranges with nuance between squirrely eccentricity, raspy anger and anguished despair, as she fights to convince her son that she needs to stay in her beloved home. As embodied by these two high-caliber performances, Coble creates a thoughtful, potentially enriching gift to the audience."
Hollywood Reporter - Recommended
"... the Oscar-winning actress delivers a memorable turn in an otherwise forgettable, schematic play. Appearing opposite her is the estimable, two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella The 90-minute one-act play basically consists of their extended confrontation, during which long-simmering issues rise to the surface. It's a feeble, contrived conceit, albeit one dealing with substantial and sadly relevant issues about the indignities of aging and refusing to go gentle into that good night. That the play staged by Arena Stage's artistic director Molly Smith works to the extent it does is a testament to the two performers, whose presence no doubt accounts for this slight work's Broadway mounting. Both bring wonderful grace notes, both comic and dramatic, to their roles By the time the evening reaches its predictable conclusion...these wonderful performers have fully invested us in their characters' emotional reconciliation."
Vulture - Not Recommended
"...This new Broadway production is ridiculous not just on the copyright page of the script by Eric Coble but also on every page thereafter. The play proceeds to tick off every item on the bad playwriting checklist (not to mention fans of good theater). Purple prose?...Overwrought existential imagery There is no shortage, either, of torturously set up jokes built on cute misunderstandings: Deploying every trick she knows, Parsons miraculously makes this whirlwind of clichés coherent, but nothing can make her believable. And Stephen Spinella...is essentially her caddy: carrying the lumpy bags of exposition and teeing up her shots. Nor can the director Molly Smith whose one big gesture, an aural cataclysm before the curtain, is a gross overreach do much to improve the texture of a play that's so synthetic it slips out of your memory even as you watch it. Or even before. Wasn't this a very special episode of The Golden Girls? At any rate, it's the same kind of writing, crass in its characterizations and almost larcenous in its lines."
New York Post - Somewhat Recommended
"...Eric Coble's new Broadway play consists of the negotiation between Alexandra (Estelle Parsons, spry at 86) and her son Chris (Stephen Spinella), an aging hippie in an unfortunate ponytail and mustache who's trying to end the standoff. There's zero suspense as to whether our gray panther will blow up her prized piece of real estate, because Coble and director Molly Smith are more interested in the bickering between mother and son. If only we felt the same. Their dispute feels motivated solely by a playwright's need to cook up a conflict, followed, of course, by a reconciliation. Fight, then catharsis the show stays within safe guidelines. Both actors are perfectly fine, but watching them duke it out is only mildly entertaining the play's brushstrokes are too broad to paint a compelling portrait."
Entertainment Weekly - Recommended
"...As explosive as the setup sounds, Coble's script takes on a tone that's more playful than menacing. Parsons is always the blazing focal point of the show, even when she's sharing the stage with Spinella and a glowingly orange tree. With seeming effortlessness, she plays a woman who's mind is failing her despite flashes of wit and rage and pettiness and compassion. Spinella plays her foil lovingly both as an actor and character, he can't contain his delight and amusement with his costar. Both performances are engaging enough to power through what's otherwise well-worn terrain. For a breezy 90 minutes in Parsons' company, we're happy to be held hostage."
Newsday - Somewhat Recommended
"...Given this information and little more in Eric Coble's artificial two-character serio-comedy "The Velocity of Autumn," we are meant to believe -- actually, to care -- that Alexandra (Estelle Parsons) has barricaded the doors and booby-trapped her house Enter long-estranged gay son Chris (Stephen Spinella) who, in just one of the bogus gestures in 90 minutes of emotional and theatrical contrivances, climbs up Alexandra's favorite tree to get into the house The production, a success at Washington's Arena Stage, has been directed with an admirable minimum of sentimentality by that theater's artistic director, Molly Smith. Even with actors the caliber of Parsons and Spinella, however, this is a once-over-lightly insult to a subject that deserves so much more than a mechanical showcase for gold-standard performers."
amNY - Somewhat Recommended
"...Eric Coble's 90-minute two-character comedy The Velocity of Autumn, which has arrived on Broadway as a star vehicle for 86-year-old Oscar winner Estelle Parsons and two-time Tony winner Stephen Spinella, is the sort of well-meaning but static and underwhelming play that would be better suited for a budget-conscious regional theater. Parsons paints a lively but grounded portrait of this quirky, frenzied woman while Spinella, as the far less interesting character, graciously downplays his performance in order to let Parsons take the spotlight. They make a nice pair. Perhaps they can come back to Broadway in a more interesting play rather than a simple setup that devolves into sentimentality and nondramatic chat."
Wall Street Journal - Not Recommended
"...Eric Coble breaks the U.S. record for clichés per minute in "The Velocity of Autumn," Not even the best efforts of Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella can justify this stupefying exercise in déj vu, which wears out its welcome in five minutes flat, followed by 85 minutes of soul-shriveling tedium."
NBC New York - Highly Recommended
"... the funny, touching new play by Eric Coble Directed by Molly Smith, the dark comedy explores the question of independence, familial obligation and the emotions one experiences when entering life's final chapter. It's a haunting reality, and one Parsons guides us through in a nuanced, skillful performance. Coble gives Spinella many layers to work with in Christopher Spinella shows us that fear of a man crippled by guilt and loyalty Coble challenges all of us to think in the gray -- to see the beauty in the coming apart, through laughter and love. Not a hard thing to accept when you have someone on your side."
Time Out New York - Not Recommended
"...Ironically, the dominant sensation produced by Eric Coble's anemic two-hander is also that of growing old. The minutes slip by, you lose feeling in parts of your body and find yourself 90 minutes closer to the grave, with nothing to show for it but a crumpled Playbill. If producers were set on bringing a regional-theater sitcom to Broadway, at least they hired pros They spar, they bond, they reminisce in real time with the requisite acting-class "friendly monologues. But it's not a good sign when you're praying that Granny gets her Zippo to work."
Time Magazine - Somewhat Recommended
"...I wasn't expecting much from The Velocity of Autumn, Eric Coble's one-act play about an elderly Brooklyn woman threatening to blow herself up in her apartment rather than get carted off to assisted living, and the play didn't (which is to say, did) disappoint. It's a cutesy, formulaic two-hander, essentially one long conversation between the stubborn old gal (Estelle Parsons) and her estranged son (Stephen Spinella), who has been called back from New Mexico to try to talk some sense into her. The only reason to sit through it is Estelle Parsons, who at 86 creates an admirably tough character while keeping much of the sentimentality at bay."
New Jersey Newsroom - Recommended
"...An intermittently affecting two-character comedy about aging, The Velocity of Autumn has been built not too soundly by Eric Coble as a conventional vehicle for a magnetic actress of a certain vintage. It is fairly obvious within the first five minutes how this story will conclude. The rest is just a matter of getting there. Much of the desultory mother-son chat that ensues for the remaining 85 minutes regards their family history, which is not especially riveting. The dialogue wavers between sarcastic zingers and rueful reflections upon growing old, some of which are touching and sadly true. While the play is slight, at least Parsons' performance is enjoyable."
Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended
"...But despite what should be the spark-emitting two-person cast of Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella, there are just as few explosions of that nature. I'd love to be able to report that there's something anything more to The Velocity of Autumn than this, but Coble really has thrown together just an "old age isn't much fun" play that looks and behaves far creakier than Alexandra. This is a simple play pondering simple matters, and there's not much point in digging deep than there is ironing out too many wrinkles of the plot. But if Coble does indeed have something worthwhile to say about how we can and should approach death, such insights never kindle here. What we get inside is a kind of writing that was getting on in years when Chekhov was young, and does less to impart identifiable new heat than it does to amplify the air's already significant chill."
TheaterMania - Recommended
"...Director Molly Smith has recruited two of New York's finest actors for the 90-minute sparring match that ensues. The absurdity of the play's premise quickly fades into the background, leaving only Parsons and Spinella with their mother-son chemistry to keep us engaged and save a few sporadic lulls, they succeed. Alexandra's bomb threats are unconvincing from the start, making the entire foundation feel more like a playwright's creative excuse for the pair's meeting than a genuine engine driving the events forward. Still, no matter their reason for coming together at this moment in time, Alexandra and Chris share several nice moments in the explosive apartment both comic and poignant that are pleasing enough to make you a satisfied fly on the wall. The play offers no groundbreaking revelations about the nature of these complex familial dynamics and obligations It does, however, shine a relatively and perhaps unrealistically optimistic light on a situation incapable of having a truly happy ending."
NewYorkTheater.me - Recommended
"...With the best title of any Broadway play this season, two always-impressive actors as the cast, and a theme of loss and aging that hits close to home, The Velocity of Autumn is the sort of play you want to root for, even when its premise is preposterous, and its outcome predictable...we sense who's not going to do it within the first few minutes. The playwright's plot device can't stand up to even a few seconds of scrutiny. But at his best, Coble, making his Broadway debut, offers a line or an exchange odd or intriguing enough to feel like just compensation for the missing dramatic tension. Spinella...is enough of a pro to make the most of Chris's monologues full of yearning and regrets, and he seems the right choice to match up with Estelle Parsons [who] can turn any part into something worth watching, and she certainly can handle a woman who's fighting to keep from falling apart."
Broadway World - Somewhat Recommended
"...If the playwriting matched the acting, The Velocity of Autumn would be a heck of a night out, but though Coble's work is not without its charm, the familiar set is injected with a twist that fails to contribute any tension. The usual assortment of warm memories, resurfacing conflicts and bouts with the indignities of aging are brought up and explored with the usual degrees of insightfulness. Given the premise, there's little that director Molly Smith can do, staging-wise, to spruce up the proceedings."
