‘Grey House’ Broadway Review: Laurie Metcalf & Tatiana Maslany Confront The Ghosts Of Man-Made Horror

deadline.com:

When it comes to horror, Broadway typically cedes turf to Hollywood, the occasional Martin McDonough play notwithstanding. There have been giant apes, operatic phantoms, and a misguided vampire or two without providing so much as a single genuine tingle.

All of which makes the effort of Grey House so bold. A creepy mash-up of haunted house tropes, cabin in the woods traditions, ghosty kids, errant hatchets, screams, black-outs and the sort of Lynchian lounge music that drips with reverb and menace, Grey House hails from the playwright Levi Holloway and director Joe Mantello, with stars Laurie Metcalf, Tatiana Maslany, and Paul Sparks joined by ferociously talented quintet of child-to-adolescent actors.

Together, they deliver a savvy tale that might be likened to a dark, lonely lake on a moonless night – scary enough on the surface, scarier still when one ponders what’s below the surface.

There are some stretches that start to feel dull or repetitive, possibly the result of confusion as to what, exactly, is going on, but such moments fade with the next scream. (Though the Broadway production officially opened at the Lyceum Theatre on May 30, reviews were embargoed until tonight so that critics could see the full company – Tatiana Maslany had been out sick for some of the previously scheduled review performances).