John Patrick Shanley’s ‘Romantic Poetry’

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Oscar, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright-director John Patrick Shanley has been getting a lot of good buzz lately surrounding his upcoming play-to-film ‘Doubt.’ The film, starring Meryl Streep, opens the AFI festival in Los Angeles this week.

Last night, Shanley’s first musical, ‘Romantic Poetry,’ opened off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club. For once, the New York critics were largely in agreement with their assessments.

‘Only people who can make a meal out of marshmallows and marzipan are likely to find ‘Romantic Poetry’ digestible,’ says Ben Brantley of the New York Times.

Steven Suskin of Variety says: ‘The new John Patrick Shanley-Henry Krieger musical comedy ‘Romantic Poetry’ is neither romantic nor poetic; there’s lots of music -- 25 songs, no less -- but the comedy is mostly in the mind of author-director Shanley.’

‘There’s little chance of being moonstruck by ‘Romantic Poetry,’’ Frank Scheck of the New York Post, says, referencing Shanley’s Oscar-winning ‘Moonstruck.’

Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News says: ‘This musical misfire about modern love and roller-coaster relationships ... finds Shanley at his most tryingly self-indulgent since 1990’s ‘Joe Versus the Volcano.’’

‘There really is no kind way to describe ‘Romantic Poetry.’ It’s off the rails,’ writes Alexis Greene of the Hollywood Reporter.

Linda Winer of Newsday bluntly reports: ‘’Romantic Poetry’ ... is a terrible show -- incoherent, forced and jauntily oblivious to the depths of its awfulness.’

John Simon of Bloomberg says: ‘John Patrick Shanley, author of the spellbinding ‘Doubt,’’ and Henry Krieger, composer of the captivating ‘Dreamgirls,’ have banded together to concoct one of the most incongruous, foolish and pretentious musicals ever inflicted on an audience.’

We at Culture Monster usually prefer to end things on a happier note, so we’d like to let you know that Shanley’s film ‘Doubt,’ which also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, is scheduled to open wide on Dec. 12. Here’s the theatrical trailer.

-- Lisa Fung

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the musical is on Broadway rather than off-Broadway.