Long Day's Journey Into Night - Artists Repertory Theatre (Grade C)

Director: Andrew Upton
Venue Newmark Theate
Cast:
James Tyrone   .....   William Hurt
Mary Tyrone   .....   Robyn Nevin
James Tyrone, Jr.   .....   Todd Van Voris
Edmond Tyrone   .....   Luke Mullins
Cathleen   .....   Emily Russell

sez says: Robyn Nevins is extraordinary--and even with the faults this production has, and it has faults, it is worth seeing if only to watch Nevins fully inhabit, pitch-perfect, the character of Mary Tyrone.  I sit here still awe-struck by her performance.  She is a great gift.
And, of course this is a great play. The story is well enough known: Dysfunctional family--mom is a morphine addict; dad is a miser; older son is a drunk; younger son has consumption.  Each has reasons for being the way they are and those reasons are reveled -- and they all even know their shortcomings --but none seem to break the pattens that beleaguer them--as individuals, as a family.  Yet they do care deeply for each other--while they abuse each other.
BUT THERE WAS A BIG PROBLEM: The dialogue was at times hard to hear. I wondered if it was the acoustics, then I wondered if it was my ears, than I realized I could hear Nevins fine, all the time. It was Mullins that was hardest to hear: I probably lost at least a quarter, or more, of his lines. And it was Hurt too -- he slurred his lines at times -- possibly trying to push the dialogue to quicker pace, or to portray himself as a drunk -- but regardless of the cause,  words were getting lost. Losing words in the theater is not ok..esp so in a play like this one. 
I was greatly looking forward to seeing this. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I did expect something better than was delivered.