NO WAY AROUND BUT THROUGH: 58% – BITTERSWEET

Melanie Griffith and Scott Caan in “No Way Around but Through” at the Falcon Theatre. Credit: Chelsea Sutton.

BITTER
Something feels wrong when you’d rather follow the B story of Jacob and Holly’s best friends, sex addicts who at least get to the point (and amiably played by Bre Blair and Val Lauren, who also directs). Caan is interested in the limits of language, yet sometimes his muddled, logorrheic lovers suck too much oxygen out their own story and it grinds to a over-analytical halt.
Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times

BITTERSWEET
Stellar performances, but the play’s characters are stuck in an M.C. Escher engraving, plodding up and down stairs and getting nowhere.
Bob Verini – Variety

BITTER
It is more of a tutorial about the perpetuation of mediocrity than a reviewable event. Certainly, the play is problematic, but the way in which it was produced only made it worse.
Tony Frankel – Stage and Cinema

SWEET
Actor, writer, director, photographer, musician Scott Caan, star of TV’s Hawaii 5-0, spotlights the first two of these talents in his entertaining new comedy No Way Around But Through, now getting its World Premiere at Burbank’s Falcon Theater, an engagement made even more noteworthy by the presence of Oscar-nominated film star Melanie Griffith among its talented cast of five.
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA

SWEET
This intelligent, well-acted and well-directed production is a treat for the mind and heart, but it has a limited run, so don’t delay.
Candyce Columbus – LA Examiner

BITTER
The wearisome dialogue throughout creates an uneasiness and makes it difficult to stay focused on the play.
Carol Kaufman Segal – Stagehappenings

SWEET
As is, the play is satisfying fare, and with its terrific acting and direction, will most definitely pull you in and give you a run for your money.
Don Grigware – BroadwayWorld

BITTERSWEET
They spend the entire two-act play agonizing about their problems via convoluted discussion.
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly

BITTER
If the title of Scott Caan’s “No Way Around but Through” sounds perplexing, it’s only a warning of what’s to come. Wait until you’ve sat through this pretentious ultra-vanity production to the end of Act 1—or the end of Act 2 if you can stick around that long—and see if you’ve gone anywhere around, or through, or simply found yourself running for the exit.
Travis Michael Holder – Backstage

BITTER
Ultimately, No Way is and too vague and overlong to provide a real dramatic impact, and the frustration lies in contemplating the road that might have been taken.
Kurt Gardner – Blog Critics

SWEET
This existential and philosophical gem asks all the right questions and doesn’t always provide the answers.
Radomir Luza – North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch

SWEET
No Way Around But Through, making its world premiere at the Falcon Theatre, is a surprisingly funny relationship dramedy that “nails it” as a realistic journey into the male psyche.
Margie Barron – Tolucan Times

NO WAY AROUND BUT THROUGH
Falcon Theatre
4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank
8 p.m. Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays; Ends July 8, 2012
Tickets: $35 and $38; (818) 955-8101
Running time: 2 hours.