Dividing The Estate

What the press had to say.....

"Tart and delicious �Dividing the Estate,� is heaven to be with." & "As played with true comic genius by Hallie Foote, the covetous, calculating Mary Jo has absolutely no sense of humor. But it�s hard to think of anyone on a Broadway stage right now (except possibly Mark Rylance in �Boeing-Boeing�) who�s funnier." & " This production � which arrives with most of its original cast, directed with hair-trigger timing by Michael Wilson � has ripened into an ideally balanced ensemble piece, with acting that matches and magnifies Mr. Foote�s slyly and acutely observant writing."
Ben Brantley
New York Times

"Ham, anyone? It's on the dinner table and at center stage in Horton Foote's "Dividing the Estate." & "It's virtually impossible to imagine the show without the divine comedy of Hallie Foote, the playwright's daughter. She all but owns the second act, and as the situation goes from bad to worse, this deadpan pro goes from diverting to hysterical." & ""Dividing the Estate" goes for laughs and succeeds, and at the same time comments on more sweeping notions of avarice, entitlement and carpetbagging karma."
Joe Dziemianowicz
New York Daily News

"This deeply humanistic and funny play is old-fashioned in the best sense." & "While all of the performances are first-rate, special praise must be reserved for Hallie Foote, the playwright's daughter. As the greedy, pathetic Mary Jo, her repeated delivery of a single phrase in the final scene (not to be revealed here) has nearly as much impact as all the dialogue preceding it."
Frank Scheck
New York Post

"Will draw you into its drawing room and the shadows beyond with the theatrical equivalent of a page- turner, capturing your undivided attention as you hang on its teasing turmoil in guiltlessly glad complicity."
John Simon
Bloomberg

"Provides plenty of pathos and humor." & "13 actors in all, each given a juicy and multidimensional role by a playwright who views the foibles of humanity with a compassionate eye. There are showy parts and subtle ones, all played with honesty and precision and directed by Michael Wilson with a perfect balance of verisimilitude and theatricality."
David Sheward
Back Stage

"A lively comedy, small in scale but with a surprising number of big laughs." & "Under the deft direction of Michael Wilson, "Dividing the Estate" glides along at an easy, unforced pace, with flavorful performances all around." & "The evening's highlight, though, is Hallie Foote, the playwright's daughter. As the grasping Mary Jo, she's extraordinarily funny... Foote delivers a virtuoso comic performance that's worth the price of admission. Really.
Robert Feldberg
The Record

"Nuanced and compelling... Foote couldn�t have hoped for a better production than the one Michael Wilson has devised." & "Hallie Foote�in a hilariously puckered turn as Stella�s joyless, grasping third child�who winds up putting the play in her pocket. Her performance has a lingering acridity: the faintly junky smell of the winds of change."
Adam Feldman
Time Out

"Hilariously perceptive take on what good old-fashioned greed does to one cash-strapped Texas family." & "Mary Jo is relentlessly grasping, attune to every slight, real or imagined, and fearful of being cheated out of her inheritance. Yet Hallie Foote, awash in sniffs and sulks, manages to make the woman's greediness appealing and riotously funny."
Michael Kuchwara
Associated Press

"Perhaps even more essential to the old-fashioned play's appeal is Foote's deep understanding of the personalities within a precisely defined subculture. There's an exquisite balance between insidiousness and charm in this vipers' nest, and between affectionate anecdote and malicious gossip in their chatter." & "The prickly comic center of the play and the most vociferously demanding of Stella's children is Mary Jo. The playwright's daughter Hallie Foote skirts invigoratingly along the edge of sitcom in a performance that's near-hysterical yet never so abrasive we can't grasp her fear."
David Rooney
Variety