Hugh Jackman was great in The River

The River is one of those plays that only gets to Broadway because of a big name.  Hugh Jackman stars in The River - and he is fantastic.  All the acting is fantastic.  Which I suppose, in some ways, is to be expected.  You get a guy like Hugh Jackman and you are going to get only the best on stage with him.
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Hugh Jackman as The Man

But The River isn't an easy play.  If you like your plays linear, and easy to understand, it's a slog.  If you like be challenged a bit, wondering afterwards what the hell just happened, and making sense of it slowly, it was great.  Really great!
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So I loved it.  It has been open long enough for me not to review it, so that is good.  I am not sure how I would couch this show.  I mean I loved it, but a lot of people were exasperated t the end.  I went alone (which is often fun) and heard all kinds of comments.  Most along the lines of "what the hell was that?"

The Woman and The Man

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To be honest, most people went to see Hugh Jackman, not to try to figure out what was going on.  It was essentially 2 or 3 different timelines, mixed up.  Hugh bought two different women to a cabin for a romantic get- away 2 different times, but the play presents them kind of simultaneously (sometimes one woman would got the bedroom and return as a different woman.  On top of this, which wasn't that hard to figure out, both Hugh and the two women were telling their own back stories to each other, but you didn't know what was real - if anything.

The Man and The Other Woman

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Sounds goofy, but it worked out well.  Hugh was amazing in the silent sections, which is always tough for an actor (for another amazing example of what I mean, watch The Imitation Game and see Keri Knightly's performance).  It was really fun.