Washington Post - Recommended

"... The enveloping gloom of this “Journey” — the second of Arena’s entries in this spring’s Eugene O’Neill Festival — unquestionably swirls most vitally around Carey’s Mary. Degree by furtive degree, Carey provides as meticulously detailed a portrait of this anguishing character as I’ve ever encountered. It’s the first time I’ve felt as if I’ve been fully immersed in a step-by-step loosening of Mary’s mental grip, as a drug fog dulls her psychic pain and cocoons her in an ever more sweetly remembered past."
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Washington Examiner - Highly Recommended

"... Under the smooth direction of Robin Phillips, the four characters in this "Long Day's Journey" work as a well-orchestrated ensemble. Goetz provides the right kind of blustery self-indulgence as James Sr. Bean is explosive as the cagey James Jr. Darrow is remarkable as the ailing Edmund, whose sensitivity and forthrightness force the other characters to reveal their interior lives, creating a sense of reconciliation at the play's end."
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WeLoveDC - Recommended

"...Watching Long Days Journey into Night can feel like a marathon, as it taps into every hidden feeling we may have about our families and ourselves. Dysfunction is an addiction in of itself – who truly knows how best to break the habit – but Arena’s production of O’Neill’s shattering exploration filled me with the desire to simply forgive."
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BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended

"...Long Day's Journey Into Night is a complex, intricate and intensely engaging play. The cast of the Arena Stage production puts on a brilliant rendition of O'Neill's masterpiece. We are left to believe that the roles of James and Mary were written specifically for Carey and Goetz. Their talent is immensely evident and I'm certain O'Neill himself would be both pleased and inspired to watch them on stage, bringing such brilliant life to his written words."
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Talkin Broadway - Recommended

"...While the three men are onstage more than Mary, Carey is the breaking heart of this production. From the joy and wariness of her first entrance, to her growing self-isolation (broken by a riotous scene with Helen Hedman as a blunt maid), to her final appearance as a ghostly version of her younger self, she dominates the action through her warm memories, her self-protective denial of reality, and her way of speaking hard truths with a smile."
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City Paper - Recommended

"...Director Robin Phillips struggles to make this hulking enterprise not feel hidebound by all that history, even though it’s inherently an exercise in it, with revelatory monologue after revelatory monologue. (Beware: Act 2 runs longer than Act 1.) Eventually, you lock into its doomed, unhurried rhythm."
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Washingtonian - Recommended

"... This Long Day's Journey Into Night may not change your life in the way a more uniformly transcendent production would. Yet it has the power to compel you to watch this family trapped in perpetual crisis as if in amber."
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BrightestYoungThings - Highly Recommended

"... I've tried hard to come up with a reason why you shouldn't see this play; I keep drawing a blank. I suppose that a runtime of 3 hours might seem daunting, but habitually leaning in your seat toward the drama melting white-hot on stage tends to shuttle the passage of time by in an imperceptible blur. Long Day's Journey Into Night is one of the greatest American plays ever written, and director Robin Phillips rises to the occasion by putting on a fantastic rendition of the classic."
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ShowBizRadio - Recommended

"...This play is, of course, strongly identified with O’Neill’s family history. Given the strength of the acting in this production, however, even someone who had never heard of O’Neill would see distinct and credible characters whose reality would leave a lasting, and melancholy, impression."
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Curtain Up - Recommended

"... Fortunately, at Arena Stage, in its intimate Kreeger theater, there is a very memorable and commendable Journey, thanks in large part to the incandescent performance of Helen Carey as Mary, the tragic lady whose pain killers have led her into the vortex of addiction. Like many addicts, Mary lies to her family, claiming that the pills she takes are for the rheumatism in her hands. From the play’s beginning, one of Ms. Carey’s subtle clues as to what is to come is how she holds her hands —one finger open, the others closed into a fist. It is as though she holds much of the tension of her life in those arthritic hands."
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MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"... Production elements match the fine cast. Hisham Ali’s set depicting the Tyrone Home is reminiscent of the homes of the time and is complete with period lighting fixtures and furniture. Susan Benson’s costumes also match the period and serve the production nicely complete with long dresses and period suits. Michael Whitfield’s lighting is subtle but it does what it needs to do to create the atmosphere. James Suggs’ soundscape is minimal but effective."
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