The reviews are in for Rope, Gordon Greenberg’s new adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 thriller, best known from the Hitchcock film, which opened on Tuesday, November 3, as the first production in The New Group’s new home at the Theater at St. Clement’s. Scott Elliott directs Cameron Monaghan and Corey Fogelmanis as two Princeton lovers who hide a classmate’s body in a chest and then throw a dinner party around it, with Elizabeth Gillies, Jason Butler Harner, Graham Phillips and James Waterston among the guests. Greenberg moves the action to 1957 and makes the couple’s relationship explicit; most critics say the cast is strong but the suspense is not.
The verdict: seven reviews in, two of them scored, and both of those at 2 out of 5 (Culture Sauce and New York Stage Review). Only Exeunt NYC is a fan. Most critics admire Cameron Monaghan’s seductive, menacing Garrett and a strong cast, but agree that Gordon Greenberg’s flashbacks, direct-address monologues and frankly queer reworking let the suspense go slack, and several find it plays better as a comedy of manners than as a thriller.
What are critics saying about Rope?
TheaterMania
"The New Group’s revisal pays tribute to Hitchcock but loses its grip on suspense"
Reviewer: Pete Hempstead
Hempstead finds Gordon Greenberg’s version a very different animal from Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play and the Hitchcock film, swapping thrill-killing for questions of identity.
"…Greenberg’s Rope is an often-clumsy character study of suppressed Jewish identity and homosexual shame."
He says love triangles and competing motives tangle the plot so much that the body in the chest starts to feel like an afterthought.
Culture Sauce
"A Slack Update of Hitchcock’s Thriller"
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 2 out of 5
Geier thinks the flashbacks, the spotlit direct-address monologues and an all-new bloody ending mute whatever tension the party builds.
"…the tension in this Rope keeps going slack precisely when it should be tightening."
He credits Cameron Monaghan’s malevolent charm and calls Elizabeth Gillies a delight, but finds Corey Fogelmanis far less convincing.
New York Stage Review
"Murders Most Foul"
Reviewer: Michael Sommers · 2 out of 5
Sommers says Greenberg blandly reheats an old recipe, and wonders why a daring company like The New Group chose such trivial entertainment to open its new home.
"…ultimately as a drama, Rope is junk. Or more charitably, candy."
He allows that Scott Elliott knows how to conjure louche atmospherics, but finds little beneath the story.
New York Theatre Guide
"how to hide a body and other secrets"
Reviewer: Kyle Turner
Turner finds Monaghan’s command of the room genuinely seductive, but says the tension is hard to sustain when Fogelmanis’s Nate is so visibly in distress throughout.
"…the show is more compelling as a drawing-room comedy of manners than a suspense thriller"
He is most taken with the play’s interest in the dinner party itself as a kind of shambolic theater.
New York Theater
"Hitchcock this is not."
Reviewer: Jonathan Mandell
Mandell notes that this version is far more explicitly homoerotic and violent than the film or the original play, and calls Monaghan’s New York theater debut impressive.
"…the New Group production is neither as urbane nor as suspenseful as it wants to be."
He finds the gestures toward Nietzsche and the closet too faint to lift what is essentially a genre piece.
Exeunt NYC
"Gordon Greenberg lays the motivation bare"
Reviewer: Lane Williamson
Williamson is the production’s champion, calling it perhaps the gayest play of the season and praising Elliott’s frank staging and the flashbacks woven into the real-time party.
"With Rope, they have another audacious, stylish, and captivating production."
He singles out Monaghan as commanding and seductive, and Jason Butler Harner’s hang-dog, perpetually drunk professor.
Theater Pizzazz
"Rope Winds Up on the Ropes"
Reviewer: Ron Fassler
Fassler argues that changing the killers’ motive from thrill to fear of exposure strips out the far more interesting inner lives of the original pair, and that the surprises are telegraphed.
"…has disappointingly directed this Rope with a heavy hand, tying things into something of a Gordian knot."
He welcomes any attempt to revive the stage thriller, but his verdict is blunt: skip it.
Production photographs by Monique Carboni.
We published the first look at Rope before opening night. For more of what the New York critics have been saying this week, read our roundup for Waiting for Lefty at Classic Stage Company.
Rope runs at The New Group’s Theater at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46th Street, through Sunday, December 6, 2026.
