Opening Night

Name: Opening Night
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2023-05-09

The second worst thing to happen to JFK!

Comedy7m

🍅96%

🍅

96%

Tomatometer

🍿

89%

Popcornmeter

Storyline

Tensions mount on the off-Broadway opening of JFK: The Musical, when Aaron, the actor playing JFK, and Simone, the assistant stage manager find the corpse of a cast member in a storage closet and the two clash over if the show should go on or not.

Details

DirectorsRene Marcelle, Fiona Paskoff

ReleasedMay 9, 2023

StatusReleased

Original languageEnglish

Budget

Reviews

8 reviews · 7 critics

7 fresh · 0 rotten

Critics consensus

“Opening Night is as dense and difficult as one would expect from John Cassavetes, but even the director's detractors will be unable to deny the power of Gena Rowlands' performance.”

96% TomatometerRotten Tomatoes

Adam Kempenaar

RTFilmspottingMar 23, 2019

Tying back to A Woman Under the Influence... [Cassavetes] explores what happens when women don't play their prescribed roles.

Richard Brody

RTThe New YorkerJul 5, 2016

Cassavetes's most cleverly constructed film is also a definitive lesson in the death-defying, all-consuming art of acting, proof of a madness beyond the Method.

Variety Staff

RTVarietyJul 28, 2008

Gena Rowlands turns in another virtuoso performance as the troubled actress. Cassavetes' highly personal work will please his coterie of enthusiasts, but for general audiences it will be viewed as shrill, puzzling, depressing and overlong.

David Schwartz

RTScreen SlateAug 24, 2026

Opening Night’s stature has steadily grown in the years since its release.