Amelie NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (779)
See it if It is missable. There's a sweetness for sure. Soo and Chanler-Berat were great. But if I hadn't seen the movie, I would have been lost.
Don't see it if You want a thorough, cohesive show. Or if you haven't seen the movie. Score is unmemorable.
See it if you want to see the delightful Phillipa Soo and a happy ending.
Don't see it if you are expecting an absorbing, grown up musical and a good score. The play seems geared to a teenage audience, which was very unexpected.
See it if you want great singing by Phillipa Soo, and if you love Adam Chanler-Berat.The music is forgettable.Set is too busy and dreary. No whimsy
Don't see it if you loved the movie or are looking for a touching, whimsical, fun show.It feels far too dark. I wanted to love the title character.
See it if Love the film and want to feel good about a live adaptation.
Don't see it if Want more depth.
See it if you like Phillipa Soo and charming endings.
Don't see it if you prefer shows that are less whimsical and more interesting. The music was unmemorable.
See it if you must see Phillipa Soo back on Broadway; don't mind a short, uneven musical-fantasy-comedy that lacks focus; can put aside expectations.
Don't see it if you're a fan of the film, which is much more enchanting than this promising yet misshapen musical that tries to do too much--but great cast! Read more
See it if you don't have anything else to do/are a huge Philippa Soo fan/Adam Chanler-Berat is actually quite adorable in the show
Don't see it if you love the movie/you want a straightforward plot or good music
See it if you want a feel-good, lighthearted musical that will make you smile.
Don't see it if you're a huge fan of the movie or are looking for something more serious.
Critic Reviews (64)
"It is pleasant to look at, easy to listen to and oddly recessive. It neither offends nor enthralls...'Amélie' the musical seems to have no nationality, or sensibility, to call its own...All credit to this show’s creative team, overseen by the director Pam MacKinnon, for giving coherent life to a tale that exists as much in Amélie’s imagination as in anywhere else...That the show’s creators are aware of the potential dangers of cloying cuteness probably accounts for its seeming so subdued."
Read more
"During this promising but never delivering musical fantasy, you can easily (and frequently) dream up ways the creative team might have better turned the 2001 film into a stage event that didn’t cloy and harden into static quirk halfway through...Book writer Lucas and songwriters Messé and Tysen are at pains to articulate a singable emotional center of the source while staying true to its careening, cinematic narrative. The two duties ultimately cancel each other out."
Read more
"Amélie the character and thus 'Amélie' the show remain alluringly, maddeningly remote...When a narrative is held together by tone instead of the working out of interpersonal conflict...there’s no bright line between what’s pertinent and what isn’t...As a result, MacKinnon’s staging, which has little choice but to underline the aesthetic, develops a bad case of nonspecific where-the-heck-is-this?, often leaving the audience more amused than informed."
Read more
"This grating stage musical takes the slenderest of romances and drowns it in cartoonish quirks in place of genuine warmth or feeling...Moments that don't cry out to be musicalized get slathered in song, while others where music might have helped go unsung...With more swinging doors than most farces, this is a show that manages to be simultaneously frenetic and inert...The talented cast fights a losing battle to give these annoyingly artificial characters life."
Read more
"The show is a quirky-sweet creampuff that breezily imports much of the original’s off-kilter charm, even as it inevitably loses some of its je ne sais quoi...MacKinnon keeps it all moving along briskly, winnowing down the movie’s sprawl to theater-size and making room for fresh flights of fancy...If any one thing feels lost in the transfer from screen to stage, it’s the pathos that pinned the film’s whimsy to steadier ground."
Read more
"It’s almost mandatory to have seen the movie if you hope to follow the erratic events of Craig Lucas’s twee book...Soo's lovely voice isn’t enough to animate the character...As listlessly played by Adam Chanler-Berat, Nino is a case study in vapidity...Messe’s music is emphatically insipid, with zero flavor of Paris, and the songs keep landing in awkward moments...In the end, it’s just wearying, looking for some logic in all this relentless whimsy."
Read more
"It is clear how little concern there is here for the wry Truffaut-esque wit of the 2001 film...The musical is so full of stage business that the main impression is of tumult, which is more evocative of Times Square than Paris...There are so many misjudgments of taste and style in the first two-thirds of the show that I was becoming immensely sympathetic to Amélie’s desire to avoid excessive human contact...Most songs were bland and mildly tuneful."
Read more
"I had the luxury of seeing 'Amélie' twice, and I admit to finding its charms more readily revealed on second viewing, The score, for one thing, is more sophisticated than a single hearing suggests, and perhaps more cunning...The authors, along with MacKinnon, avoid gratuitous winking, trusting both 'Amélie' and Amélie to work their charms. You’ll buy it, or you won’t. By the end, I was a bit in love, even if – as so often is the case with the real thing – it wasn’t at first sight."
Read more