Bright Star NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (1,006)
See it if You want to experience fantastic acting, singing and music. Carmen Cusack was particularly wonderful. But all were excellent.
Don't see it if You don't like bluegrass (although you might be pleasantly surprised). There are serious aspects to the show which might be upsetting.
See it if You enjoy Steve Martin & Edie Brickell music. A good old time story.
Don't see it if You don't like old society morals.
See it if You love a tightly told tale, stunning sets and beautiful music.
Don't see it if Are looking for light and fluffy fare.
See it if you like original shows, bluegrass/country, moving stories , or you haven't experienced the awesome performance of Carmen Cusack!
Don't see it if nope, everybody should see this!
See it if You like s good old fashioned musical with great songs, beautiful music and an upbeat ending. An antidote to what is going on in the world.
Don't see it if You are jaded
See it if you want to be moved. Excellent ensemble work, a score that's beautiful, and a plot that is hard to resist.
Don't see it if dislike bluegrass influenced score.
See it if you enjoy great characters giving it their all. The great score is performed beautifully with much feeling. Bring lots of tissues.
Don't see it if you do not like bluegrass music and you do not want to become emotionally involved with the great actors in their roles.
See it if Carmen Cusack is amazing. The show tugs at your heartstrings, surprisingly impressed with the writing by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.
Don't see it if you don't want to be charmed by a small show that could.
Critic Reviews (68)
"Enjoyable as much of it is, ‘Bright Star’...may not shine as brightly in Broadway’s constellation as some of its more unique and noteworthy competitors. It’ll be interesting to see if its pleasing bluegrass score, strong performances, and smart staging are enough to compensate for its thin book, melodramatically coincidental premise, stereotypical Southern-fried characters, and conventional situations."
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"After collaborating on two bluegrass albums, Martin and Brickell decided to create a musical around the songs. The result is 'Bright Star', a tuneful, well-performed display of American roots music...Its sweet score makes up for the preposterous if occasionally moving story...This straightforward if complicated plot starts to merge, taking turns so improbable (and yet so predictable)...'Bright Star' largely insists on the earnest, sentimental tone of an old-fashioned musical."
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"Bluegrass-y, Southern-Gothic-y 'Bright Star,' which is directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Josh Rhodes with a sleekness that makes your head spin with giddy delight...When an audience member is inspired to think ahead of the creative team it can make a protracted second act that much longer. It felt like I was waiting for the inevitable to occur...On the formidable plus-side, there’s much more to say of the 'Bright Star' score...Yet the real heroes here are Bobbie and Rhodes"
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"'Bright Star' boasts a lively and lovely bluegrass score...If you like the toe-tapping sounds of banjos, fiddles, and guitars, there’s plenty of that on hand, and it’s all good. The story Brickell and Martin tell falls in tone somewhere between realism and folk tale, a mix that doesn’t always blend smoothly but one that gets the job done and opens the way for the excellent cast to win our hearts...Cusack's is one of those magical debuts that can launch a performer to stardom.”
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"'Bright Star' is still suffering some issues of scale. The story it tells is a small and tender one and the staging and the music, playful and lovely, sometimes struggle to fill the house...If there are a few too many numbers here, nearly all of them are sparkish...Cusack is nuanced and forceful...Paul Alexander Nolan plays her one-time lover and it’s a treat to see him in what initially is a more playful role...Their combined energy and allure lend the musical lustre."
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"The 'Bright Star' bluegrass score features more twangs per dipthong than a whole evening of 'Tobacco Road'. This is the third bluegrass musical to open in New York City in the last two weeks. More of these and Broadway will run out of fiddles and banjos, I’m praying...Time will tell if this musical makes the walls of Joe Allen restaurant’s gallery of flops. On the walls of my mind, 'Bright Star' has already taken its place between last season’s 'Doctor Zhivago' and 1979’s 'Got Tu Go Disco'.”
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"There is something winning and infectious about 'Bright Star'...Even with a sweet ending that’s predictable by intermission, its charms are enough to engage viewers along the way...The assembled cast is uniformly strong, but the show belongs to Ms. Cusack...Martin brings a clever hand to the musical’s book, mixing earnest, sometimes poetic storytelling with welcome laughs...But I do have to say—and I really wish I didn’t—that it’s aggravatingly vanilla."
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"'Bright Star' aspires to the kind of emotional sweep and folksy wit we associate with Golden Age musicals...Martin captures some of that old-school spirit with a book that's as forthright as it is smart, funny and charming...The score poses a few challenges...Some of the more delicate ballads seem to strain for theatricality...The tone in which that story is delivered can also wobble a bit, especially later on...Still this gently shining 'Star' holds its own."
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