Dr. Zhivago NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (36)
See it if you are a fan of the story and want to remember it.
Don't see it if weird staging choices. Plot is contrived and character development is not done well.
See it if you are a fan of the movie. This show was not nearly as bad as everyone said. I was entertained and not bored, so that's a partial win.
Don't see it if You don't like the movie or stories of war and relationships.
See it if You love big, epic musicals, no matter how iffy the material.
Don't see it if You have extremely fond memories of the movie and are expecting something on par.
See it if you loved the film. This is that, with music, and Kelli Barrett and Paul Alexander Nolan giving great performances.
Don't see it if you want a musical staging of the film to add something new or at least enhance our understanding of the story; this uneven effort doesn't.
See it if you love a ballad (or many)
Don't see it if just don't see it - there is better out there
See it if you really really love the movie
Don't see it if you hate a bad show
See it if You would appreciate a love story with many obstacles, during wartime.
Don't see it if You expect a light-hearted love story with a happy ending.
See it if you are a fan of any of the great cast or you must see the classic story.
Don't see it if are expecting a wonderful musical with big memorable musical numbers.
Critic Reviews (36)
"A turgid throwback to the British invasion of Broadway in the 1980s, and more specifically to the epic-romantic style of “Les Misérables” and “Miss Saigon.” If full-throated love ballads, thundering militaristic anthems, baggy plots, highly expositional dialogue and doomed romances are your cup of tea, fire up the samovar and give the show a try. But be warned: “Doctor Zhivago” is inferior in most respects to the musicals it is emulating."
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"'Zhivago' is Jean Valjean with a poetic streak and a medical bag...No amount of syrupy, portentous music—swamping workmanlike lyrics—can make us care for the synthetic, drably colored pageant. Des McAnuff’s staging looks expensive but ugly, with cheesy video close‑ups of actors, giant Soviet propaganda posters, eruptions of fire and the occasional explosion or gunshot to wake us up. To Siberia with it."
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"Sprawling European novels do not make great musicals. Unfortunately, this lesson has fallen on deaf ears at the Broadway Theatre — and I don’t just mean those forced to endure the mess that is 'Doctor Zhivago'. I also mean its authors and director, who together have turned Boris Pasternak’s novel into a musical so awful it is almost sadistic."
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""Somewhere, My Love," there's a great musical to be made from this classic tale. This isn't it...The notes are all there, but the emotion is sorely lacking. The same could be said of the entirety of this big-budget musical...The show dutifully features all the major characters and dramatic moments familiar from the book and film, but in a breathlessly paced, mechanical style that never manages to engage the heart or mind."
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"You never quite believe over the course of the misguided musical version of 'Doctor Zhivago' that there’s any great romance–much less a spark of attraction–between the poet-physician Zhivago and his alleged paramour...director Des McAnuff doesn’t do the show any favors with dull staging."
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"Making a musical of 'Doctor Zhivago', you have to wonder which of the numerous plots in this sprawling narrative the creatives would choose to musicalize. The answer is: All of them. The immortal love story of Zhivago and his Lara is up there, but so is the entire Russian Revolution, which in 1917 completed its upheaval in less than a year. Here, it seems to drag on for ages."
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"A slow-paced commodity musical suitable only for consumption by tone-deaf tweenagers...I spent two hours and 45 minutes sitting through “Doctor Zhivago.” Unless you’re getting paid to do so, don’t make the same mistake."
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"Oh, the agony of it all. Grenades explode. Guns blare. Bodies fall. Marching boots stomp. Depressed and dying lovers search for each other in vain, mournfully moaning lyrics that make no sense. Between one world war, one revolution, one civil war the fall of the Germans and the arrival of the Communists, an ambitious saga of tedium unfolds called 'Doctor Zhivago'. You can hardly hear it for the snoring. After just under three hours, a verdict is reached. It’s a colossal bore."
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