Farinelli and the King
Closed 2h 30m
Farinelli and the King
82

Farinelli and the King NYC Reviews and Tickets

82%
(540 Ratings)
Positive
89%
Mixed
8%
Negative
3%
Members say
Great acting, Great singing, Absorbing, Great staging, Entertaining

About the Show

Oscar and three-time Tony winner Mark Rylance returns to Broadway in this new drama about Spain's King Phillippe V's bond with a legendary castrato. 

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Show-Score Member Reviews (540)

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251 Reviews | 116 Followers
100
Absorbing, Ambitious, Exquisite, Great singing, Great acting

See it if Story of castrato singer (1705-1782), privately served music therapy to King Phillipe V (Mark Rylance); sung by incomparable Iestyn Davies.

Don't see it if you don't like early opera, or history, skip this one.

257 Reviews | 26 Followers
100
Clever, Exquisite, Masterful, Must see, Riveting

See it if you want to see a stunning British production that has drama, humor, and a marvelous countertenor

Don't see it if a great theater-going experience isn't for you; you can't get tickets before it closes

76 Reviews | 25 Followers
100
Absorbing, Clever, Great acting, Great staging, Great writing

See it if You believe in the healing power of music.

Don't see it if You don’t like plays that take place in the 18th century. Read more

TT
146 Reviews | 28 Followers
100
Great acting, Great staging, Delightful, Absorbing, Must see

See it if You love Mark Rylance or have never seen Mark Rylance. See it if you want to have some rare enchanted type of fun.

Don't see it if You don't like period pieces. Or arias sung by castratos.

53 Reviews | 11 Followers
100
Absorbing, Delightful, Enchanting, Masterful, Great singing

See it if you enjoy great acting and beautiful music! Mark Rylance is marvelous! So is singer Iestyn Davies.

Don't see it if you don't like baroque music, fantastic singing and extraordinary acting.

119 Reviews | 29 Followers
100
Riveting, Great singing, Great acting, Great staging, Great writing

See it if We came for Mark Rylance, who was great, and were blown away by Iestyn Davies singing and the staging and writing. FABULOUS

Don't see it if This is a MUST SEE.

104 Reviews | 20 Followers
100
Absorbing, Great acting, Exquisite, Masterful

See it if If yoiu like Mark Rylance this is a must. The play and the acting are sensational. Theif set and costumes are fabulous a woi

Don't see it if If you can’t listen to opera,this will be a problem,other then that. It’s a must see

133 Reviews | 36 Followers
100
Enchanting, Great acting, Great staging, Masterful, Great singing

See it if An opportunity to see one of the world’s finest actors in a jewel of a production. Amusing yet haunting, an unforgettable theater experience

Don't see it if You didn’t like Amadeus, this might not appeal to you. If you don’t like history or period pieces, pick another play.

Critic Reviews (56)

The New York Times
December 17th, 2017

"Strangely enchanting...The language of the script doesn’t always flow melodically. But van Kampen has an illuminating appreciation not only for period music but also for the gap between artists and their art...Watching Rylance’s Philippe experience Farinelli’s voice, we hear what he hears. And an actor and a singer temporarily turn a night at the theater in an anxious city into an Eden beyond worldly care, all the more precious for its evanescence."
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Time Out New York
December 17th, 2017

"Davies’s singing provides most of the high notes in this otherwise workmanlike play. The nature of the central musical therapy is barely explored; instead, we get contrived court intrigue, low comedy, a rushed quasiromance, and an equally hasty coda, delivered in a steady march of flat-footed exposition...The pleasures of Dove’s production—the music, Rylance’s halting propulsion, the sumptuous sets and costumes—gleam to no purpose, real jewels glued to a trinket crown."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
December 17th, 2017

"It actually feels like there’s a much more interesting play hiding inside this one...Crane is uniformly fretful throughout. Rylance doesn’t really get much of an arc either...When Rylance isn’t onstage or Davies isn’t singing, it’s serious looking-at-your-watch o’clock...Honestly, even Rylance doesn’t save all his scenes...We in the audience are being asked to have the same experience as the king: Just listen and let it wash over you as a sensory experience."
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The Wall Street Journal
December 21st, 2017

"By all rights it ought not to work at all—yet 'Farinelli' still contrives to cast an odd spell on the viewer, and its best moments have a delicate beauty that will stay with you...Van Kampen’s Farinelli is an inscrutable stick figure, while her Philippe is a walking thesaurus of stage-madness clichés. Nor does her plot have any tension...Thanks to Davies’s singing and Dove’s staging, 'Farinelli' manages to circumvent its dramatic deficiencies and hold your attention—if you love music."
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Deadline
December 17th, 2017

"It’s the best play and the best production of the season so far...Yes, it has a beginner’s nicks – unnecessary use of anachronism, a sometimes heavy-handed symmetry. But in the end, it’s wildly entertaining in the moment, and resonant in the aftermath. It’s not only fun, it’s really about something...And then there’s Rylance...Meticulously off-handed, it’s funny and sad, a performance to be savored in a totally engaging little triumph of a show."
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New York Daily News
December 17th, 2017

"Claire van Kampen’s fact-based but liberally embroidered drama isn’t so sensational...Still, the drama at the Belasco is a richly theatrical reminder of what art can do...Rylance is riveting as the bedeviled ruler, but his star turn still raised mixed feelings. At times he is deliciously daft and spontaneous, but he's also occasionally too stagy and calculating to ring true...The play’s poky first half meanders, but it gains momentum after the intermission."
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Variety
December 17th, 2017

"There’s not much to Claire van Kampen’s simplistic script...But with a lead performance by Oscar and Tony winner Mark Rylance in full sail, it’s enough...In the context of the period setting, the anachronistic language is barbarically contemporary...That’s a pity, since director John Dove has taken such pains to re-create the heavily gilded style of the formal Baroque setting of this production."
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The Hollywood Reporter
December 17th, 2017

"If the play is structurally shaky and thematically a tad thin, Dove's exquisite staging yields compensatory rewards...This is a potentially fascinating story...But the drama becomes borderline inert...Once van Kampen has put Philippe and Farinelli together she doesn't really know what to do with them...The deteriorating mental health of a monarch here doesn't constitute a sustaining narrative arc, even if Rylance's commanding performance remains the center of attention."
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