The Visit

"'The Visit' only rarely shakes off a stasis that suggests a carefully carved mausoleum frieze. Nor does the show ever quite make peace between its uneasily twinned strands of merciless cynicism and a softer sentimentality...'That 'The Visit' still holds the attention has much to do with Ms. Rivera’s command of the stage...'The Visit' may in part be about the cruel price that life exacts if you stick around long enough. But Ms. Rivera adds a savory note of triumph to that bitter lesson." Full Review

"This isn’t their strongest score, though even average Kander and Ebb is still better than most of the dreck out there...The show sports many such oddball touches...you may find yourself wishing Rivera could also go on forever." Full Review

"The show is more literary piece than conventional musical. But it has a dark, sinister beauty...It begins well and ends well, but sags in the middle." Full Review

"It remains fascinating and alluring, if finally repetitive and frustrating...For all its flaws, though, you would never say the cast and crew of this often hypnotizing, eerie experiment were driven by fear or the lust for lucre." Full Review

"The better the songs are, the weirder the show gets. There is, it seems to me, something ultimately incompatible in the marriage of this prime example of the European absurd and American show-must-go-on razzmatazz. Alienation and gregariousness make strange co-stars, but then so did Kander and Ebb. What a joy to have them back on Broadway and to think that, even half-dead, they’re unkillable." Full Review

"At its best, the musical provokes some disturbing questions, and offers a kind of gruesome, Expressionist beauty. But it may also disappoint and confuse...If the outcome is predictable, the events unfold in layers that are inventive and often surprising." Full Review

"A second-tier Kander and Ebb score is better than a lot of musical craftsmen's best, which makes 'The Visit' a welcome curiosity...The funereal show's shortage of tonal variation makes it harder to love...One of the production's rewards is the thrilling choral singing and exquisitely textured harmonies. But unquestionably, the reason to see 'The Visit' even with its flaws is the star." Full Review

"This production was worth the wait...'The Visit' is a cynical tragicomedy whose score is as gorgeous as its heart is hard. If that’s your cup of arsenic, you’ve come to the right apothecary...'The Visit' isn’t for everyone. But Mr. Kander and his late, lamented partner never wrote a finer score, and if you find that there isn’t much kick in the milk of human kindness, then you’ll thrill to their cruel tale of what men who dare to call themselves decent will do to one another if the price is ... Full Review

"The score is weak, dreary and derivative of Kander and Ebb's earlier work...Doyle's streamlined and ultra-stylized production is visually striking, but perhaps too ghoulish for its own good -- to the point of being excessively creepy and gloomy." Full Review

"It remains a weird musical...this show most assuredly deserves to be here, if feeling, music and craft are the perennial guideposts. Sometimes they just take you to strange, difficult places, as they should." Full Review

"Revenge is a dish served tepid in “The Visit.” The warmth hobbles this stark musical fable by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally. With this team, the show is certainly worthwhile. But it could really send shivers — and doesn’t. 'The Visit' pulls its punches...Wildcat? No. Claire and 'The Visit' are too domesticated for their own good." Full Review

"The show has deepened greatly...Kander’s music has never stopped evolving in its beauty, complexity and breadth, and the melodies here get under your skin even if the lyrics are not up to Ebb’s best. McNally’s compressed book does the job elegantly. I can’t imagine this show appealing to a Broadway audience seeking upbeat thrills, but I’m glad it finally made it here." Full Review

"Trust a John Kander-Fred Ebb musical to make the sunny color of vitality and youth positively menacing. In the dark, thrilling show, 'The Visit,' shoes, money and even tennis rackets turn yellow...'The Visit' is sophisticated and beautiful and yet has that typical glorious chilling view of man you expect from a Kander and Ebb show...It can visit anytime." Full Review

"'The Visit' is a haunting, haunted knot of Expressionist storytelling, a masterly 100-minute powerhouse with liltingly gruesome songs that create their own macabre world unlike anything onstage in recent memory...The chamber work has the feel of a dark European fable -- albeit one with timeless theatricality. The music is woozy with disturbing dance rhythms." Full Review

"This brilliant musical is a James Ensor painting drained of most colors, and the mix of John Kander’s riffs and plaintive ballads suit that dark vision to perfection...The gift of Kander and Ebb’s score is that it never sentimentalizes the material, but rather deepens our understanding of Claire’s motive and her shared tragedy with Anton...Fans of the American musical have much to be thankful for this season." Full Review

"Never trust a woman who travels with her own coffin. That's one big takeaway from 'The Visit,' the thought-provoking and bizarre musical...Do everything in your powers to avoid having the ending spoiled. It will be bliss to sit through 'The Visit' asking the question that’s clearly supposed to be on our minds: What would we do if we were one of those people in Brachen?" Full Review

"All the veteran talent yields decidedly mixed results...Kander and Ebb's music is quite lovely...The story, however, struck me as uncompellingly grim and confused...This yellow-hued show can't decide if it's a tragedy, a romance or a Brechtian comedy." Full Review

"It’s a dark, macabre and evocative production...'The Visit' may not be one for the average theatergoer (although it should be) but is one of those esoteric secrets that fill the cognoscenti with excitement." Full Review

I loved it...Terrence McNally’s book and the Kander and Ebb score have turned what could have been murky and painful to watch, into a melodic and adult story of true love gone wrong and it is mesmerizing...I found it moving and resoundingly satisfying...Anyone truly moved by great theatre will enjoy this." Full Review

"Kander's melodies and Ebb's lyrics are even chillier here...Yet there is also an oddly sentimental streak in this 'Visit'...Rivera can't help but be a transcendent force. Her presence alone makes 'The Visit' worth the trip." Full Review

"Death becomes her. Or not...A dismally depressing one-act musical...After about 90 minutes of gloom and doom one wishes that the whole show could be sealed up and buried six feet under." Full Review

"Super weird plot with haunting music and eerie direction by John Doyle. Oh, and there’s eunuchs. To me, it falls flat, and rather than engaging with the material I just sat back in wonder at just how weird it all was." Full Review

"The score by Kander and Ebb is workman-like with occasional flourishes of cynicism and bite. However, persistently, this is an underwhelming group of songs that never rises to the heights the duo has so consistently delivered in the past...John Doyle’s direction is serviceable... a reserved and slender piece of musical theater." Full Review

"For 90 minutes of ecstatic storytelling, you are transported...It is the best, most important, musical currently playing on Broadway...If you embrace it and let it engulf you, you will be richly rewarded. This is first-rate in every way and, more importantly for the life of the musical form, an invigorating – but shattering – new direction." Full Review

"The production is on the smaller scale of Broadway musicals, but it is beautifully done by director John Doyle...Oftentimes the later work of composers isn't as good as their younger output. Thankfully, 'The Visit' is not that case! These songs are some of their best!" Full Review