Travesties NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (343)
See it if Stoppard - Stoppard - Stoppard!
Don't see it if You don't want to pay attention to the words - REALLY
See it if Brilliant. Huge in scope and deliciously delivered by a terrific cast. Fun and incredibly intelligent.
Don't see it if You’re dumb.
See it if you're into the intellectual, witty, funny, convoluted world of Stoppard,enjoy a meaty play done right and endlessly entertaining production
Don't see it if high ideas and verbose dialogue aren't your thing, you find it hard to concentrate for 2.5 hours or easily confused with complex narrative.
See it if you love Stoppard, great acting, terrific sets&lighting.It takes you on a wild ride.Hold on & enjoy it.I can't tell you how good it is.GO!!!
Don't see it if you don't like Stoppard's brand of humor or style of writing.This is 1 of his best plays.Please go see it, & be open to something new.
See it if Brilliant writing. Amazing cast. You don't have to make sense of everything, just enjoy the ride.
Don't see it if Try to sit in the orchestra if possible. You need to pay close attention and the sound in the balcony made that a bit challenging.
See it if You want to see the best theater in NYC right now. Absolutely perfect direction, staging, and performances. The play is a masterpiece.
Don't see it if You hate clever, intellectual plays with lots of allusions and references to other literature and events.
See it if James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin & Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara clash in WWI Zurich, as Tom Hollander's senile British consul tells decades later.
Don't see it if You don't like straight drama, 1974 revivals, great writing, or a good Tom Stoppard farce that turns history upside down.
See it if you have never seen a production of Tom Stoppard's gem. Acting and staging are of the highest caliber. Possibly better than the original!
Don't see it if you don't like fast-moving, witty plays with double-entendres and the like being volleyed at the audience.
Critic Reviews (41)
"A work to remember, or misremember, for years to come...This latest incarnation is the clearest and...one of the liveliest. It should prove ridiculously entertaining for anyone with even a passing knowledge of its central characters...What makes 'Travesties' so deeply engaging and hilarious and touching isn't its flashy erudition but its author's rapt fascination with the workings of the human mind and its enduring relationship with art...The cast couldn't be much better."
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"Devilishly clever...Artfully reassembles in an olio of genres-farce, spy story, seminar, musical, history lesson, absurdist prank-with mixed-in of culture high and low...The facets of Stoppard's jewel-like play are overwhelmingly brilliant...In Marber's well-judged and high-spirited revival, the result is inviting rather than snobbishly exclusive, and the structural and verbal dazzle are offset with subtle suggestions of elegy...It's a pleasure to engage with a production that does 'Travesties' full justice."
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"A whirlwind of highbrow showmanship. But what keeps it from being pretentious is the sincere explosive joy with which it’s constructed...Stoppard’s writing is generous in its virtuosity...Among the triumphs of Marber’s production is the stellar comedy of its eight-person ensemble who unanimously understand the combination of precision and animation called for by their material...A celebration, an exaltation, a spell, a dance, a feast, and a farce."
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"You don't have to enroll for a graduate degree to enjoy Stoppard's simultaneously wacky and intellectual comedy..That's largely due to the accessible nature of Marber's rollickingly staged production...The plot is nothing more than a springboard for the playwright's unique brand of clever wordplay and cerebral observations...The dense verbiage is presented through a prism of exuberant physical comedy and absurdism...Much seriousness underlies the humor."
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"A gushing waterfall of wordplay, a fine-tuned literary torrent...Marber keeps Stoppard's verbal ballet moving briskly, occasionally slowing the action down just enough to let the narrative breathe...May be too discursive to ever quite nail down exactly what it's all about, other than everything. Still, one line from early in the first act does seem especially apropos, even if it undersells the frenetic wonders within: 'It may be nonsense, but at least it's clever nonsense.'"
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"The show's set advises us to please be quiet...But you can forget about that, because the sound of laughter can't be contained...This extravagant farce bristles with clever wordplay...Fun on its own etymological terms, this madcap comedy also tips its hat — a beat-up straw boater with a jaunty red hatband — to the spirit of revolution that galvanized Europe in 1917...Underneath the gem-like brilliance of its theatrical style, the play's dark subject matter emerges."
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"This 'Travesties' is a total success: The staging is outrageously vital and the cast is as close to ideal as it’s possible to imagine...It is as darkly serious as it is crazily funny, and you don’t have to get all of the highbrow jokes to relish the fizzing éclat with which 'Travesties' reminds us that whenever artists and revolutionaries turn the world upside down, things—and people—have a way of getting broken...You’re never going to see a finer revival of 'Travesties,' so catch this one while you can."
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"'Travesties,' a nonstop tourney of wit and erudition, has often been called a brainteaser, but brain tickler comes so much closer to the jubilant staging...This 'Travesties' belongs first and foremost to Hollander...Under Marber's careful direction, Hollander takes Stoppard's comically befuddled British consul into some unforeseen emotional terrain."
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