War Paint

"A show with one musical theater legend is rare these days but with both Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole you are offered two of the great ladies of the American musical on the same stage at the top of their form. Sophisticated, chic and elegant, 'War Paint' is an absorbing and magnificent story of two remarkable women who climbed their way to the top of their profession only to find that there were still things they could not accomplish." Full Review

"This knockout Broadway musical pits not only fashion doyenne Helena Rubinstein against Elizabeth Arden but divas Patti LuPone against Christine Ebersole. And everyone wins, especially the audience...The book does an excellent job of condensing the story...The music and lyrics are fanciful and exhilarating, propelling the story while allowing the stars to shine, and shine they do; LuPone, Ebersole, Dossett, and Sills are the fiercest foursome on Broadway today." Full Review

“Tremendously satisfying…Wright offers a fascinating history of 20th century fashion and make-up as well as an insightful character study, directed with speed and style by Michael Greif…The score is sharp, funny, and intricate, employing the musical vocabulary of its various eras to convey rapid changes and emotional depths…LuPone and Ebersole command the stage separately but equally…John Dossett and Douglas Sills offer sturdy support as their right-hand men.” Full Review

"The marquee draw is the dynamite pairing of Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, Broadway's finest, in richly distinctive roles that play to their respective strengths...Their contrasting turns here are simply mesmerizing...Despite its relatively low-key dramatic engine, this is a smart, sophisticated exploration of two uncompromising...Some no doubt will find the show lacking in dramatic momentum or explosive conflicts. I found it thoroughly compelling and masterfully entertaining throughout." Full Review

"Extraordinary performers with extraordinary presence and voices...LuPone fulfills every aspect of the bitter and driven Rubinstein...She also has an overflowing share of laugh lines...What’s compelling is the character-driven plot giving insight into the lives of two unusual women who created empires at a time when it was unfashionable and unacceptable – the chosen twosome are unparalleled in talent and star power. They are more than electrified under Michael Greif’s direction." Full Review

“It was a thrill to enjoy this gem of an original musical. I am not saying it’s perfect, but for an audience that can remember the wonderful musicals of the 1950s and 1960s, this is as close as you can get to such wonderful heights. With a witty book by Doug Wright, an excellent melodic score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, and deft direction by Michael Greif, they have created a highly entertaining musical.” Full Review

"The production becomes a spellbinding study in the competition of wills...Michael Greif’s production is a multi-layered, extraordinarily textured story...Written by a team of three gay men, the show is sometimes camp in tone – there are lots of stinging one-liners – but it is affecting and resonant about the pursuit of looks and love. Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's score has a series of soaring numbers of near operatic power for the women." Full Review

"A confident, unapologetically old-style musical, whose main accomplishment rests not in merely giving two fabulous Broadway divas a chance to belt their faces off, but also in making real people out of these two icons, and in giving heartfelt expression to their struggles...LuPone has never been funnier, but the performance never feels like it’s too much. Ebersole has never sounded sweeter...Wright’s dialogue is priceless." Full Review

"Ebersole and LuPone are nothing short of flawless...Add a heaping pile of beauty, glamour and lush costumes to the mix, and you have yourself a juicy — albeit highly elegant — drama...The music is strong but not particularly memorable...But the lyrics are impactful...While Act 2 slows a tad the show is overall well-paced, due in part to the quippy one-liners that could easily be on the packaging of a compact...'War Paint' isn’t perfect, but it’s a thing of beauty for sure." Full Review

"Both of these stars are winning a different type of theatrical war than the one being chronicled in this touching big-number filled musical…‘War Paint’ fails to rise above the pedestrian, doing justice to this interesting story, but unable to rise the whole piece as high as some of the notes being sung…Every moment sounds lovely and we are totally engaged, but the songs don’t vary enough from each other overall…Just try to defy these two Tony winning stars their stupendous power." Full Review

"How rare it is to see two great female performances in one season, much less one musical. The 'War Paint' book is also a marvel...Director Michael Greif not only juggles with aplomb these four lead characters and a featured one, but the Depression, World War II, the advent of TV, and the counterculture. It’s quite a story, and one well told...These songwriters are good at the reflective...If only they could be a little brassier now and then." Full Review

"Hearing these extraordinary women at the top of their game in duets that contrast and blend and play off one another’s unique theatrical instincts is a thrill, and would be even without a chic and thoughtful show around them. 'War Paint' may not be one of the great musicals, but it is an enormously satisfying one...The show, sleekly and compassionately directed by Michael Greif, looks at American women from 1934 to 1964 through a new lens." Full Review

"A smart portrayal of the obstacles faced by a pair of America's earliest female entrepreneurs...Benefits foremost from the remarkable symmetry between its leads...The score is tuneful and catchy, winding up to a pair of bittersweet releases for the stars...Good God, the women’s voices are in astounding condition...Their meeting is something of a misty-eyed anticlimax...'War Paint,' mostly, is bliss and makeup." Full Review

"Two Broadway stars more thrillingly suited to embodying this historic rivalry would be hard to come up with...It’s an edifying musical rather than an exciting one, certainly worth any theatergoer’s time...Greif has overseen with great sophistication the staging and styling...The musical’s worthiest achievements: making room on a stage, to a degree virtually never seen, for star turns by two sublime female veterans of the musical theater." Full Review

“It begins to feel like you’re watching an interlocking double feature of strangely alike by-the-number biopics…The score also gives LuPone plenty of opportunities to show off her distinctive entwining of the Broadway belt, while Ebersole’s numbers are embroidered with filigrees of lovely high notes…You’ll hardly feel that you’ve wasted your money on some totally useless product. It’s well-packaged with some formidable ingredients." Full Review

“Something the queers should flock to…The show is lavish and well designed…The two leads deliver, Ebersole emanating control and singing beautifully, knocking out her terrific 11 o’clock self-doubt number, ‘Pink.’ As Rubinstein, LuPone employs a thick accent, making her first song hard to decipher. She is also directed to overly lean on some of the joke lines she’s been given. But she’s in top vocal form, and when the two ladies are warring it up, this is gay heaven.” Full Review

"'War Paint' may not be this year's best musical, but it's a highly entertaining, inventive, and informative show...The substance seems solidly, sagaciously traditional. Lyricist Korie and composer Frankel rarely transcend the conventional show-music idiom, but they work fluently and intelligently within it, while Wright's pungent, pointed book skillfully encapsulates its many topics without ever running aground. Greif's direction pulls everything together with expectable smoothness." Full Review

"Some of Broadway’s most solid craftsmen worked on 'War Paint,' and it shows. Most of the team previously worked on 'Grey Gardens,' and while this isn’t up to the caliber of that show, it’s still pretty darn good...The songs for Ebersole and LuPone go beyond intelligently painting the personalities of the two main characters – they are as exquisitely tailored for their talents...It’s very well-crafted, but not perfect...'War Paint' is smart and marvelously stylish entertainment." Full Review

"LuPone and Ebersole, giving performances of such resplendent force, wit and vivacity that the evening gleams like a freshly applied coat of nail polish...Enhanced by a sumptuous production directed by Greif...A nagging flaw in the show’s conception: the central narrative is largely undramatic, at times even superficial...When you have the opportunity to watch actors of this caliber, it’s easy to overlook many a superficial flaw, sit back and simply bask." Full Review

"Luckily, there’s not much plot to distract from these carefully nuanced characters, their amazing careers and dazzling wardrobes...The music feels right for both the individual characters and the progressive time frames. The lyrics suit the characters and serve the plot. And the book is smart and literate...While much is made of their fierce competitive practices, there’s little at stake here, aside from the loyalties of their male partners." Full Review

"The musical is built around an unwieldy and repetitive Ping-Pong structure of shifting back and forth between the two characters...However, 'War Paint' still has a lot going for it, including self-empowered protagonists, high-powered performances, well-crafted period-style songs, the classy aura of old-school New York and the smooth direction of Michael Greif." Full Review

"Very classy and elegant new Broadway musical...Deceptively complex direction of Michael Greif...The show ultimately demurs when it comes to holding the great titans of makeup, and the men who surrounded them, to moral account. And that is what might just have made 'War Paint' a truly great musical, instead of a highly entertaining and provocative one...A tad too admiring of its subjects for its own good." Full Review

"The music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie work best when sung by the stars, and director Michael Greif has worked hard to keep up a pace in a show that seems over-extended...However, there is no getting away from the fact that watching LuPone and Ebersole is the main reason for seeing 'War Paint,' and the stars who reign do not disappoint, even in a show with a strained book and less than glorious music." Full Review

"You will be charged, thrilled and fascinated by two divas dishing it out with every trick in their careers of sharp, dagger-edged perfection as they command and hold the stage...There are songs galore but few of them will live in your heart after the final curtain. Blander than I expected and oddly lacking in rhapsodic melodies...The tunes in 'War Paint' do inspire you to go away humming. This does not, I must add, detract from the mega-watt voltage from the two divas onstage." Full Review

"Frankel's score sounds as though it were written just for them offering many showcase numbers (perhaps a few too many in the two-hour, 35-minute production) with soaring belts for the actresses to show off what they can do. Ebersole, particularly, shines...Adding to the quality of the production, getting a fine treatment from director Michael Greif, are creamy supporting performances." Full Review