What the Constitution Means to Me (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (405)
See it if If you like the put down of men. Being dictated at. Good acting but plotline to dictatorial and as such, takes away from performance.
Don't see it if If you dont want to be lectured or realize that the Constitution is the constitution.
See it if whether you like the politics of politics, need a refresher on the Constitution or know nothing about the Constitution and your rights.
Don't see it if you do not mind missing a delightful civics lesson & an amazing young performer go toe to toe with the author on where our country is today!
See it if Even better than it was off Broadway. A bit more polished and Schreck really delivers authenticity.
Don't see it if A must see. Should be required, especially in this time right now.
See it if you would enjoy hearing about our democracy & its principles as described by delightful woman and precocious child. Mix of memoir & contest
Don't see it if you expect a story with recognizable beginning middle & end. Lots of small stories are told. But the big one is left for our imagination.
See it if u want to see an original (but decidedly not originalist) civics lesson by an engaging, plucky storyteller that's more TED Talk than theater
Don't see it if you're not interested in a partisan, feminist lecture; you expect a traditional theatrical experience. Read more
See it if Schreck's 'love letter' to the US Constitution makes for fascinating, gripping theatre Personal is made political via Butler's apt direction
Don't see it if Schreck's performance at times a little too emotional when a steely reserve would have sufficed Iverson's legionaire provides needed respite
See it if you’ve ever wondered (especially in the last few years), “WTF is going on in this country?!”
Don't see it if (not applicable)
See it if you enjoy one-person show (with cameos by a few others) that relate a person’s life experience.
Don't see it if you go to a Broadway show primarily for the entertainment value; there isn’t much here. It doesn't feel like a big enough show for Broadway.
Critic Reviews (46)
"Nothing less than a chronicle of the legal subjugation of women by men...It is a tragedy told as a comedy, a work of inspired protest, a slyly crafted piece of persuasion and a tangible contribution to the change it seeks. It is not just the best play to open on Broadway so far this season, but also the most important...Schreck gives a real and wrenching performance, not a speech…‘Constitution’ is one of the things we always say we want theater to be: an act of civic engagement."
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"It’s the rare indie theater piece that doesn’t require intimacy...It’s theater in the old sense, the Greek sense, a place where civic society can come together and do its thinking and fixing...The text itself doesn’t seem to have changed since its Off Broadway run last year, yet the show has deepened, sweetened, and strengthened in its move to Broadway...Broadway’s oxygen has turned her into a wildfire. On the night I saw the show, the audience roared its response."
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S.H.: "Schreck’s performance has developed muscles. It’s gotten more visceral — more risky and exposed. The pain of it all—and the defiance—is more visible underneath what she calls her ‘psychotic politeness’...Schreck has us in hand both as a performer and as the constructor of the play." I.C.: "And that’s ultimately what I found so bold and moving: That she unapologetically puts herself — and to some extent the story of other people left out of the Constitution — at the center of it."
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"Few new works for the stage are as instantly, trenchantly timely...It's a play of ideas for which people are not just hungry but starved...It challenges us to step back and look at the bigger picture...The thoughtful craftsmanship that has gone into building the play is fully evident, notably in the skill with which Schreck relates her own history to the gaping holes in the Constitution where adequate protections for women should be...Unique, stimulating, and exquisitely heartfelt."
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"With Tracy-Flick pluck, she dives into an energetic civics lesson. And soon, she springboards from the Ninth and 14th Amendments to talk about the women in her family, and about herself in the most personal terms...It’s no small achievement to eke laughs out of that material, but Schreck certainly does, her humor swinging from self-deprecating to the can-you-believe-these-guys variety...It is shaggily structured, but also original, which is to be celebrated."
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"The engaging writer-performer is all smiles and so are we...But by the end of the show, we’ve been stirred — and challenged — by her penetrating insights into that document...Although she never drops her unthreatening demeanor of all-American niceness, Schreck takes a more acerbic tone as she works up to her true subject...To her credit, Schreck doesn’t let righteous anger curdle into polemics. On the contrary, she closes with an uplifting message."
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"The problem is that Ms. Schreck, for whatever reason, is rarely willing to grapple directly, at least not for very long, with the raw emotions triggered by her truth-telling...A reminiscential lecture about feminism, thinly disguised as a play. I would have preferred the lecture on its own—Ms. Schreck is a phenomenally powerful storyteller—but 'What the Constitution Means to Me' wouldn’t have been nearly as popular had it not been sweetened up far past the point of indigestibility."
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"Art can make a difference, it can improve you. But what does it take? Brutal honesty and plenty of facts. Schreck provides both in abundance—along with natural charisma and loads of humor. The piece is a model of how a playwright-performer can use the memoir-monologue and electrify it within a harrowing historical context...This ingenious play keeps peeling away its layers, to reveal a blood-chilling core truth: The Constitution isn’t here to protect you."
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