Member 620825

See it if You enjoy fast-paced old-school vaudeville/clown/Jacques Tati-esque visual comedy and enjoy poking fun at holier-than-thou performance art

Don't see it if There will be some audience participation, but don't worry, if you're one of the chosen, it'll be over before you know it

See it if You like fantastical, spectacle driven dark comedy

Don't see it if You have no interest in giant sand worm puppetry

Also Improbably, the production immediately overcomes what could have been its greatest obstacle: Alex Brightman actually manages to fill Michael Keaton's enormous, black-and-white striped shoes, and it's not merely pastiche, he really makes it his own... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see a pretty good community theater production, an expensive set, a real sheep onstage

Don't see it if It felt un-directed: the ensemble struggles, indicates, and over/underplays their way through scenes of disconnected shouting

See it if Ms. Jackson at the height of her powers; Ruth Wilson's brilliant 2-role performance; inventive staging using ASL & unexpected design choices

Don't see it if While it's riveting, it's also quite slow––3.5 hours can be an endurance test for many

See it if You enjoy quirky melodrama, heartfelt orchestrations; the sweet, romantic energy from the Adrienne Shelly film that inspired it

Don't see it if You're looking for theatrical spectacle, plot twists, or particularly memorable music

See it if You appreciate transformative, transcendent theater; if you are haunted by the reverberations of history

Don't see it if You prefer safer, friendlier, easily digestible fare

See it if You enjoy high-energy nostalgia, 1950s and early 60s girl groups, the delightfully powerful vocals of Jenna Leigh Green

Don't see it if You react negatively to silly, John Waters-ish visions of a candy-coated past, or clichéd storytelling in service of a camp aesthetic

See it if You enjoy artful, first-person shooters like "BioShock," whose atmosphere is impressively reproduced

Don't see it if You have an interest in story, scenework, cohesion, not being jostled

Also "Sleep No More" is a staggering achievement in atmosphere. If one could face it alone (as in the computer games it emulates), it would undoubtedly be a one-of-a-kind experience. As is, it's ruined by its own audience: actors are chased, room-by-room, by a keyed-up, half-blind mob in cargo shorts and Venetian masks who are following them so closely you're afraid the poor actors will end up getting poked in the eye by the birdlike bills on the plastic masks. It's "Eyes Wide Shut" for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, and any sensible audience member ends up abstaining from the scenes (the "meat" of the production) and wandering whichever rooms are currently empty.... Read more Read less

See it if you love musicals, spectacle, wonder.

Don't see it if you dislike J.M. Barrie, feminism, children.

See it if You're in town for 48 hours, have low standards, and don't want to admit to your children you can't afford tickets to Harry Potter

Don't see it if You feel like a Broadway show ought to live up to Broadway standards

Also The folks behind the "Be More Chill" hype machine are plugging this half-assed Gap commercial with Greek mythological elements (Xena: Warrior Princess is higher-brow). Hopefully it falls flat on it's face or else Broadway is doomed to cheapo mediocrity. The cast fights against the tide to do their best (the fight direction is damned good, too) but it mostly feels like a tax-evasion scheme or a labor law dodge (hey, how many actors can we double-cast? I mean, triple-cast? Er, quintuple-cast?) or possibly a social experiment to see how bereft of imagination and spectacle a Broadway musical can possibly be (no joke: the show-stopping "Power of Poseidon tsunami" setpiece involves toilet paper and leafblowers).... Read more Read less

See it if You always secretly wished the "Dancing With Myself" music video was three hours long and that Billy Idol could be swapped out for Meat Loaf

Don't see it if You need there to be bats in your "Bat out of Hell" experience. Or hell.

See it if If you appreciate circo-burlesque-operatic decadence, truly talented physical performers, an obsessive attention to costume detail

Don't see it if Runs 1 hour longer than it should, moments of the sublime oft give way to ass-clapping and stage-humping, the audience attracts finance bros

See it if You have coinciding interests in Game of Thrones and Mel Brooks/MAD Magazine-style spoof humor

Don't see it if You're expecting subtlety; if you're invested in well-composed/orchestrated music

Also I must also applaud the often fearless performance of such uneven material... Read more Read less

See it if You enjoy thrilling, high-energy theatrical spectacle with jaw-droppingly talented musician/singer/actor/dancer quadruple threats

Don't see it if You dislike jukebox musicals, the Grateful Dead; if you're expecting kitchen-sink realism

Also I wouldn't consider myself a Deadhead by any means, but this was the most fun I've had at the theater in a long time. Actors playing musical instruments has come into vogue recently (Bandstand; Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet..., etc.), but I've never seen anything quite like this––the sheer amount of instruments being handed off and the intricacy of the arrangements and the staging (each actor must play five or six different instruments, I lost count) is breathtaking, and it's worth checking out for that alone. There's really something special here.... Read more Read less

See it if You love historical epics, palace intrigue, baroque rock n' roll, powerful stage pictures, sumptuous design, and sexy performers

Don't see it if You have a short attention span, prefer kitchen sink drama, your favorite downtown shows feature costumes from the Gap and rehearsal cubes

Also This show is a bolt of lightning from edgy, old-school New York––it draws incredibly timely insights from the shadow of the past, and features several of those ecstatic moments of perfection that can only exist in live musical theater, where time itself seems to stop...

(I'm not sure I've ever seen a show this ambitious stick its landing so perfectly––it's like I Claudius, The Iliad, Game of Thrones, or Lawrence of Arabia in scope.)... Read more Read less

See it if You like your comedy to take risks, with a breakneck pace and youthful energy

Don't see it if You require consistency, are annoyed by twee sensibilities and/or comedy deeply convinced of its own edginess

See it if you'd like to see a extremely talented cast traversing a behind-the-scenes high-camp/Hollywood Babylon cautionary tale

Don't see it if you don't like having your fun interrupted by smug, maudlin, low-rent '90s synth music at a pace generously described as lethargic

Also Last month, I saw (and loved!) a truly magical musical called "Tink!" at NYMF, and I was intrigued to see that this show shared the same director (Klein), choreographer (Fusco), and lead actor (David), which is why I went to see it. Unfortunately, all the magic in the world couldn't save this one (which suffers from a variety of inherent structural and musical self-indulgences), but it's often fun to watch them try. Also worthy of mention is Remy Germinario, whose sideline antics in a variety of roles make some of the more ponderous sections actually bearable. Here's hoping the talented cast and crew (who occasionally spin straw into gold) can reunite on a worthier project.... Read more Read less