Michael12

See it if You really, really like Jeremy O. Harris and you're a bit of a completist.

Don't see it if You're expecting an actual evening-length piece. Even from an experimental theatre perspective, this is real thin.

Also Ugh. This might be the worst thing I've seen all year.

It's more like a free write they decided to stage for an hour. To be fair, I'd much rather see Jeremy O. Harris's free writes than the free writes of most other playwrights, but still.

Pretentious pretentious pretentious. Full of intellectual references that the audience thought they were supposed to murmur thoughtfully about and full of edgy jokes that the audience thought they were supposed to laugh at.

There's just no there there, which is a shame because the set is cool and there's some interesting staging. The material thinks it's really shocking but it's not really.

This is the second show at the Starr in recent memory about death and shame centered around gay sex. That bums me out as a queer person.

Bottom line: It was only an hour, but it felt like four.... Read more Read less

See it if You're a big fan of David Greenspan or you like the more experimental pieces the Starr usually programs.

Don't see it if You live far from Bushwick. Show length isn't everything, but this is only 45 minutes long and nothing happens. Subway ride there was longer

Also Classic David Greenspan. If you like him you'll like it, if you don't you won't. I'm a big fan and found myself lukewarm. It just didn't feel like it was about anything.

At my performance it was clear the actors were going up on lines. Greenspan's text is very difficult, but still.

Ultimately it was too short to leave any real sort of impression on me.... Read more Read less

See it if You're a fan of unique theatrical experiences and you can get a very cheap ticket.

Don't see it if You're expecting an immersive show similar to Punchdrunk or Third Rail's stuff. Or if the weather's bad that night.

Also This is billed as intimate and immersive. I'll give it the former. Our group was just seven people. But it's definitely not immersive. Immersive implies that the show envelops you. This is just a meandering play where you walk from one character to another. The dramatic backdrop of the Manhattan Bridge/East River is never used for anything. I couldn't hear some of the actors and I am a young person with good hearing.

The final 3rd was tremendous, but everything preceding it was too long, uninvolving, and kind of pointless. The story that you could discern was run of the mill. Is this really what passes for immersive theatre in Los Angeles?

Some in our group had spent $125 for 80 minutes where very little happened. I would've been pissed if I spent that much.... Read more Read less

See it if You like big dramas full of big ideas. You're LGBT. You worry about the future of America.

Don't see it if You can't give yourself fully to a nearly 8-hour play that demands all of your emotional and physical energy.

Also How much and how little has changed in 25 years. This production arrives like a balm laced with acid. The acting, while venturing into constant yelling in Part 2, is across the board terrific with Garfield and Lane both very deserving of their Tonys.

My only issue was with the physical production. It's ugly and drab, especially in Part 1 where there are three small turntables that make a ton of noise as they move from one blank piece of scenery to another.

In Part 2 I found it super distracting and silly to have the Angel's helpers crawling in and out of the dark to move the set pieces.

As for the Angel herself, I thought she was super underwhelming looking. She looked dirty and cheap, which I suppose was a production choice, but I didn't think it worked.

The night I went to Part 2 the person operating the left part of her wing was a good two feet away from her body the entire time. Totally ruined the illusion.

These are just little things though. Excellent overall.... Read more Read less

See it if You're tired of gay plays automatically being about white people with the same 2-3 problems.

Don't see it if You're expecting something truly new. Or you get frustrated when a historical play uses modern languages/attitudes.

Also The more I think about this one, the more I didn't like it. What a giant missed opportunity.

The play wants to have its cake and eat it too. It's like a melodrama pendulum designed to wring the most pathos out of you as humanly possible. It succeeds on the strength of the acting, which is excellent.

But the play itself...it just seems like there was zero historical research put into it. One minute, a character says it's too dangerous to have three slaves on the porch at once. The next minute, she's giving a speech full of modern aphorisms about how homosexuality is totally fine and goes all the way back to Africa.

We can be in a magical realism world, we can be in a historical world, but if we want to be in both at the same time, it better be executed properly and this is most definitely not.

This is just another gay play about extreme suffering where someone dies at the end and the only sex shown on stage in heterosexual. Aren't we past that point?... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see the breakthrough production of one of our finest new playwrights. I am still bowled over.

Don't see it if You need naturalism or a linear storyline. You're a prude.

Also No question the best thing I have seen so far in 2018. This is how I felt seeing Circle Mirror Transformation in the same space a decade ago. Like I was seeing something exciting and completely new from a writer whose work I would be enjoying for a very long time.

This show is so funny, so well staged, so gut wrenching. I can't wait to go back and see it again.... Read more Read less

See it if You love a big, classic, expensive looking musical.

Don't see it if You're expecting a production on the same level as past Sher triumphs like The King and I and South Pacific.

Also This was actually my first time ever seeing My Fair Lady and while this production was very enjoyable, I thought the show itself was way too long and the whole thing just left me kind of cold. Seems like a good 20/25 minutes could be cut out, which I guess might be a blasphemous statement for some people.

The leads were thrilling in the book scenes, especially in the second act. But while Lauren Ambrose could hit the notes, her voice isn't full enough to make the songs soar. I thought Butz was on autopilot.

As always, astonishing set and fabulous use of the giant playing space.... Read more Read less

See it if You like Joshua Jackson or you've never seen the original.

Don't see it if You're impatient. The play is VERY slow and the staging certainly doesn't help.

Also I don't know. There's just something about it that didn't take off for me. The play feels old and too long. I didn't think either of the male hearing characters made a lot of sense. The set was beautiful, but the jazz score was superfluous.

The leads have good chemistry, but neither of them feel like real people despite some excellent acting.

If you can score a free/cheap ticket like I did, by all means. Otherwise skip it.... Read more Read less

See it if You like great acting, great writing, great everything.

Don't see it if For some reason you'd be put off by a show where a human being plays an elephant.

Also I thought this was just spectacular. It did a great job of making corruption tangible. Making it small. Like a problem that could be solved because this is how it happens piece by piece.

Incredible acting by everyone, especially the three actors carrying the bulk of the show.

80 minutes flew by.... Read more Read less

See it if You're a diehard Tom Stoppard fan.

Don't see it if You're anyone else.

Also A friend told me to read everything I could about the play and the history of the characters/events in it beforehand. I did, even though I should never have to do that for a play to be successful.

It didn't help.

I literally had no idea what was going on for 2 hours and 40 minutes. There was just nothing to grasp on to. The whole thing was pointless. The acting was fine, I guess. There were song and dance moments wedged in for no reason that didn't work. People chuckled politely because they thought they should be laughing.

I was in the center left of the orchestra and I'd say about a ⅓ of that section left during the intermission.

Ugh. Horrible.... Read more Read less

See it if You're interested in a play that examines the early days of the AIDS crisis from a number of different angles.

Don't see it if You dislike depressing shows. There's some wonderful, unexpected humor, but it's still a 3-hour play about a very serious topic.

Also I thought this was a great play with great acting but terrible direction. Absolutely terrible. They had a giant playing space but for some reason almost everything was staged at the far left or far right edges and/or super super far downstage.

The scene changes were too long. The design was so literal. It really hampered the momentum of the piece, which could use editing to begin with. The scene changes only exacerbated those issues.

And I could not hear the actress playing the daughter. At all. And I was sitting in the front row a few feet from her.... Read more Read less

See it if You're an Orange is the New Black fan or you appreciate a crude comedy.

Don't see it if You're easily offended, have difficulty understanding fast hip hop lyrics, or have trouble with loud noises in small spaces.

Also The heyday of Orange is the New Black was 3-4 years ago, which is when this show started. Seeing it now was a little sad. It's not really about anything, so all the jokes just felt past their prime.

The show was SO loud. I love loud stuff, but it really was painful at a certain point. Too many people in a small space. I had problems understanding a lot of the actors when they were rapping and I listen to hip hop.

It was enjoyable, but it wasn't anything special to me. There are ways to be funny that aren't just being big and lewd over and over and over again.... Read more Read less

See it if You grew up with the music and/or have even a passing interest in Carole King.

Don't see it if You're expecting a nuanced look at King's life. I thought the story overall was very generic.

Also There were so many hit songs of the day crammed into the second half of the first act that I totally forgot I was watching a musical that was supposed to be about Carole King. This is a well done jukebox musical. The moments that pop really pop and the pace is lively enough that the shoehorned moments are over fairly soon. Enjoyed the second act better than the first.

The lead actress was wonderful, but I thought the lead actor was weak. The part is underwritten to be sure, but he really fell flat.... Read more Read less

See it if You wish there were more plays with complex, funny female characters.

Don't see it if You can't handle wild shifts in tone. This felt like the first draft of what will eventually be a great play.

Also The show started 15 minutes late and intermission was almost 30 minutes long. Both delays appeared to be without reason and it really killed the momentum into the 2nd act.

I thought this was poorly directed. The lead actress was good but SCREAMED the entire show. I'm not normally sensitive to loud sounds during shows but in such a small space it was excruciating.... Read more Read less

See it if You like political intrigue dramas.

Don't see it if You're looking for new commentary on the Grenada invasion or our current political climate.

Also I marked this as relevant and dated, which I realize is a contradiction. For being written in the early 90s, a remarkable amount of this play addresses current issues. But a lot of it also felt staid and old-fashioned and too pat.

The actors range wildly from excellent to not so excellent. Overall I thought there was a lot of yelling instead of acting, especially for such a small space.

Good but not great.... Read more Read less

See it if You like a good family dramedy.

Don't see it if I can't think of a reason.

Also This was really terrific. A lot of the humor is broad as scripted, but the actors give their characters such specificity that this really ends up feeling like something intimate and special.

I thought it explored a lot of interesting issues about how people without Down syndrome treat people with Down syndrome in a way that didn't feel like an after school special.

My only complain was that the design looked cheap and like it was meant for another play.

Highly recommended.... Read more Read less

See it if You like experimental theatre or brass bands.

Don't see it if You need a play where everything is explained to you or you don't do well with noise. Loud instruments in small space.

Also I'd be lying if I said I understood even half of what was happening, but I really, really enjoyed this. The acting was terrific and the five-piece brass band was incredible. The two actors were very funny and the material was perfectly pitched. Super fun.... Read more Read less

See it if You're interested in cults. I thought it did a really good job of exploring how seemingly rational people could join one.

Don't see it if You dislike intense subject matter, which is amplified by the small space.

Also This is a terrific 3-hour play that would've been absolutely riveting with 30 minutes shaved off of it. It should've happened in rehearsal, but this was still great.

The acting across the board was terrific, but the female lead was spectacular. And the projection design was really cool and made the space seem less bare and small.... Read more Read less

See it if You like puppets. The puppets are truly incredible, as are the rest of the design elements.

Don't see it if You're expecting a polished professional production. The acting ability of the cast is...varied.

Also Some of the greatest puppets I've ever seen on a stage. Incredible world class production numbers with dancing and singing.

But along the way there are a bunch of generic book scenes performed at full cheese. There's about 20 minutes of story for a 70-minute show. We're never told why the things we're seeing are important except in cliched platitudes, which is a missed educational opportunity.

I still think it's worth seeing, but a real book writer could've made it something extraordinary.... Read more Read less

See it if You like podcasts. This felt like a live recording of a podcast. There was zero narrative action at all.

Don't see it if You hate experimental theatre or you need to understand everything that happens in a show.

Also I thought the 2nd half was infinitely better than the 1st half. The female performer was much more dynamic and had a better story than the male performer. That being said, I was confused (and often bored) the entire time.... Read more Read less

See it if You're a fan of Uma Thurman or you can get a free/cheap ticket.

Don't see it if You like political intrigue dramas. House of Cards or Farragut North this is not. Very light, obvious stuff.

Also I know this play has been around for years before Trump. It's almost like someone said "Well, we have this thing that could now be about Trump" and they shoehorned it into that. It didn't say anything specific about our political time, which is a wasted opportunity.

I thought Uma Thurman and Blair Brown were great, but Josh Lucas and Phillipa Soo were both severely miscast and sucked the air out of all their scenes.

Also, the Hudson is super small. Why did everyone have a body mic?... Read more Read less

See it if You like plays where something terrible is lurking just underneath the surface and you can tell something bad's going to happen.

Don't see it if You need a play where everything is spelled out for you. This is very opaque.

Also It's only 70 minutes and it takes 35 minutes of that to get going, but man once it starts it really starts. Still, I can only give it a 70 score because half the time I was very confused about what was going on, how these women knew each other, and why it was important. I feel like my patience was rewarded though.... Read more Read less

See it if You don't mind wading through twee theatrics for a smart play about social media activism.

Don't see it if You're unfamiliar with or uninterested in millennial culture. This struck me as very niche theatre for people 20-40.

Also There's a great play in here, but it takes 30 minutes to get going and the show is only 70 minutes long. The material veered too often into archness and smugness, but the parts that were great were really great and the performances were uniformly terrific.... Read more Read less

See it if You want a theatrical endurance test. Literally everyone around me fell asleep. Everyone. And it was not a matinee.

Don't see it if You value your time. I'm sorry, but there's just no positive way I can spin this.

Also I enjoy solo shows. I absolutely LOVE John Lithgow. This was a colossal bore on the highest level. The brief parts about Lithgow and his father were very affecting, but the two stories themselves, while masterfully performed, were pointless. I couldn't tell what was happening.

I believe that all it takes is a good story to enchant an audience. You don't need a fancy set or a bunch of actors. But you do need SOMETHING. When people complain about how theatre is just for old rich undiscriminating white people who just want something to happen in front of them for a few hours after eating dinner THIS is the show they are talking about.... Read more Read less

See it if You're a big enough fan of Mark Rylance that you can forgive a play with zero second act.

Don't see it if You're expecting a great play. This is by far the weakest of the Rylance transfers to hit NYC.

Also I was shocked at how bad the play itself was. It turned a man with a very serious mental illness into a quirky cartoon character. Rylance pulls focus in all of the scenes, which I was really surprised by. It was like he was trying to hide the text and it was a disservice to the other actors.

I sat onstage, which was a fun experience, and the singing was incredible, but I was dejected as the second act went on. Subplots out of nowhere, an awkward 10 minutes where they talked to the audience for no reason, no resolution because there was no conflict. Ugh.... Read more Read less

See it if You like Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, or absurdist comedy in general.

Don't see it if You're hoping for a comic masterpiece. There are plenty of jokes here, but the play holding them together isn't great.

Also I thought all four performers were acting in different plays with different styles of comedy. It didn't cohere. The concept is paper thin and wore out its welcome even at just 80 minutes. Still, I enjoyed myself and it was a thrill to see Schumer and Key in their Broadway debuts.... Read more Read less

See it if You enjoy old-fashioned, Borscht Belt style humor.

Don't see it if You have trouble hearing. The band was mixed WAY too high and the younger male leads all had problems with diction, pitch, and volume.

Also I've seen some world class productions at Gallery Players over the years. This is not one of them, but it's because of the material more than the performers. I honestly was shocked when I looked up the people who wrote it afterward and discovered that they weren't in their 80s. How was this ever on Broadway?

The women had uniformly terrific voices, and all four of the parents were fantastic. But I thought the rest of the cast lacked the comic sensibility to make the jokes land.

It was a pleasant evening, and the 2nd act was better than the 1st, but I wouldn't rush out to see it.... Read more Read less

See it if You enjoy unique theatrical experiences. It's unlike anything else: Part play, part art installation, and part living history.

Don't see it if You don't like interactive shows. You don't have to participate in any way, but the setting is very intimate and demands full engagement.

Also DON'T READ ANY OF THE FEATURES ON IT. Going in fully blind is the best way. This show was so beautiful and fascinating. It's in my top 5 for the year for sure.... Read more Read less

See it if You get a free ticket and you're a fan of any of the actors or if "pleasant enough" is good enough for you.

Don't see it if You're expecting a funny, full-formed play. There were a couple of genuine laughs but mostly a bunch of very forced mild chuckles.

Also This is the second show I've seen in the past week that was charging $75+ and is only 60 minutes long. I get that the Off-Broadway for profit production model is broken, and that a longer running time of a bad play isn't necessarily a better thing, but come on. These insane prices hurt theatre as a whole in the long run.

This should've been paired with another similar-length piece to create a full evening.... Read more Read less

See it if You're looking for a Christmas show with a little bite and a little backbone.

Don't see it if You dislike raunchy humor or you're expecting a major production.

Also I had a great time at this show, but it's 50 minutes long (not 75) and they're charging insane prices for it. 20/30 years ago this would've been a hit holiday tradition at a little venue in the East Village. On a giant Off-Broadway stage it feels slight and out of place. Still enjoyed it though.... Read more Read less

See it if You're gay, your appreciate top notch comedic timing, or you have any interest in solo performance.

Don't see it if You don't follow pop culture. An enormous number of the jokes are about very specific pop culture people/movies/etc. both past and present.

Also This isn't the show's fault, but the SoHo Playhouse is the absolute worst theatrical venue in NYC. There is one bathroom for 200 people. The box office line never moved and they just started letting everyone in on an honor system. The seats are so old and so close together that I couldn't sit down in most of them (I'm 6'4") and was forced into the very last row when I had tickets for the very front. I don't think I would ever go here again. EXTREMELY uncomfortable.... Read more Read less

See it if You enjoy sloppily executed puppetry.

Don't see it if You value your time.

Also I think this might be the worst show I've seen this year. You could see the marionettes on the way in and they were gorgeous, but they're so small that it's impossible to see anything they're doing on stage. It doesn't matter though because the puppets were entirely superfluous to the action.

This was almost like a bad parody of what people think experimental theatre is. The show had it all: Pretentious dancing for no reason, an overly simplistic summarizing of history masquerading as cleverness, forced audience participation.

The actor playing Lee Harvey Oswald was fine, but the ensemble was a mess. There were at least a dozen obvious line mistakes and the show has been running for two weeks.

Avoid!... Read more Read less

See it if You're a queer theatre completist or you like very alternative takes on classic plays.

Don't see it if You're expecting concise wit. This is a 75-minute show that runs for 100 minutes.

Also I just didn't think it was very funny. At all. What's more I was often confused what was happening even though I'm familiar with the source material. Some fun performances, but I was expecting something great to honor the 50th anniversary and this wasn't it.... Read more Read less

See it if You have even a casual interest in Alaska or US history in general.

Don't see it if You're expecting a play. It's more of an episodic multimedia lecture.

Also The only reason I didn't rate it higher is that some of the vignettes seemed surface level and impersonal and they came off as hoary next to the deeply affecting first person vignettes.... Read more Read less

See it if You really like tennis and/or you're very forgiving.

Don't see it if You like a play that's about something, anything. I couldn't believe this was the 2nd production. It was so aimless.

Also I am shocked that a female playwright would give her two female characters nothing to do in a full-length play.... Read more Read less

See it if You want a unique, unpredictable story with three strong female lead characters and a big streak of silliness.

Don't see it if You need everything in a show to make complete perfect sense. You find it difficult to get into Victorian language.

See it if You have kids that really want to go.

Don't see it if You're an adult with fond memories of the movie. There's nothing new to see here, and the parts they added aren't great.

See it if You want to experience the best dancing on Broadway. It's impossible not to swoon.

Don't see it if You need an original, interesting story to go along with the dancing. The show itself is super generic.

See it if You can't wait until Christmas to see the Rockettes do their thing.

Don't see it if You aren't ready for a very new Rockettes. It's weird seeing them outside the holidays. There was voguing. And giant rapping puppets.

See it if You want to see songs from the 60s that have nothing to do with each other performed with super high production value.

Don't see it if You want any sort of coherent plot, character development, or acting style. It's essentially a cruise ship revue.

See it if You love watching terrific actors dig into one of the greatest American plays.

Don't see it if You dislike a bunch of extra stage tricks that aren't in the original script.

See it if You like good, old-fashioned gay high camp done right.

Don't see it if You're a grump who wants everything to be serious all of the time.