MinorTricksterDeity

See it if You want to see a horrifying, bloody take on girlhood.

Don't see it if You have issues with nudity, teenagers, goddess-summoning, or Sonic.

Also This really intriguing concept and fascinating staging and text would have landed harder if the acting style didn't veer into this weird, druggy, semi-aloofness that undercut the brutality inherent in the dramatic structure. There was, no spoilers, a "murder" - if only the rest of the play had the same energy as said murder.... Read more Read less

See it if You want to hear some unusual orchestration/fascinating use of loop in musical theater scoring.

Don't see it if You want theater that has well-developed dramatic structure

Also I'm genuinely surprised at how disappointed I was. It felt like there were so many ideas that weren't dug into and resulted in a skeletal, uninteresting musical.... Read more Read less

See it if You like confrontational, funny, uncompromising theater.

Don't see it if You have issues with (very minor) audience participation, nudity, or blunt language about race and sex.

Also I'm firmly in the "if theater makes you uncomfortable, it's doing something right" camp - not to say all uncomfortable theater is good theater, but this is very good theater. It's whip-smart, unafraid, and firm in its commitment to the stories it's trying to tell. If you're not someone who likes to be discomforted by your theatrical experience, see this anyway. It's like stepping into the deep end of the pool just to get the cold shock over with.... Read more Read less

See it if You like office comedies but with an intelligent, surreal twistiness.

Don't see it if You don't like office comedies with intelligence and surreal twistiness.

Also A great one-hour, hilariously constructed, bit-of-a-wallop of a play. And yes, it will make you kinda hungry afterwards but it's also a deep consideration into why we obsess over petty things and the comfort those petty things give us in the face of an all-consuming existential maw.... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see a fresh take on an American classic novel.

Don't see it if You want your Broadway fare to be more socially relevant and palpable.

Also Look, Aaron Sorkin's script is masterfully crafted and Bartlett Sher's direction is excellent as usual, but I left 'To Kill A Mockingbird' feeling as if there were works by PoC writers and directors that should have taken up the Schubert's massive stage. We always need to re-examine our legends and our canon, and 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is a genuine part of that canon (especially the white canon), but we more desperately need to amplify the voices of those we've marginalized to the very most of our ability - this show just doesn't do enough. Not by a long shot.... Read more Read less

See it if You want a good take on and interpretation of Chekhov.

Don't see it if You have no funny bone.

Also As a Russian-speaking person, I often find American & British interpretations of Chekhov to be deeply depressing, unfunny, and unnecessarily dour. Aaron Posner's straight-up English style retelling of 'Uncle Vanya' proved to be a great antidote to this bizarre mindset that Chekhov = always sad. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of bitterness in his work, but there is also a sense of kindness and understanding in his writing. And for fuck's sake, they're supposed to be funny (looking at you Richard Nelson)!... Read more Read less

See it if You actually want to see a great musical that takes full advantage of what it can be.

Don't see it if You don't like sung-through shows or have no heart.

Also Hadestown has been a long time coming but it was worth the wait. It's genuinely refreshing to see a show that actually shows how the world could perhaps be better and the failings we need to encounter on the way. It's gorgeously wrought, intelligently directed and the score is deeply original and sublime.... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see a genuinely interesting take on grief and mourning.

Don't see it if You don't like being aggravated emotionally in a theater.

Also I love Max Porter's book and Enda Walsh's direction and adaptation is one of the most intuitive, stunning variations on a text I've seen this year. The material is darkly kind, the direction muscular, and the deep well of empathy at the play's core may bring you to tears.... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see relentless comedic tour-de-force acting and writing making you endlessly tickled yet scared.

Don't see it if You don't like gore. Or sex.

See it if You want to be bored even with stellar actors.

Don't see it if You like Anne Carson - the production does not do justice to her text at all.

See it if You want to see a very good example of how to adapt a rich source material into a faithful adaptation.

Don't see it if The musical kept feeling like it was holding it's breath but never letting go - the moments that should have taken us away didn't happen.

Also I think my main issue with this adaptation was that the enchanting but pretty damn slow source material has resulted in an...enchanting but pretty damn slow musical. Duncan Sheikh's music never quite lifts off in the way it should and the songs feel a bit too on the generic end. Lynn Nottage's book roots us back in the time where this story takes place but a good book can't save a musical where the music is just...eh?... Read more Read less

See it if You enjoy great writing, deeply experimental yet accessible theater, and incredible staging.

Don't see it if You don't like a capella musicals, need a lot of plot to sustain your interest, prefer period over contemporary pieces.

See it if Just go fucking see it.

Don't see it if You are uncomfortable with sex, queerness, race, or want conventional subject matter.

Also I'm really happy this show exists. It breaks all the taboos of subject matter with a heart-lifting score that pulls no punches and holds nothing back. We need more musicals like this.... Read more Read less

See it if You want something to chew on.

Don't see it if You need theater that explains itself immediately to you.

Also I have to say this and this is the best way I can articulate this, as a white audience member - go see Fairview, and afterwards, I hope you understand that there are spaces that you, as a white audience member, should not encroach upon.... Read more Read less

See it if You like to see Shakespeare done-up in the best way Shakespeare can with some amazing performances.

Don't see it if You aren't willing to stick out a 2.5 hour Shakespearean comedy.

Also First things first, for whatever the reason I have never been the biggest fan of "Much Ado About Nothing" and this was my first experience seeing it staged. That being said, it being staged made me appreciate the play more and the fieriness + crackling wit that comes to the surface. Danielle Brooks is great, as are her castmates, I just wish Kenny Leon's staging didn't feel as underdeveloped as it did. Some moments were just perfect, others felt like they hit too slow or hit too fast. The overall concept (that of a modern Georgia-set "Much Ado...") was fun but it felt as if Leon thought it just spoke for itself without any more direction attached.... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see newer, brighter takes on Shakespeare. Also Glenda Jackson.

Don't see it if You don't like more imagistic, less naturalistic takes on Shakespeare. And if you can't handle 3.5 hours of straight material.

Also King Lear is considered a mountaintop for actors and Glenda Jackson is now one of the few who have conquered it twice. She's a storm all her own and Sam Gold clearly knows how to put that front and center. Some aspects of the production didn't ring for me (why does Edgar have AirPods? Why do the sisters all have different accents?) but as a whole it's a much more interesting and intense interpretation of 'King Lear' than any version I've seen as of late.... Read more Read less

See it if You want lushly realized, very well-staged musical classics.

Don't see it if You want the sexual and gender politics to be up to date, because albeit one coup d'theatre, it may go over older people's heads.

Also Let me be honest and say that I have a really genuine fondness for 'My Fair Lady' - it was one of the first movie musicals I encountered and I loved it. However, even with Bartlett Sher doing his best to get complex performances out of every one in this cast in a visually gorgeous revival, it still reads as problematic. I love the tunes and the production but I wouldn't mind if we retired this gemstone.... Read more Read less

See it if You want intelligent, thoughtful meditations on deep sociocultural traumas embedded in us all.

Don't see it if You need very linear, very clear theater and have no patience for philosophical discourse or metatheatrics

Also First things first, Christopher Chen is an amazing playwright, but this isn't his best play. Passage is very much on the "ritual" end of what theater can be but would have felt more powerful and effective without some of the metatheatrical elements that's tied to the work. The staging was well thought, the stagecraft itself was clever and minimal without distraction, and it unveiled unique modes and norms tied to colonialism I had not previously considered before - about the minutiae of our interactions with people we knowingly oppress, the inherent "maleness" of colonialism, and how internal faults are exploited for state benefit.... Read more Read less

See it if You like shows that are funny until they're not.

Don't see it if You like your comedy to be of the quick, harmless variety.

Also If you blindfolded me and told me to guess who wrote this play, Bess Wohl would be my first guess. She has a very distinctive voice and a fascinating approach to life's really big questions. She also captures the minutiae of how people act by themselves and undoing "big secret reveals". However, it is a bit on the slow end and feels like it needs a bit of a trim.... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see some prime avant-garde staging from a brilliant, deeply thoughtful director.

Don't see it if You have some bizarre vendetta against camera work.

Also Prime adaptable material gets a prime adaptation from Lee Hall & Ivo van Hove - a frightening, wild examination of our modern day devotion and willingness to be converted by the media.... Read more Read less

See it if You like deeply strange, unusual takes on social power structures.

Don't see it if You get frightened or have no patience for absurdist, Pirandello-ish imagery

See it if You enjoy socially relevant, irreverent, no-punches-pulled theater with a zany, diverse score.

Don't see it if You like your theater more entertaining than socially conscious or have little patience for fringey, experimental work.

See it if You enjoy genre theater, want to see a play written by a fresh, deeply original voice.

Don't see it if The play kinda suffers from a lot of ambition and ideas but too little dramaturgical space, albeit great performances and direction.