Varlotte
See it if you love seeing classical myths through the prisms of America's most powerful exports: capitalism, spectacle, and the blues.
Don't see it if you need "traditional" showtunes, story, staging, and performances in musicals.
See it if you want to be immersed in an abstract, multigenerational portrait of resilient femininity in the face of horror, colonialism, and war
Don't see it if you think this sounds like a play about "women's issues."
See it if you're interested in Jacobean drama; you like a healthy mix of tones; you want to explore revenge, misogyny, and power.
Don't see it if you think violence, melodrama, and dark comedy shouldn't mix. You don't like ambiguity. You don't like classics in contemporary staging.
See it if You like psychosexual teen-girl friendships brought to excruciatingly-stylized life. You love incendiary dialogue, dark humor, and ambiguity
Don't see it if Female pain makes you laugh. If you're squeamish, idealize/fetishize teen girls, are sexist, or need clear resolutions and explanations.
See it if you're a babyboomer who needs recognition, you think that there are "bad people on both sides" so activism is pointless, you <3 flat writing
Don't see it if you want originality, you want a play about politics with a clear stance or a play about relationships with any well-written characters
See it if you love innovative takes on the classic that interrogate them for a contemporary audience, you want feminist horror and catharsis
Don't see it if you need things spoon-fed to you, you hate seeing women regaining agency and power, you only like traditional versions of older stories
See it if you love Sondheim, imaginative, minimalist, and immersive staging that feels absolutely natural, you want to see phenomenal performers.
Don't see it if you don't like Sweeney Todd. You hate immersive theater, or musicals. You love big-budget broadway nonsense.
See it if you want to see a sterilized book report on the 70s with hot dancing guys, you love narrative and tonal dissonance, you <3 trauma tourism
Don't see it if you want three-dimensional characters, a coherent plot, or a play where female characters' trauma isn't used to manipulate the audience
See it if you like quirky quips and setups, Floridian Lake-Woebegone esque humor, and great dancing
Don't see it if you hate dancing, you want things that get set up to have narrative payoff, you like concise writing
See it if You like nonlinear plotting, finding the beauty in seeming banality, anti-"EPIC" storytelling clichés, celebrating small moments.
Don't see it if You need stories to be linear or have a clearly-defined "point," you need big teary resolution to things, women's lives don't interest you
See it if You love dance, movement, and innovative visual storytelling
Don't see it if You need a linear plot spoon-fed to you
See it if you like feminism, strong women, strong dialogue, and innovative storytelling
Don't see it if you have bad taste or hate women
See it if you're interested in the history of theater/American pop culture/Judaism, you want to see a GORGEOUS LGBTQ love story, or love amazing music
Don't see it if you hate having emotions, you have terrible taste, you are an antisemite or someone who hates language
See it if You like "Natasha, Pierre..." You like really good singing and staging, and don't care about lazy lyrics
Don't see it if You really hate it when lyricists repeat lines instead of writing dialogue, you want nuanced character development
See it if You like nuanced but still funny interrogations of massive, for-profit Christianity with really good singing
Don't see it if you're a devout Christian with no sense of humor
See it if You like Rebecca (the Hitchcock Film or the DuMaurier Novel,) Ritual Sacrifices, Orgies, Incredible Dancing, Delicately Constructed Worlds
Don't see it if You need a narrative throughline, you hate nudity, silent shows weird you out
See it if you're a Liberal Boomer Tourist who wants to pat themselves on the back for listening to something slightly challenging in a safe setting.
Don't see it if You want radical theater to be actually radical. You think that feminism should be intersectional. You think class/money influences the law.
See it if you want to see all the lost raunch, humor, vitality, and menace restored to a play that's often rendered toothless, and neutered.
Don't see it if You don't like theater that makes you think or leaves the lights on. You like things explained to you directly. You put shows on pedestals.
See it if You get Shakespearean in-jokes, you want to see Janet McTeer teach a Master Class in performance.
Don't see it if You want to see a proto-feminist legend get narrative justice without a man snatching the spotlight
See it if You like sci fi that expects an intelligent audience and doesn't explain, warm and compassionate grooves, and interstellar protest music.
Don't see it if You need plot explanations, you don't like sci fi, you like tidy resolutions, you're conservative or don't like thinking in the theater.
Also This show was incredible. Immersive without making your audience runni... Read more Read less
See it if you thought there needed to be a feminist, intersectional "Hamilton," you love gorgeous writing, staging, and acting, you don't suck
Don't see it if you need narrative "bio pic" style plays, you need plays to be "about" something, you're easily confused, you're a terrible person
See it if you're interested in why people turn to fundamentalist religions, you like interesting staging and writing
Don't see it if you're protective of your religion, you need a concrete ending
See it if you like nontraditional theater experiences (part memoir, part concert, part TED Talk, part stand-up.)
Don't see it if you don't have the patience for thought experiments, sick rhymes, nerd humor, or abstract concepts.
See it if you love really cringey rape jokes, seeing interesting women reduced to really shoddy cliches, inconsistent writing, and banality.
Don't see it if you wanted an interesting play about a fascinating woman, you wanted a nuanced take on medieval history or feminism Just don't see it.
See it if you looove Harry Potter, you have an extra couple hundred to burn, love GREAT STAGING and unfulfilled queer subtext that never blooms
Don't see it if you need characterizations that feel consistent with the books, you don't like bad fanfic, can't tolerate camp, need nuanced villains
See it if you love new translation of old works, really committed ensemble work, quirky staging
Don't see it if older styles of dramatic plotting and characters irritate you
See it if you love stories about multiple generations of immigrant women that all take place in one building
Don't see it if you're a stickler for consistency and also character development
See it if you love stereotypes about LGBTQ people and women, you're a TERF or a straight man who thinks they're qualified to write about feminism
Don't see it if you like dramatic consistency, well-thought out female characters, or "politically relevant" theater that is both of those things
See it if you love artisanal food, brooklyn-insider humor, and maybe-mocking millennials
Don't see it if you're a stickler for linear narrative, you don't like a voice-of-god narrator
See it if You are a feminist or a birth mother, you know a feminist or a birth mother, you like good writing, burlesque, or supporting strong women
Don't see it if You're a sexist tool, you hate one-man shows, you hate humor, you hate burlesque
See it if You like beautiful production design, you like immersive theater, you want to explore a feeling more than a set narrative, you like disco
Don't see it if You want a traditional narrative, you don't like walking around, you hate disco, you're feeling cynical, you don't like being touched