A Life NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (136)
See it if you need a breather. This show is the perfect, poignant balm after a rough election. Makes you consider what is important in life.
Don't see it if you need a distraction. The show is entertaining but slow, and asks for a modicum of your focus.
See it if you want a master class in acting by David Hyde Pierce in a show with a brilliant set and a thought-provoking play.
Don't see it if you want a fast-paced show with a traditional linear plot.
See it if You have 90 minutes to spare for the most intense use of that time. This play is still resounded within me, and there is something for you.
Don't see it if You need everything to tie up at the end in a logical bow, or if you can't commit the mental energy for this provocative piece. Read more
See it if you're a David Hyde Pierce fan (fantastic performance!), a single urbanite, and you appreciate Jeckyl&Hyde-like plot twists.
Don't see it if you want something light and fluffy -- the Jeckyl portion is hysterical but the Hyde portion is heartbreaking.
See it if you like serious, deliberately paced plays that will take you to places you never expected.
Don't see it if you are impatient with plays that start very slow and initially seem to be going nowhere.
See it if You are interested in a show that strikes right to the heart of many the fears of a single person in NY. A little slow but still riveting.
Don't see it if You don't like introspective shows or examinations of the procedures involved in handling a death.
See it if you enjoy shows that like Full Metal Jacket, start as one type of show and morphs into another. Comedy becomes tragedy in shocking fashion
Don't see it if you are expecting like hearted entertainment, which it starts as. It becomes a gut-punch. Intense and disturbing (thought provoking) Read more
See it if You like intimate, thoughtful theater that asks you to think about the human condition as well as entertains you.
Don't see it if You want a straightforward comedy with a linear plot that doesn't ask you to think about life at all.
Critic Reviews (38)
"We live, we die and some people believe what happens in between is written in the stars is all you might get out of this 85-minute meditation...While the cast is perfectly fine and the dialogue is sometimes interesting and/or amusing, the play never seems set on a purpose beyond its simple, familiar themes. 'A Life' would be best recommended to middle-aged male actors looking for good monologue material."
Read more
"A deeply affecting mediation on the fleeting nature of life, love, and human happiness...Kauffman's direction has much to do with confidently steering the play's stunning shifts in tone...Even after 'A Life' turns in a definitively macabre direction it retains the oddball humor of the early scenes. At the same time, the play grows deeper and more moving, right up to the final abrupt white-out that shows how, even at the very last second, Bock still has shocks to impart."
Read more
"Kauffman's orchestration of all this is truly arresting...It's perhaps emblematic of the problems with 'A Life' that Hyde Pierce's performance eventually becomes immaterial to the proceedings...If there's no arguing with the theatrical execution from any quarter, it doesn't add up to much. For all the misdirection and filigree he deploys so expertly, Bock is simply taking a snapshot with a lengthy exposure, and that's not an adequate substitute for actual content."
Read more
"Bock presents an expertly conceived take on the milieu of contemporary life and upends it with breathtaking and emotionally charged revelations. Bock’s dialogue is authentically straightforward and his characters all have a rich sense of reality...Kauffman’s staging perfectly renders the ordinary aspects that are depicted with measured pacing, real-life movements and sparkling performances. Kauffman’s realization of the play’s turning point is a coup de théâtre...A powerful experience."
Read more
"Mr. Hyde Pierce's Nate is such a vivid and well defined character and the two scenes we see him in are such an entertaining mix of Seinfeldian self-absorption and poignancy, that it's hard to sustain interest once he's no longer actively involved...While I'm not a great fan of actors coming on stage and making us their confidantes, Hyde Pierce uses his solo stint effectively and vividly...'A Life' somehow left me just a bit too let down and unsatisfied."
Read more
"'A Life,' so very aptly named, looks at the immense and complex as well as the small and banal. This life could be yours or mine – and it’s both exquisitely precious and cosmically inconsequential. Bock has constructed a miracle of a mirror that touches the everyman in all of us...Anne Kauffman’s direction is crisp and smart. Kauffman keeps the action moving at a pace that’s active without being frenetic."
Read more
"The writing in 'A Life' is the beautiful turned up. It’s funny, poignant and honest. The acting and directing – breathless. Director Anne Kauffman understands the weight of quiet, of silence. David Hyde Pierce, who is one of our theatrical treasures, and the rest of this outstanding cast are courageous in their ability to simply be – be there in front of us with all their humanity."
Read more
"It’s as if we are turning the pages of a storybook, much like the glorious set design, flipping from the minutiae of one moment to another. It’s wildly engaging and deeply touching. Everyone in the cast gives us the purity of a life being lived. Pierce is simply outstanding pulling us in, as is Heberlee...I give a great deal of credit to the playwright Bock for crafting such a marvelous and unique story, and presenting it to us with such a surprising and creative vantage point."
Read more