A Life NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (136)
See it if you like shows that are intimate. The staging was quite amazing.
Don't see it if you feel uncomfortable about the idea of death.
See it if You want to see something you've never seen before. A strange, wonderful play.
Don't see it if You want light, fluffy theater. You're going to end up discussing this.
See it if this is a really surprising, haunting, totally unique, interesting night at the theatre. Unlike anything I've seen before...
Don't see it if you're looking for conventional in anyway. The play defies convention, to varying degrees of success, but is exciting nevertheless. Read more
See it if You like David Hyde Pierce (half the show is just him) or if you like new plays
Don't see it if you've lost a family member recently
See it if you want something unexpected, enjoy stories of gay men maneuvering through NYC, fan of David Hyde Pierce, like ballsy staging and plot
Don't see it if you've had it with stories of gay men, don't like unexpected twists that come earlier than expected, saddened by scenes of abject loneliness
See it if you enjoy unpredictable dramas and David Hyde Pierce.
Don't see it if you prefer traditional plays.
See it if you like David Hyde-Pierce and you enjoy surprises.
Don't see it if you have trouble staying awake during plays in general.
See it if You like a smart meditation on life and colliding storylines, you want to see David Hyde Pierce at height of his game
Don't see it if You fear death or recently experienced a death (spoiler alert) - this would be excruciating
Critic Reviews (38)
"At first, it seems like 'A Life' is going to be that snapshot of Nate’s life, from chart—birth—to now. The play is really after something both deeper and broader...It sneaks up on you with those questions, cleverly leading you down a sunlit garden path until it suddenly drops you in deep woods, so it never feels ponderous or self-consciously philosophical...It takes you someplace dark, sometimes even bleak, but always filled with compassion for and wonder at the arc of a human existence."
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"I would have loved for 'A Life' to have been a play more worthy of attention leading up to the abrupt change in perspective...But all (or most) is forgiven by the end...Anne Kauffman's precise and pointed direction of 'A Life' is aided immeasurably by her design team...The supporting cast is spot-on. But it’s the charming, credible, comical and ultimately chilling performance of David Hyde Pierce that makes 'A Life' memorable."
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"Anne Kauffman’s staging of Adam Bock’s ‘A Life’ is far more elaborate than one might expect for such an otherwise slight play...The ‘life’ of the title belongs to Nate Martin, a 54-year-old proofreader—gay, lonely, and depressed—played with naturalistic honesty by the always engaging, perfectly cast David Hyde Pierce...Nate experiences a totally unexpected game-changer I can’t reveal...From this point on, ‘A Life,’ for all its satirical and emotional highlights, is anticlimactic."
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"More than a mere stunt, this surprising 85-minute piece also makes us think seriously about the importance of love, friends, luck, and time...Some viewers will find the work more infuriating than enlightening, or perhaps even more tedious than involving. Still, few can argue that thanks to Pierce’s singular gifts as an actor, Nate comes off as someone familiar to many of us...and someone about whom we manage to care about. That’s even more impressive than shocking an audience, isn’t it?"
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"If Adam Bock’s 'A Life' didn’t have David Hyde Pierce, the play would be a snooze fest...Director Anne Kauffman did not help this thin, measly script...The biggest problem here is the characters' lives do not ask us to care. They are mundane, as if time is laborious and not fleeting. Pondering life’s meaning takes giving a hundred percent of oneself to the journey. Those who live do not have time to ponder."
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"It’s a remarkable achievement in the theater, and one so peculiar that you probably won’t be able to recall any other quite like it...Pierce is such an engaging performer that we never ask why he’s talking to us...Anne Kauffman’s direction and her fine use of Laura Jellinek’s set, which achieves more spectacular metamorphoses than a busy caterpillar, succeeds."
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"One shudders to wonder what 'A Life' would be like without David Hyde Pierce...Whatever Playwrights saw in 'A Life,' alas, doesn’t come through to this playgoer. We sit there amused for the first section...The rest is altogether baffling. Pierce is for the duration asked to give a performance quite unlike any we’ve seen before...Anne Kauffman does a good job of staging the thing, although if she attempted to direct the playwright towards something more decipherable it didn’t work."
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"Adam Bock’s bold new play at Playwrights Horizons defied my expectations. Even the scenic design turned out to be surprising...It is bracing in its conception, but likely to be disturbing for single people living alone in New York...Director Anne Kauffman has wisely chosen to let the play breathe without rushing through difficult moments. Even though I found it unnerving, I was glad to experience it."
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