Becomes a Woman
Closed 2h 30m
Becomes a Woman
81

Becomes a Woman NYC Reviews and Tickets

81%
(114 Ratings)
Positive
90%
Mixed
8%
Negative
2%
Members say
Great acting, Absorbing, Entertaining, Dated, Relevant

A debut production of Betty Smith's unproduced play about Becoming a Woman.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (114)

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252 Reviews | 116 Followers
90
Old play tastefully done, Delightful, Ambitious, Absorbing

See it if You like old plays, rarely performed, done as only Mint Theater can do them. Great acting, singing, sets, costumes, streamed Feb-March 2024.

Don't see it if You dislike old plays tastefully done or prefer modern issue-oriented drama. This one is a real play, not propaganda. See it online.

194 Reviews | 136 Followers
90
Great sets and costumes, Intelligent, Great acting, Entertaining

See it if for a timeless depiction of human relationships, even if its social mores are dated. I went to high school with some of these characters.

Don't see it if you don’t have the patience for a three-act, two-and-a-half hour play. Read more

108 Reviews | 30 Followers
87
Entertaining, Enchanting, Delightful, Clever, Absorbing

See it if you want to see a good depiction of what it was like to be a woman in the 30s. Great acting, and an engrossing plot.

Don't see it if You are just caught up in the present and not interested in the past. Read more

186 Reviews | 53 Followers
85
Great singing, Great acting, Dated, Entertaining, Absorbing

See it if you enjoy old plays. If you liked "A Tree Grow in Brooklyn" Much of this dated play is relevant today.

Don't see it if If you really prefer musicals.

134 Reviews | 23 Followers
85
Delightful, Great writing, Great singing, Entertaining, Absorbing

See it if You like a well written old fashioned melodrama. Smith creates characters with a deft stroke, and brings old Brooklyn to life.

Don't see it if You don't like melodramas. This is an old fashioned play, but a very entertaining one. If family dramas are not your thing, it's not for you

61 Reviews | 10 Followers
85
Funny, Intelligent, Great staging, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if Very engaging, excellent acting, interesting story, parts were humerous

Don't see it if You want a modern play

142 Reviews | 38 Followers
85
Well-staged, Arresting, Great acting, Intelligent, Resonant

See it if You want to see a well-acted feminist work that becomes increasingly powerful as it progresses.

Don't see it if You think it might be dated. You don't like longer plays (this one is 2 1/2 hours). Read more

137 Reviews | 10 Followers
85
Interesting, Riveting, Relevant, Intelligent, Delightful

See it if you want to see an obscure play that Betty Smith, author of " A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," wrote previous to her more famous novel.

Don't see it if you do not like old-fashioned three act plays. Read more

Critic Reviews (9)

Theatermania
February 27th, 2023

"In many respects, the play reminds us, America and its attitudes toward women haven't changed as much as we'd like to think, either."
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Lighting & Sound America
March 1st, 2023

“Smith was at heart a playwright even if she never achieved comparable success in the theatre. Becomes a Woman, copyrighted in 1931 and only now making its world premiere, is a strikingly feminist work; the playwright knew everything about the pitfalls facing working-class women, and here she subjects her heroine to most of them…When a writer achieves success in another medium, one is often suspicious of their theatrical aspirations, but Smith clearly knew plenty about structure, characterization, and dialogue. Becomes a Woman builds steadily to a haymaker of a climax, dispensing with anything like a conventional happy ending.”
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Talkin' Broadway
February 27th, 2023

" 'Becomes a Woman' suffers from writing that often seems blunt and schematic to the point of melodrama, further marred by frequent hairpin turns of emotion among several of the characters, plus a certain redundancy of dialogue, inconsistency of tone, and a lack of concision."
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TheaterScene.net
March 1st, 2023

While it is interesting to finally see a play by Betty Smith reach the New York stage, "Becomes a Woman" remains a footnote to theater history, though it would have been much more sensational if it had been staged in its own era. Britt Berke’s production is always gripping, but it fails to make the male characters any more than cardboard cutouts, while the women are three dimensional. In the style of the Mint Theater Company’s usual high standards, the physical production cannot be faulted. On an historic note, the Francie Nolan in Becomes a Woman starts at the same age as the one in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when the novel ends but without that heroine's education. This may have been meant to be a cautionary tale as to what happened to women who had neither skills nor experience of the world.
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Theater Pizzazz
February 27th, 2023

" 'Becomes a Woman' is a lovely sort of play that no one writes anymore. There’s no reason not to present plays from the past like this (or even write them now), even if they possess a whiff of melodrama."
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Front Row Center
March 10th, 2023

“The entire production misses the mark for which it was aiming, but it will introduce every audience to a writer worthy of a second look. That’s something.”
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New York Theater
February 27th, 2023

I can’t know the reason why “Becomes A Woman” was never produced. At this point, the play is of greater historical than aesthetic interest, but there are almost enough good lines, and subtle wit, as well as an intriguing proto-feminist sensibility, to compensate for the parts that are stilted, predictable, and dated.
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C
February 27th, 2023

“ 'Becomes a Woman' works as a true star vehicle (despite a large ensemble), it’s a little surprising no one has mounted it before."
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