Bella: An American Tall Tale NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (246)
See it if You enjoy cheeky, irreverent, high energy musicals
Don't see it if You are easily offended - or if you think you'll be embarrassed for laughing so loud Read more
See it if What a memorable musical! The journey was sure adventurous and magical. I still miss it. Definitely fun time and family friendly.
Don't see it if It's already closed, you can't even you want to...
See it if You want fun hilarity about a big bodacious black booty. Singing and dancing were fabulous. Clever staging. costumes were great. Kool story
Don't see it if You don't like long 2.45 shows. While very entertaining it was too long & did drag at times. Racial issues present. derogatory names used
See it if A fun-filled evening with a superior cast of singers and dancers. See it before it closes
Don't see it if You don't like musicals
See it if You like whimsical, funny, silly -and at times serious - musicals with excellent singing and acting.
Don't see it if You want your theater based in serious reality or if you are offended by somewhat raunchy themes and lyrics.
See it if you want big laughs that highlight big ideas.
Don't see it if you are uncomfortable addressing issues of race.
See it if you enjoy interesting, quirky stories or stories about women of color and untold histories.
Don't see it if you're very conservative or intolerant.
See it if You love great singing and would enjoy a delightful, but less than perfect, musical tall tale of the adventures of an irrepressible woman.
Don't see it if You don't like farce or musicals or expect a perfect production. Read more
Critic Reviews (28)
"The cast of twelve are all talented, with Kelley and Miller the standouts. The production is lavish...Childs’s music mixes many styles and occasionally seems derivative: there is a song near the end that sounds very similar to the disco anthem 'I Will Survive'...It all goes down easy, but seems muddled and overstuffed. It has already shed 20 minutes in previews but could profitably lose a few more, preferably in the first act."
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"The tone of 'Bella' veers from cheerfully tongue-in-cheek to just plain vulgar, from wildly inventive to hackneyed...Director Robert O’Hara has not imposed an overarching tone on Childs’ material. The first act is sluggish...It’s a hodgepodge of tropes, stereotypes, and flights of fancy...Act II benefits from some bouncier songs in the score…Happily, Kelley and Gill have excellent chemistry, as well as strong second-act numbers, so one eventually becomes invested in their working things out."
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"Childs’ imaginative book is just as wild as her heroine’s—and her songs are often tuneful charmers boosted by witty lyrics...Under Robert O’Hara’s bouncy direction the 12-person cast embraces a show that kicks at some serious issues about the African American experience even as it indulges in scatological humor...But...Childs’ show is truly overstuffed. At two and a half hours, it just packs in too many characters who are introduced and just as quickly dispatched."
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“The story unfolds in a picaresque, somewhat rambling style that can be hard to follow, while the intertwining of song and exposition often feels a little loose. But Childs and director Robert O’Hara never cease to conjure an anarchic sense of freewheeling theatricality that blends irreverent pastiches of racist motifs with pungent doses of toilet humor…As Bella, Kelley combines a confident and witty playing style with a rich contralto that soars through Childs’s eclectic numbers.”
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"Childs has concocted a gloriously overstuffed fantasia...A festive but meaningful salute to the indomitable perseverance and strength of American black women...In director O’Hara, she has found an interpreter who seems to be unfailingly attuned to her wildest flights of imagination...The author is also blessed with a cast that virtually explodes with talent...There is at times almost too much incident to keep straight...But when there is too much, it is too much of a good thing."
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"Wild West stories are a dime a dozen, but I can guarantee that you’ve never seen anything fresher or more completely original as Kirsten Childs’ 'Bella'...Childs takes her piece even further with social, racial, and political commentary—and she does it in such a crafty way that leaves audiences both entertained and richly nourished...The show moves along at a solid pace and musically, it offers some terrific tunes...Childs could easily tighten her material with a few cuts."
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“The music and songs (all Ms. Childs') are delightful—traditional old Broadway style, toe tappin' and fun. The dancing is strong despite the tiny stage…Bella has the vocal cords of a giant and a personality to match. One thing's for sure, Ms. Childs infuses the fun and frivolity with serious undertones of race and freedom and gender equality, so that even a play set in the late 1870s crackles with fresh perspectives. Playwrights was right to end their season with this gem.”
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"For all the reservations I have—and I have plenty—about Kirsten Childs’s 'Bella,' I can’t help admiring the piece, laughing and smiling over various bits of it, and applauding Childs’s undaunted, apparently borderless ambition. 'Bella' is way too much of a good thing...Robert O’Hara, a skilled and sensitive director, has carefully balanced the work’s vast number of competing elements. The problem simply lies in the fact that Childs has provided so many competing elements."
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