See it if you appreciate theatre that makes you think, you like immersive staging, and you are a fan of the playwright
Don't see it if you are unwilling to listen or like traditional plays that don't make you think Read more
See it if you enjoy new work, especially from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and/or enjoy adaptations of classic plays.
Don't see it if you do not enjoy the experimental, or have a deep hatred for the source material, "Everyman".
See it if You like being challenged and entertained at the same time. Enjoy a modern twist on a classic play. Enjoy the works of Thornton Wilder.
Don't see it if You prefer naturalistic, traditional theater. You are uncomfortable in environmental theater. Read more
See it if your ready for an unforgettable evening. A most unusual story of a persons journey to death. Funny, smart, intelligectually challenging.
Don't see it if you prefer to be just "entertained"rather than enjoy an amazing intellectual and spiritual journey.
See it if Want to see innovative theatre.
Don't see it if Do not have an imagination, and can not let it wander.
See it if Really interesting play that plays with the boundaries of theater. Very well written and thought provoking.
Don't see it if You want a traditional play
See it if you like plays that deal with the deep questions and that are truly original
Don't see it if prefer to avoid the harder questions in life and like your theater lite
See it if You're in the mood for something that is less of a story and more of a thoughtful meditation on life.
Don't see it if You're easily distracted or have trouble listening as much as watching. There are several scenes in pitch black so you need to pay attention Read more
"Much painstaking rehearsal and synchronization of cues, for the tech crew as well as the performers, has gone into 'Everybody.' Yet it still feels like a work in progress, waiting to be sharpened into focus...Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins has made a virtue of his anxieties about identity in meta-theatrical plays that turn traditional forms inside out. Here, though, such self-consciousness curdles, despite some amusing 'who’s on first'-style circular dialogue on weighty subjects."
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"Apart from the cast’s charm and visual coups engineered by director Lila Neugebauer, the 100-minute experiment feels overlong and talky...Lord knows we don’t need a 'faithful' revival of this theatrical fossil, but I’m not sure this slangy, digressive gloss adds much substance. Stranded between cosmic earnestness and a collegiate urge to interrogate weird old texts, 'Everybody' has trouble holding onto a fixed identity."
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“A terrific production…The play is trenchant, certainly, and often quite moving…By the end, despite Jacobs-Jenkins’s tricks and Neugebauer’s staging savvy ‘Everybody’ offers only its destabilization, and a decidedly weak-tea moral…That’s the problem with genre writing: Most of what can be said meaningfully in a form has already been said by those who needed to invent it. It’s not so much that Jacobs-Jenkins has crashed the party, fun as it may be; it’s that he’s arrived too late.”
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"This gifted and uncategorizable playwright’s spin on 'Everyman.' And spin it is, with the 10 actors being assigned roles according to a lottery near the beginning of each performance. They are great company. The show, on the other hand, is sophomoric nonsense and quickly wears out its welcome. My own mind wandered to Salzburg, where a new interpretation of the 15th-century fable is performed each summer under the hot hot Austrian sun."
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"Five actors, of various race and gender, rotate in the part that is assigned in a pre-performance lottery. It’s an interesting gambit, though more so for the cast than theatergoers...Goofy glow-in-the-dark 'Jason and the Argonauts'-style skeletons energize the talky, sometimes trying show."
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"Something is inevitably lost in adapting the material for a modern audience that has outgrown its fear and awe of hellfire and damnation. But the story retains some power on a human level...Except for a dramatic appearance by two giant skeletons working the side aisles of the house, no serious attempt has been made to adapt medieval theatrical conventions for modern times — although God herself knows that we mortals are just as selfish and greedy as our medieval ancestors."
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"Despite clever moments, 'Everybody' proves a trial to sit through...For all its artistic ambitions, 'Everybody' turns out to be confusing and disjointed, filled with stylistic diversions that more often than not prove underwhelming...The revolving casting feels like a gimmick and has some unfortunate results...Ultimately, 'Everybody' fails in its goal to make its themes universal and its centuries-old inspiration feel contemporary."
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"At turns ambitious, witty, and a bit dull...Solid performances still don't fully rescue the play from its didactic origins. Dress a medieval morality play up in 21st-century slang and it comes off sounding like a skit for incoming college freshman performed by the resident assistants of purgatory...Nothing in director Lila Neugebauer's high-design production quite rises to the tone set in those austere first 10 minutes, but it is often very impressive."
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