Everybody
Closed 1h 40m
Everybody
78

Everybody NYC Reviews and Tickets

78%
(176 Ratings)
Positive
81%
Mixed
15%
Negative
4%
Members say
Clever, Thought-provoking, Ambitious, Great acting, Intelligent

About the Show

Signature Theatre presents the world premiere of Obie winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' new drama, a modern riff on one of the oldest plays in the English language.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (176)

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112 Reviews | 28 Followers
100
Great acting, Great writing, Intelligent, Thought-provoking, Profound

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

271 Reviews | 47 Followers
99
Ambitious, Great acting, Great staging, Great writing, Masterful

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".

134 Reviews | 34 Followers
97
Entertaining, Great acting, Great staging, Resonant, Thought-provoking

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

94 Reviews | 64 Followers
97
Absorbing, Clever, Great acting, Great staging, Intelligent

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.

63 Reviews | 8 Followers
96
Clever, Entertaining, Ambitious, Intelligent, Funny

See it if Want to see innovative theatre.

Don't see it if Do not have an imagination, and can not let it wander.

145 Reviews | 34 Followers
95
Clever, Absorbing, Great writing, Intelligent

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

133 Reviews | 36 Followers
95
Thought-provoking, Profound, Absorbing, Intense, Intelligent

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

263 Reviews | 108 Followers
94
Absorbing, Great staging, Intelligent, Relevant, Thought-provoking

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

Critic Reviews (37)

The New York Times
February 21st, 2017

"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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Time Out New York
February 21st, 2017

"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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New York Magazine / Vulture
February 21st, 2017

“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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Deadline
February 28th, 2017

"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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New York Daily News
February 22nd, 2017

"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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Variety
February 21st, 2017

"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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The Hollywood Reporter
February 21st, 2017

"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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Theatermania
February 21st, 2017

"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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