Happy Birthday, Wanda June NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (271)
See it if A riveting production, an ingenious play. O’Connell and Maccluggage must not be missed. Vonnegut sadly, thrillingly channels our times.
Don't see it if You need to see a conventionally structured play or you are easily offended. Or if you really feel America needs to become “great” again.
See it if You’d like to try something on an elevated level. The story was interesting and surprising and the cast really did a great job!
Don't see it if You’re hoping for something simple that won’t challenge you at all.
See it if You like the satire of Vonnegut. Excellent production. Machismo to the max is disturbing.
Don't see it if If you don’t like Vonnegut’ perspective.
See it if you like dark funny comedy, plays that are intellectually challenging with fine acting & themes about the "nature" of men, women & society.
Don't see it if you dislike plays whose meanings are difficult to discern, have farcial elements and not "realistic" character depictions.
See it if you like Kurt Vonnegut and absurd, wonderfully performed theater.
Don't see it if you don't like absurdity and Vonnegut.
See it if you enjoy really brave, fun theatre that pushes the edge of the envelope. Extremely inventive with some wonderful performances.
Don't see it if If you're looking for something extremely traditional. This is slightly off-the-wall, as one would expect from the genius of Kurt Vonnegut.
See it if You love plays that are rel ant our days
Don't see it if You just want to be entertained.
See it if you enjoy well written and well directed scripts. The actors sang and moved around the stage uninhibitedly.
Don't see it if You do not like quirky plays.
Critic Reviews (18)
"Vonnegut Jr.’s shaggy but zingingly relevant comedy now getting a ferociously funny revival...As Jason O’Connell proves in a hilarious and explosive performance as Harold, the cult of masculinity that Vonnegut lampooned is still with us, absurd and menacing and terribly, terribly vain...This is quite a departure, and quite a star turn...In the final act, there’s a scene whose resonance now Vonnegut couldn’t possibly have imagined."
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"The play is top-heavy with unamusing exposition; the characters keep coming and going to no purpose, except to engage in lengthy, detail-filled conversations with each other. When a climactic scene is finally arranged, it is as flat as everything else that has come before it. These conclusions are easy to reach because Jeff Wise's staging seems to be right in the spirit of Vonnegut's intentions, with a skillful cast onboard...But much of 'Happy Birthday, Wanda June' dates badly."
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"Vonnegut fans will recognize the genre-busting conceits and madcap non sequiturs, and the play's antiwar, antigun satirical focus is pointed and unambiguous...Not a great play...It is, though, boldly theatrical and has its share of Vonnegut's trademark lunacy and deliciously lowbrow humor...Under Jeff Wise's brash direction, the cast is uniformly strong...The play overstays its welcome in the nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time, but in this production...there is certainly much to celebrate."
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"Vonnegut fans and enthusiasts of extremely broad acting will be thrilled by this revival...It’s rarely performed and this excellent production from Wheelhouse Theater Company demonstrates why...Exuberant dialogue matched with a 1960s biting sensibility, a familiar plot, and Shavian speechifying adds up to a patchy and long-winded experience...Their sterling presentation reveals it to be a piece of its time with little weight that does faithfully convey the sly spirit of Vonnegut."
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"The actors do not disappoint, especially in the performance by Jason O’Connell in the leading role...He is enough to see the show all on its own. As for the play itself, even if Vonnegut’s writing, once cutting edge is now somewhat duller, his absurdist take on the human condition has not dated at all. And if the plotting is clunky (which frankly, it always was), Vonnegut more than makes up for it up by his witty and thought-provoking dialogue, which will forever be linked as his trademark."
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"Unfortunately, and I know I'm an outlier here, this Wheelhouse Theater Company production is overacted, under-funny, and ineffectually directed. The original's three acts are compressed into two, running a talkatively dreary two hours and 40 minutes. Director Jeff Wise isn't able to locate the correct pace, leading to a lugubrious lack of tension. He also fails to create a world in which we can accept the plausibility of these offbeat characters and a sense of their commitment to one another."
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"The play may not be a masterpiece, but the production by the Wheelhouse Theater Company under director Jeff Wise breathes screwball life into it with strong performances and unabashed theatricality...Under Wise’s direction, the disparate elements blend together like some psychedelic head trip...Most crucial to the production’s success is Jason O’Connell’s riveting performance as Harold, even if he often tips into excess."
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"If there is an afterlife, I hope Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., has had the opportunity to look down and watch the Wheelhouse Theater Company's excellent production of his hilarious, incisive farce...directed with vitality, creativity, and respect...O'Connell manages all of Harold's dimensions in a tour de force performance...MacCluggage is every bit as good....A delayed-release show, where you laugh non-stop while watching it yet remain genuinely moved by it afterward."
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