Happy Birthday, Wanda June NYC Reviews and Tickets

81%

(271 Ratings)

Positive

88%

Mixed

Negative

Members say

Great acting, Funny, Entertaining, Relevant, Quirky

About the Show

Wheelhouse Theater Company offers a return engagement of famed novelist Kurt Vonnegut's rarely produced satire. A searing and darkly comedic look at American culture.

After being presumed dead for eight years, respected war veteran and big game hunter Harold Ryan returns home. He brings with him an old way of thinking, celebrating a Hemingway-esque machismo and American exceptionalism. Harold soon discovers that the society he returns to has made attempts to progress into a more modern, enlightened cultural narrative. 'Happy Birthday, Wanda June' is a dynamic and often comic meditation on toxic masculinity and a capitalistic America's failed attempts at progress cloaked in honor and morality.

Show-Score Member Reviews (271)

Great acting, Ambitious, Thought-provoking, Slow

See it if You like challenging material in an interesting show

Don't see it if You want a story with a likable main character

Great acting, Great staging, Great writing, Satirical

See it if Errant husband returns to family after extended absence. In Vonnegut's testosterone-fueled satirical world, all alphas are apes and "A"s.

Don't see it if Shag carpet underfoot! Poly-carbon allergy alert! Wall-to-wall, even under your seat. High prod. values, but 2 hrs of Neanderthal caricature

Vintage vonnegut sadly still relevant, Black comedy with absurdist flourishes, Well acted, well designed

See it if you're a fan of Vonnegut's bleakly funny dystopic writing; for O'Connell's star turn dripping with toxic masculinity

Don't see it if you don't like dark humor with touches of absurdism; you're impatient with some overwriting--point is made well before the final moment Read more

Entertaining, Funny, Great acting

See it if You are interested in Vonnegut’s writing. Also to support small, very talented, ambitious companies. t

Don't see it if Absurd comedy is not your thing

Darkly-humorous, Off-beat and quirky, Dated in some ways, painfully-relevant in others, American reality via a bleak and violent portrait, Involves harsh themes of misogyny, abuse, and cruelty

See it if a fan of absurdist works, Kurt Vonnegut, or actor Jason O’Connell--who absolutely steals this show; if you don't mind brutality & sexuality.

Don't see it if you need drama to make sense at all times; don’t like absurdist or post-modern works; dislike sexuality, misogyny, violence, or dark humor. Read more

Banal, Cliched, Quirky, Dated, Clever

See it if you want to see Kurt Vonnegut's only attempt at playwrighting in a professional, faithful production of his work.

Don't see it if You need a successfully realized treatment of very ambitious ideas. Do not mind scenery chewing as an attempt to excuse the play's flaws.