Henry VI (National Asian American Theatre Company) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (52)
See it if you love Shakespeare done by an ambitious company of brave actors
Don't see it if don't like Shakespeare tragedies.
See it if You are interested in expanding your knowledge of the canon or seeing a wonderful group of actors perform a rarely-done play.
Don't see it if You don't have the patience to remember which English lord is which and who is on who's side.
See it if you enjoy watching performances that can make Shakespeare's history plays seem epic even with a small cast and a small space.
Don't see it if you're not into politics and wars. Read more
See it if You're up for something off the beaten Shakespearean path as long as it offers strong direction and acting (which this production does).
Don't see it if You don't have the patience for a six-hour multipart history play with many sprawling storylines (and most actors playing multiple roles). Read more
See it if you want to see multiple story lines clearly told, you wanna see key Shakespearean themes acted out well
Don't see it if you hate Shakespeare, or aren't able to sit through 2 nights of 3+ hour shows
See it if You want to see a rarely performed Shakespeare play -- done well.
Don't see it if You have a limited attention span. This requires you to pay attention -- for six hours. Read more
See it if Well acted exciting Shakespeare .You almost always know what is happening in this epic 6 hour show shown in a small theater
Don't see it if you want a traditional view, don't like gender bending casting or want to go to a theater that is on 10th Ave and 53rd street. Very GU Read more
See it if You like Shakespeare and you like exciting and ambitious new takes on it
Don't see it if You don't have much patience, don't like long plays. Read more
Critic Reviews (14)
"It’s a production that asks nearly six hours from your life, but it repays you handsomely. Fast-paced and gripping, this is an unusually lucid staging of a bloody history play, whose surfeit of schemes and villainy could make a daytime-drama writer blush. Yet for all the battles and beheadings in Stephen Brown-Fried’s handsomely designed production, never does it take death lightly. That’s one of the remarkable things about it."
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"One is inescapably reminded of Shakespeare's enduring modernity. These plays, written in the late sixteenth century, depicting events of nearly a century earlier, are defined by a cool, calculating gaze that seems thoroughly of today...Under Brown-Fried's direction, the overall performance is, almost necessarily, uneven...Still, the sheer sweep of Shakespeare's vision holds one captive, and the fast-paced, highly economical staging never sags for a moment."
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"Not that NAATCO doesn't do a splendid job with this vivid history of the Wars of the Roses...There's just so damn much of it...It's a lot to keep track of and much of the first hour or two at NAATCO is spent wondering, Who's he? Who's she? Why are they so angry at each other?..Once you've puzzled out the dramatis personae, it's relatively easy to follow, and the emotions rattling across NAATCO's ample stage are strong and affecting."
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"The National Asian American Theatre Company and director Stephen Brown-Fried have smartly condensed the three plays into two. The total running time is still more than five and a half hours, but it’s a small price to pay for such an ambitious production...For me, the best part of these plays was the discovery of the mouthy Margaret, the ball-busting queen...The text could have been cut a smidge more."
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“Inventive and spectacular two-part adaptation...An excellent all-Asian cast...Creatively conceived by Brown-Fried and superbly directed by him, his Orson Welles-like vision transcends the difficult material. This sterling production is also an inspired example of American actors succeeding at Shakespeare...Brown-Fried obtains uniformly vivid performances from them and the semblance that they are a unified company.”
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"The ambitious staging combines Shakespeare's three parts into two...The production is sprawling, and at moments drops into sluggishness. But at its best, the breadth of the universe and ambition of the storytelling becomes truly dizzying...NAATCO's 'Henry VI' demands a lot of your time and your attention, but for those willing to put in the effort, the impressively acted and thoughtfully enlightening production proves to be an striking new take on this historical classic."
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"Because these actors would seldom be cast in most productions of this difficult, rarely staged trio of plays, there’s a palpable urgency in the excellence of the performances. By the end of six hours, it’s hard to picture anyone else in these roles, thanks to the relentless power of this company’s efforts. That our focus holds for this (very rarely wearying) marathon is in large part due to the boundlessly creative, perpetually smart direction by Stephen Brown-Fried."
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“This production is not to be missed...NAATCO has pulled out all the stops to make the entire story as clear as possible...The standout...is the absolutely fantastic staging, which lends an intensity and excitement to the plays that might otherwise have been lacking...The cast itself features standouts who make ordinary roles rise above their usual prominence in the plays...This production exposes more than usual the universality of Shakespeare’s themes of war and avarice.”
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