Hundred Days NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (213)
See it if You enjoy outside the box theatre. It’s a folk punk rock opera/memoir/set piece. Brave, funny, stunning, all the adjectives.
Don't see it if It doesn’t sound like your thing. It’s insanely specific and really will not be for everyone. Read up/listen to a Bengsons song or two. Read more
See it if You like a compelling story that has great acting It’s innovative Love the music
Don't see it if You don’t like folk rock music
See it if This show feels like a heightened night of cabaret and it's a totally engrossing and worthwhile evening. The performances are great!
Don't see it if If you don't like good music or just want to see trash like Miss Saigon you won't like it. No costumes and no dancing to speak of.
See it if as performer Abigail (of The Bengsons, Abigail & Shaun)would probably say, what other choice do you (we) have but to see this wonderful show
Don't see it if you do not enjoy rock music splendidly performed.
See it if you want something outside the typical theatregoing experience. It's concert-style blending reality and fiction. Truly captivating.
Don't see it if you're expecting a traditional, big ol' fashioned musical.
See it if you like simple settings that enhance the storytelling. Lovely music and singing - all from the heart, reminding you that life is special.
Don't see it if you want a lot of characters and a 'play'. This is more like a concert but one with great music.
See it if You like indie/folk/rock. Want to walk out of the theater in deep thought. Enjoy theatre that isn't bound by traditional devices.
Don't see it if Prefer traditional book style musicals. Dislike the above genres. Are just looking for a "light" show. Read more
See it if a different style musical excites you. A love story that is real staged like a concert/musical about the real band leaders. Brilliant!
Don't see it if you need the typical basic run of the mill theater musical.
Critic Reviews (21)
"A luminous musical memoir...Staged with resonant economy by the talented Kauffman, with sharp and subtle movement direction, 'Hundred Days' is cabaret as cri de coeur, and it is advisable to watch it with a handkerchief...The shift in focus from outside to inside clarifies and intensifies what was already an affecting piece...The Bengsons are stirring, and surprisingly witty, company. The Bengsons’s distinctive stage presence matches the story they tell."
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"Director Anne Kauffman plays against the internal emotional extremism of the material with an elegantly spare staging...Though only 75 minutes long, 'Hundred Days' has a slow, deliberate sensibility, in keeping with the Bengsons’ ways of dealing with death: not to outrun time but to force it to the pace you choose, extending it by a shared exultation in detail. The trick to sustaining love at first sight, their show suggests, is to never stop looking."
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"A deceptively simple affair: a stage largely unadorned save for musical instruments, a book by playwright Gancher that gives a voice both wry and poignant to the story of the Bengsons’ meeting and marriage, and of course, a collection of lush, plaintive, soaring songs...Shaun is a model of the classically self-effacing, hella-talented indie rock musician—his guitar holds the show together—and Abigail, out of her roiling anxiety, is able to release a vocal hurricane."
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“Exceptionally entertaining, not to mention deeply moving...An earlier version was seen at last year’s Under the Radar festival, and it’s gotten sharper and better in the year since...Accompanied by four equally personable and talented musicians on a stage seemingly lit by Edison bulbs and astutely directed by Anne Kauffman, the show takes just 90 fleet minutes to sink its teeth into your heart. It’s funny and charming and dead serious without ever being deadly.”
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"Despite its rollicking indie rock- and folk-flavored score, it feels entirely like TMI...There's little dramatic tension derived from watching the couple making moony eyes at each other, and their profuse declarations of love become more than a little grating...All this is a shame, because their music proves consistently tuneful and engaging, even if the amplification often prevents the lyrics, so important to the storyline, from being fully understood."
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"More squarely concentrated on Abigail's journey now, which works because she is an extremely exciting performer. Her vocal work is overwhelming in informing the rawness of her character. With slightly less of an emphasis on Shaun's side of the journey, the story's arc as a whole feels not quite as well rounded as before...Kauffman and the Bengsons have created a universal story, recognizable to anyone who's ever loved and lost."
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"Abigail delivers some of the most unearthly vocals that I have heard in a long, long time...Some of their songs are quite fetching...But it isn't very long into 'Hundred Days' before the feeling sets in that the Bengsons aren't really playing fair with us...Leaves one with the feeling that the Bengsons, for all their surface charm, are a self-involved and self-dramatizing pair...Even so, 'Hundred Days' is informed by real talent and enjoys a sleek production."
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"There will undoubtedly be people who enjoy and connect with 'Hundred Days,' but if you're like me you'll find it a challenge...The story, written in conjunction with Sarah Gancher, can't support a 90-minute drama even when it's shoehorned into a 'concert musical' framework...If this sounds like a bore, it is, despite the fact both Abigail and Shaun Bengson are charismatic performers. There were many times during 'Hundred Days' I had to stifle the urge to yell 'who cares?!' at the stage."
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