Hysterical! (FringeNYC) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (21)
See it if You want your teen portraits to be multi faceted and thought provoking.
Don't see it if You just want the easy disparagement of cheerleaders.
See it if Enjoy some fun lyrics and not intent on coming out with all your questions answered.
Don't see it if You need a beginning and an end.
See it if You enjoy a show about high school girls issues and how they overcome based on events that really happened. Funny, interesting and moving.
Don't see it if You don't enjoy fresh and new theatre
See it if you like cheerleaders
Don't see it if you don't like perkiness and surprises
See it if You want to hear about a story that isn't told often.
Don't see it if You don't enjoy cheerful rhyming.
See it if You enjoy both spectacle (in the form of cheers) and serious theatre (this play engages with the gendered issues around hysteria).
Don't see it if You want to be spoon fed. The play challenges you to think - I laughed and then had to consider the implications of my laughter.
See it if you like theater that both entertains and moves you, and are hoping to see some breakout performances.
Don't see it if you are only looking to laugh.
See it if If you want to think about the catagion of spells. Or if you remember there was an actual case like this awhile ago
Don't see it if If you want a comedy
Critic Reviews (3)
“It’s commendable that a cast of five on a bare-bones stage could become such an effective vehicle for playwright Elenna Stauffer’s inspired-by-true-events tale...While low on athleticism, director-choreographer Deborah Wolfson’s spirit routines provide comic relief and help pep up the pace...There’s a dark undertone to the story, which touches on the fragility of youth’s fleeting friendships and the inherently stressful nature of adolescence...Not your average teen comedy."
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"I was surprised by the incredibly powerful and moving moments embedded within this show…The interplay between the comedy and the harsh realities of the social issues within 'Hysterical!' create a well-established balance, but there are moments in the first half of the production that could be tightened up...A fun night out dealing with forgotten but necessary themes in new ways. I'm excited about the future of this production, which has the potential to be truly powerful."
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“Stretches of the play call to mind the second acts of low-budget zombie films...Juxtaposed with these scenes of realistic teenage life are the cheer routines...These routines cast the girls as a Greek Chorus in their own lives, which only makes sense, as modern-day society constantly tells women–and especially young women–that their experiences are not theirs alone, and that their pain needs to be acknowledged by men in order to be considered real.”
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