Letters from Max
Closed 2h 15m
Letters from Max
81

Letters from Max NYC Reviews and Tickets

81%
(123 Ratings)
Positive
86%
Mixed
12%
Negative
2%
Members say
Absorbing, Great acting, Great writing, Intelligent, Profound

About the Show

Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of her book of letters, sent between her and her terminally ill ex-student.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (123)

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63 Reviews | 10 Followers
100
Tear-jerker, Thought-provoking, Profound

See it if you love poetry and beautifully made plays.

Don't see it if you don't want to bawl like a baby at the end.

54 Reviews | 12 Followers
93
Masterful, Great writing, Great acting, Enchanting, Absorbing

See it if You enjoy deeply connecting to a show, and the audience around you. Letters is a profound group experience of love and loss.

Don't see it if You prefer larger, louder shows. The production is delightful and intelligent, surrounding countless central themes, including cancer & loss

271 Reviews | 35 Followers
90
Great writing, Great staging, Edgy, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if You have a tender heart. It was an emotional experience that I found moving, enriching and meaningful. Excellent writing by Sara Ruhl.

Don't see it if Sad stories are not of interest to you.

148 Reviews | 12 Followers
90
Profound, Intense, Great writing, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if If you want to see a heartbreakingly true story of a relationship between a teacher and her student, told with humor and great performances.

Don't see it if If you don’t want to be moved or cry. It is really a great show. Go see it.

206 Reviews | 38 Followers
90
Resonant, Excruciating, Great writing, staging & acting, Clever, Absorbing

See it if A poignant, honest, raw portrait of a meaningful relationship between professor & student turns into collab between artists. Friendship.

Don't see it if You cant watch true story of a young man facing mortality. The relationship is uplifting so it is not straight up about grief. Read more

260 Reviews | 55 Followers
90
Quirky, Intense, Masterful, Great acting, Ambitious

See it if You want see a beautiful and moving discussion of the meaning of life and art.

Don't see it if You are not interested in a performance that is less a play than a reading of letters, emails and poems. Read more

458 Reviews | 101 Followers
89
Intimate moving gorgeous words perfectly edited

See it if you have lost someone beautifully acted, perfect set, see it.

Don't see it if if you have lost someone we know going in he has died. he was real there is no way to change the end.

59 Reviews | 10 Followers
88
Riveting, Great acting, Exquisite, Enchanting, Absorbing

See it if If you have a loving heart and can appreciate viewing an incredible relationship unfold that will leave you in tears.

Don't see it if If easily triggered by death and cancer or hate poetry

Critic Reviews (14)

The New York Times
February 28th, 2023

CRITIC'S PICK: “If ‘Letters From Max’ were any other play, I would think dreaming up a fantasy bookstore display... was a strange response. But it feels like a natural extension of the conversation pinging back and forth between Sarah and Max. Theirs is so much wider and more voracious a discussion than any stage could hold.”
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Time Out New York
February 27th, 2023

"This epistolary play sends the message that a life cut short can call us to embrace our own lives and—as Max tells Sarah in a dream—to feel them swaying."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
February 28th, 2023

"It gives you an extremely close perspective on the experience of knowing and then losing him, so much so that it may feel intrusive to be there."
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Theatermania
February 27th, 2023

"Inspired by Ruhl and Ritvo's posthumously published collection of correspondences, the production ... is a straightforward adaptation, with much of the spoken language coming directly from Ruhl and Ritvo's notes. It is amazing how effortlessly these missives manage to capture their divergent personalities, and how the performers manage to tap into something almost ethereal in their delivery."
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Lighting & Sound America
February 27th, 2023

“A metaphysical conversation conducted in the lengthening shadow of death...It is interesting that Signature Theatre happens to be producing Letters from Max, which contemplates eternity and the mystery of existence, at the same time it is presenting Samuel D. Hunter's A Bright New Boise, in which the protagonist, an evangelical obsessed with end-times theology, struggles with the irreducible complexities of contemporary life. These playwrights are wrestling with life's biggest questions, which is another way of saying they are doing their jobs.”
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Talkin' Broadway
February 28th, 2023

"In the ritualistic acts of sending and responding to letters, however, the epistolary drama provides a space for an intellectual and spiritual meditation on love, death, and the function of art."
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New York Stage Review
February 27th, 2023

"As played with an off-handed yet committed approach, Hecht and Ritvo are amusing with each other,... As Ritvo worsens, 'Letters From Max', a work about art and death and about how art deals with death, takes precedence."
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New York Stage Review
February 27th, 2023

“The epistolary play is a tricky business. Portraying two people who are communicating with each other but not really talking to each other...Thanks to Kate Whoriskey’s clever but never cluttered staging, ‘Letters From Max’ almost never stands still."
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