Must NYC Reviews and Tickets

“'Must' never provides any specific insights into the life of the person or the legend...An under-researched evening of theater, with the dialogue, characters, and psychological underpinnings acting more as generalizations than specific and rich elements that add to the overall storytelling. The vagueness is so glaring that despite sharing the names of historical figures like Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, it might as well not be about them at all, making this production far from a must-see.”
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"Purports to excavate the background of Billy The Kid but buries the lede beneath lackluster dialogue that mistakes clichés for insight...Encumbered by Charles Cissel's flat prose, these actors fail to register as anything other than cinematic stand ins. In fact they look as if they are marking time along with the rest of us until curtain falls. In lieu of direction, Gabriel Vega Weissman has the actors yell their lines as if increased volume will summon greater lucidity. "
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“Pretty much dead on arrival. Billy isn't much of an outlaw...Instead, he comes off as a modern misunderstood adolescent, largely passive and given to nursing old wounds. This is surely the least interesting choice...'Must' has zero dramatic tension...Under the sluggish direction of Gabriel Vega Weissman, there's nothing the cast can do about these sleepy proceedings...’Must’ is visually arresting even when dramatically numb."
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“Droning on for an hour, ‘Must’ is playwright Cissel’s stupefying ‘unearthing of Billy The Kid.’ It’s like Arthur Miller took a break from completing 'After the Fall' to write an episode of Gunsmoke...Mr. Cissel’s treatment is a turgid exercise with little action and lots of leaden talk...’Must’ freshly takes a potentially compelling cerebral and psychological approach in depicting the tale but is decidedly unsatisfying.”
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"For a Wild West play, there is little in the way of excitement or action. Playwright Charles Cissel deserves some credit for taking a risk and writing a reflective play about the famous outlaw Billy the Kid, rather than an action adventure...It can be hard to follow these scenes. At times, it feels like Cissel used magnetic poetry to write the script, stringing words together without creating a narrative."
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“The big question raised by 'Must'…is why Bruce Willis chose to moonlight from his busy acting career to serve as its lead producer…A lugubrious, nonlinear, plotless series of talky, pretentious, mostly two-character, dream-like scenes…While the conversations occasionally reveal friction between Billy and the others, the bleak, non-humorous dialogue is so artificial, elliptical, and metaphorical…that Billy can't meet his maker fast enough despite the show's only one-hour running time.”
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“Stewart as Pat Garrett manages to inject some life into his lines, but due to the static, measured nature of their recitations it’s hard to tell about the other, no doubt fine, Equity actors. While the slow formality of Weissman’s direction honors the show’s intentions, the pacing proves too deadly even for dead people...Charles Cissel, as evidenced by the sad, staged poetics of Billy the Kid, is much more likely a poet than a playwright.”
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