Peerless
73

Peerless NYC Reviews and Tickets

73%
(92 Reviews)
Positive
74%
Mixed
21%
Negative
5%
Members say
Clever, Entertaining, Great acting, Funny, Ambitious

A dark comedy based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth and set in the world of elite college admissions.

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Member Reviews (92)

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982 Reviews | 343 Followers
79
Great effects, Draggy parts, Edgy, Great acting, Clever

See it if for snappy dialogue, plot twists, dark themes, strong acting, creative directing, gr prodn values (lighting, set, costume, sound). Polished.

Don't see it if you want full engagement. Some scenes drag. 10-15 min could be cut. Still, it's funny, edgy. Parallels to MacB are clever.

525 Reviews | 82 Followers
59
Great staging, Disappointing, Cliched, Banal, Ambitious

See it if you like madcap shows that supposedly have a point to make.Show is more staging than plot.I didn't care about the characters or story.

Don't see it if you are looking at a rational play about the ridiculously competitive world of college admissions.That's a terrific topic.Play is a bore.

355 Reviews | 81 Followers
72
Slow, Edgy, Clever, Ambitious, Confusing

See it if A show with great banter and a super premise that is fast paced but excruciatingly slow-- what an odd dichotomy.

Don't see it if Confusing, quirky, eerie, weird, poetic, and simply odd. I wish I liked it more.

311 Reviews | 59 Followers
69
Fat-shaming, Dark, Clever, Great acting

See it if Clever concept reusing MACBETH. Great acting.

Don't see it if A little slow. And fat-shaming, the last permitted prejudice. I have a thing about rodents so that may have marred my judgement.

269 Reviews | 21 Followers
71
Entertaining, Ambitious

See it if You like dark satire. You like stories about “unlike-able” protagonists.

Don't see it if You don’t like rhythmic rapid fire dialogue. Read more

261 Reviews | 47 Followers
78
Clever

See it if like a clueless type take on Macbeth with very poetic dialogue that is often fun.

Don't see it if Mind unnatural sounding dialogue and a bit of a modern ending that feels like a cop out to me.

199 Reviews | 81 Followers
75
Edgy, Cliched, Macbeth with mean girls, Great acting, Entertaining

See it if you like modernized Shakespeare, great acting, spare productions.

Don't see it if you don't like tragicomic horror or cliches about ruthless overachievers.

194 Reviews | 41 Followers
85
Inventive, Entertaining, Delightful, Clever, Absorbing

See it if you'd get a rush from a sly riff on MACBETH that comes with idiosyncratic poetry well-played, well-dressed, well-appointed & well staged.

Don't see it if you're triggered by fat-shaming rants, get freaked out by too-realistic death-scenes or require copious amounts of stage blood for tragedy. Read more

Critic Reviews (6)

The New York Times
October 11th, 2022

"The production suggests a richer and spikier play about the ways in which members of Gen Z rehearse, perform and weaponize identity, and about the sacrifices that we make in the present to secure an increasingly insecure future."
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Theatermania
October 11th, 2022

"Park stylizes her play with repetitive dialogue and rhythmic patter that sets the nerves so on edge that you can't help but feel immediately threatened."
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Talkin' Broadway
October 11th, 2022

"Director Margot Bordelon mostly manages to pace things well, but peerless either needs to be cut back or expanded to avoid what seems to be a hastily managed ending to a relatively strong beginning."
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New York Stage Review
October 11th, 2022

"At an intermissionless 80 minutes, peerless is too long...Yet one more reason to take in peerless is its giving stage time to the increasingly pressing topic of affirmative action, now on the radical Supreme Court 2022-23 docket."
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Exeunt Magazine
October 11th, 2022

"Park’s script is spare and taut, with not a wasted syllable...The production elements, too, are crisp and striking, in simple, saturated colors."
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Off Off Online
October 14th, 2022

Unlike Macbitches, which talked about Macbeth but didn’t borrow its plot, Peerless does feature a protagonist nudged toward unscrupulous behavior by the person closest to them. ... Park didn’t write in iambic pentameter, but her dialogue has its own distinctive rhythm: short, sometimes single-word lines spoken in a rat-a-tat cadence, with characters often finishing each other’s sentences or cutting them off.
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