Plays For The Plague Year NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsShow-Score Member Reviews (42)
See it if …you’re open to a new type of theatrical experience that blends multiple forms of narrative and song into one cohesive piece.
Don't see it if …you can’t handle COVID-related content, or you’re looking for a traditionally-structured show. Read more
See it if you need to put into words what the pandemic made you feel and experience. To take back a piece of what you lost. To celebrate
Don't see it if You don't want to to hear truth, you expect extravagant set design, if you are claustrophobic (tight seating) or you prefer lies. Read more
See it if you are a fan of SLP and want a reflection and reckoning of the Covid lockdown as seen from a prolific artist Downtown NYC. Music great.
Don't see it if U cant reflect on living history. It is not just a downer its a great examination of what our country went through in 2020 - NOT just Covid Read more
See it if You want to be moved by a timely, and personal account of the pandemic.
Don't see it if You are offended by social commentary
See it if You want enjoy an amazing cast and a beautifully chronicalled year in lock down.
Don't see it if You want no reminder of Covid-19, even a beautful one.
See it if you want to see a master of writing and storytelling performing an honest, raw depiction of the year of the plague.
Don't see it if you need an obvious, linear storyline that is more set-focused.
See it if you want to feel the pain--and then the relief--of living thru the pandemic.
Don't see it if you don't want to relive that period.
See it if cathartic: SLParks movingly/w humor captures fear/polit upheaval 1st yr of covid; w quiet charisma stars & sings lead w fine ensemble/band
Don't see it if more cabaret than play; overlong @ 3 hrs; few original insights on Covid
Critic Reviews (8)
"...this three-hour production, does feel as if we’re reliving a year’s worth of material. At least the variety in Parks’s script keeps things unpredictable enough to hold our attention."
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"...we are reminded how a very dark juncture also brought with it some tender silver linings, for those of us lucky enough to find them."
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" 'Plays for the Plague Year' is a show about all of us, as evidenced by the casting of each performer as many people...Even beyond gathering in person or singing in unison or taking a collective breath, that's the way, the show reminds us, to really be a community."
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"In this disjointed world of songs and scenes, the pandemic is a collection of individual moments and experiences that unfold without analysis or interpretation. If you plan to bear witness to 'Plays for the Plague Year,' I advise a similar approach."
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While the playlets seem too slight to have much dramatic weight as they are mainly about one minute long, they do have a cumulative effect summing up a year that was like no other in recent memory. Often the scenes feel like they want to go on and continue, but Parks keeps them short. Periodically, we have a one sentence scene telling how many people have died from Covid as of that date. Beginning on March 13, 2020, the first full day of the shutdown, the playlets continue until April 13, 2021, a year and a month from when Parks started. An electronic sign above the stage states the date of each scene and its name which includes such titles as “Home,” “Broadway Is Closed,” “The City at 7 PM,” “Who’s Gonna Pay For This?,” and “Hiatus 4 Months: Holding It Together Together.”
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"The play, despite its bluesy music and its attempts to memorialize joys and triumphs along with sorrows and its witty costumes, never steps more than a whisper from grief and anger. It reminds us at every turn how quickly 2020 outstripped all of our ability to process the world."
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It might feel jarring initially that “Plays for the Plague Year” is being presented at a cabaret…But presenting this year-in-review as a revue proves surprisingly effective – entertaining, evocative, provocative. The informality and intimacy make the production feel at times like a gathering where together we are reliving the memories. At its best, “Plays for the Plague year” offers the opportunity for a sense of community and, for some, of catharsis.
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“ 'Plays for the Plague Year' leaves you in a state of contradiction that may feel familiar to all pandemic survivors: wanting more — and a whole lot less."
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