"Writer’s block turns out to be a lot more inspiring than you could ever have imagined — and sad and stirring and gloriously fun. In 'Preludes' Dave Malloy makes beautiful music out of a composer’s three years of creative silence...Mr. Malloy and Ms. Chavkin have delivered the best musical about art’s agonies since 'Sunday in the Park With George...' This smashing production says that the American musical is not only not dead but also growing luxuriantly in places you never expected."
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"Preludes feels boneless and blobby: a two-hour mishmash of navel-gazing vignettes about the difficulty of being an artist, scored with snatches of classical music and meandering arioso... Flashes of intelligence notwithstanding, Preludes is largely hermetic and dull. "
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"Anachronisms and malaprops abound, some of the humor is sophomoric and at a couple of points the whole thing comes perilously close to tweenosity. But in the end 'Preludes' is an involving and ultimately moving story about the unknowable ebbs and flows of creativity that artists fear, sometimes master, sometimes fall victim to and invariably navigate over the course of a lifetime. As recreated here, it’s a most intriguing and engaging journey down the rabbit hole of artistic accomplishment."
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"If only the show had heart to go with the brains. You can’t help but wish for more emotional payoff...Feels more like a well-performed but dry-eyed thesis.. The music comes and goes — Malloy’s compositions the paler of the two. If you’re looking for a sense of connection, 'Preludes' leaves you between a Rach and a hard place."
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"For all the fancy stagecraft, nothing in this ingeniously staged but overlong and self-indulgent piece comes close to giving the same transporting pleasure as Matias’s ravishing piano playing...In the end, it proves more exhausting than entertaining (or even uplifting) to follow Rach’s loopy thoughts and Malloy’s mannered musicianship. And when the lights come up on all this noisy spectacle, what lingers in the mind is the composer’s deeply felt but simply stated wish: 'I would like to be remembered.'"
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"A load of talent and resources has been thrown at this ambitious bio-drama, which features some rhapsodic music and glorious singing. However, the distancing show is too clever by half; it's dense, exhausting and pretentious...The creative team twists itself inside out trying to make artist's block theatrical and involving. But it can’t be done; at least not here...Nonetheless, the production looks and sounds terrific."
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"Malloy’s playfulness is paired with a deep knowledge and love for his subject. The songs display Malloy’s conversational flair and his gift for aching melody. The show could have used more of that unfiltered emotion — it loses focus jumping back and forth, and sometimes gets just a little too clever. The one constant is Malloy’s talent, which, amazingly, isn’t crushed by Rachmaninoff’s long shadow."
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"Malloy’s inspiration also proves to be an impediment. Rachmaninoff’s music dominates the proceedings...More often than not, they’re keeping us from hearing Rachmaninoff’s music. As Chekhov tells Rach, 'use more silence.' If you were wondering what the heck Chekhov is doing here, you wouldn’t be the only one...Malloy does call 'Preludes' a 'musical fantasia,' but there’s a fine line between the creative and the chaotic."
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