Sad Boys in Harpy Land NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (23)
See it if You would enjoy a manic, clownish, smart, hilarious, and deeply-felt portrait of an over-caffeinated artist in despair.
Don't see it if You would not enjoy a manic, clownish, smart, hilarious, and deeply-felt portrait of an over-caffeinated artist in despair. Read more
See it if You like Theater and all its complexities and bristling possibilities
Don't see it if You want a very coherent piece of drama
See it if You enjoy shows that thread literature with current events and memoir. You enjoy quirky, downtown clown vibes.
Don't see it if You want a linear narrative. You prefer tidy, clear material.
See it if Something unusual and different. May seem random and "throwing anything at a wall to see what sticks" but actually carefully thought out.
Don't see it if Offensive, uncomfortable, hyperactive but that's the point.
See it if your favorites at Under the Radar/La MaMa/etc are the weird ones you don’t get; you want to see a millennial clown freak out at the world.
Don't see it if you’re averse to any of: messy eating, audience participation, clowns, fake German accents, nudity, lack of plot, yelling, and raunchiness. Read more
See it if Tatarsky's literary & intellectually dense absurdist clown show is one huge howl at the existential horror of everyday life She's fearless
Don't see it if At 90 minutes, its too too long & indulgent even at its Dada-esque best Yet like a roadside car crash, you can't take your eyes off it
See it if You follow German literature and like a madwoman screeching and vomiting for 90 minutes.
Don't see it if You want to sit in one place and see a performance.
See it if and only if an UNORGANIZED fully-clothed masturbation session by an OFF Millennial interest you.
Don't see it if you are looking for a thoughtful one woman show about a concept you can easily follow, then this is NOT that show because its BIZARRE!!!!!!! Read more
Critic Reviews (7)
“ ‘Sad Boys in Harpy Land’ is at once the bellowing laugh from the flame-kissed walls of our current hell and a guttural, existential screech that encapsulates the deranged experience of having to live in this world, finding art along the painful path.”
Read more
“ ‘Sad Boys’ spends very little time beyond the interior of Tatarsky’s head...the collection of references and potential ingredients is tantalizing. Tatarsky doesn’t have “no material,” she has plenty, but she keeps scattering it in her own predilection for extended, self-engrossed freak-out.”
Read more
“The songs have a vaguely improvisational feel. Some stanzas rhyme, others do not, but all are bracingly honest...I worried that the morose pixie dream tutor gimmick would wear off, but it never did thanks to sharp direction from Morgan Green and the beguiling presence of Cramer, an enigmatic performer who makes you lean forward and pay attention.”
Read more
Many in the audience were clearly taken with the performer; I have no explanation for this.
Read more
“I didn't comprehend a word of this and have no idea what Alexandra Tatarsky is driving at, so all I can do is describe what I saw...Tatarsky clearly has a following, and many of them cheerfully whooped through all this and gave Tatarsky an instant standing O. Maybe they're more up on their Goethe.”
Read more
Tatarsky uses language in a fresh way, ultimately giving the sensation of having created her own. There are so many thoughts overlapping, and there are accompanying unintelligible sounds and gurgling (some of that happens during her coffee “breaks” and those coffee cups seem to be hidden absolutely everywhere), yet we follow her. When she references a new text, she will nonchalantly drop “I assume everyone here has read the book, yah? Great.” Of course, hasn’t everyone read "Die Ausbildung und Reisen von Wilhelm Meister"??? Her spontaneous body language may very well be choreographed but even there we have a very approachable and comforting whimsy throughout.
Read more
"Clear away all of the warning-worthy and transgressive shenanigans in “Sad Boys in Harpy Land,” and Alex Tatarsky – performance artist, cabaret singer, and clown – offers a convoluted, fragmented, erudite adaptation of two German coming-of-age novels, connecting them, and herself, to the themes of self-loathing and inaction. But her seriousness is suspect, and it’s the shenanigans that make this show so weirdly captivating."
Read more