Sincerely, Oscar NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (104)
See it if ... you want to immerse yourself into beautiful music from a gone-by era, accompanied by a magical display of background scenery.
Don't see it if ... the beautiful songs created by Oscar Hammerstein for some of our all-time favorite musicals is of no interest to you.
See it if If you like Rogers and Hammerstein music . Great voices of two singers with a lot of talent. It’s going into the past with all the music.
Don't see it if If you are looking for a play and don’t like Roger and Hammerstein music. This not a play but a concert .
See it if You're a fan of Rogers and Hammerstein music. Very cleverly staged with narration by a holographic image.
Don't see it if If you not a fanatic of Oscar Hammerstein hits
See it if you enjoy Hammerstein with whoever he wrote with
Don't see it if you are expecting context for the songs, similar to Hal, Prince of Broadway (It ain't here) Read more
See it if You love the old show tunes and a bit of explanation about how they were composed.
Don't see it if You expect a “play” in any traditional sense.
See it if you enjoy the music of Oscar Hammerstein, would like light background about some of his shows, don't mind a weak, slow-moving musical
Don't see it if you expect a great musical with many memorable show tunes & costume changes Read more
See it if If you like Rodgers and Hammerstein music and would enjoy a mini-concert of their hits across Broadway shows with minimal context.
Don't see it if If you are not a fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein‘s music, would not enjoy their songs without context or are bothered by technical effects.
See it if You appreciate good singing
Don't see it if Over the top technology gets on your nerves.
Critic Reviews (14)
"Its distinguishing features included a hazy provenance; an obsequious, uninformative text; a lazily organized catalog of songs; and an unaccountable focus on an unknown performer. Also: holograms...The kind of show that makes you wonder if someone is secretly satirizing ambition. Certainly the spirit of the production and the spirit of the man it honors are at odds...Each song is sung exactly alike, with the same few gestures and vocal mannerisms."
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"An overwrought and over-designed musical revue. Racial insensitivities aside, 'Sincerely, Oscar' suffers from a general lack of self-awareness, which manifests in every design, directorial, and musical choice...The bigger musical problem, however, is in the monotonous jazz arrangements that scrub every ounce of character out of Hammerstein's greatest hits."
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"Intriguing conceptually but lopsided musically, the clunky show presents an amped-up glow-and-tell cabaret with a technological twist...With two performers in the show, duets would seem to be a natural. That is not the case. Enumeratively, it's Taylor's passion project...'Sincerely, Oscar' rings most true in the elusive moments when it hits the right notes of compelling narrative and unobtrusive design. The rest of the time, the hologram rings hollow."
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"We're not even ten minutes in, and the show resembles a commercial for Alpha-Bits...Brittany Merenda's projection designs are certainly technically accomplished if hilariously wrongheaded. Needless to say, what with the set lumbering around, the holographic Hammerstein expounding on his craft, and all those damn projections, the two-person cast never has a chance."
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"If anything is being celebrated here, it’s Taylor celebrating herself, with the magnificent and humble Hammerstein wordsmith merely a peg on which to hang the souring production. Yes, Taylor’s voice has much to recommend it, but the self-aggrandizing way in which she exploits it is alienating. She’s full of off-putting gestures and other histrionics often at odds with the songs’ sentiments. Despite her supposedly celebrating a lyricist, it’s the notes she produces that are her focus."
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"While recent revivals of 'South Pacific,' 'The King and I,' 'Carousel,' and 'Oklahoma!' demonstrate that Hammerstein was not as sentimental as he has been depicted in the past, 'Sincerely, Oscar' does him the injustice of making this the only takeaway from this cabaret musical. This is ultimately a misconceived tribute in almost all respects."
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"Neither star is able to bring these timeless songs to heart-affecting life, their performances being superficially showy but rarely getting to the heart of the lyrics…Taylor likes showing off her big voice...Onyejekwe…may be a wonderful guy, he's not ready for prime-time Broadway-level singing or acting…Totally lacking…Is the contextualization of the songs, making them instead blandly abstract covers, with corny staging, far removed from the dramatic situations that inspired them."
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“’Sincerely Oscar’ is what you get when you sing in the shower and think you have created a show. Incomprehensible and self-indulgent, this musical revue left me speechless, and not in a good way...From the first note, this show charts a course from indignity to embarrassment in tasteless arrangements and incomprehensible direction...’Sincerely, Oscar’ is sincerely awful. A combination of consistently appalling musical choices and dull performances.”
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