Sincerely, Oscar NYC Reviews and Tickets

"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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"The concept is high, but the execution lacks, coming off as if a lounge act and a PowerPoint presentation had a baby...While the singing...is technically very proficient, Ms. Taylor presents these Broadway standards with a confusing sense of off-putting desperation and zero chemistry with Mr. Onyejekwe...The singing, though accomplished, has little heart. The constant appearance of Mr. Hammerstein begins to smack of Disney World’s 'Hall of Presidents.'"
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"Emerges predominantly as an often mesmerizing trip into the musical world in which Hammerstein made enormous, lasting contributions. We can immerse ourselves into the gentle exploration of those contributions presented with panache by two expert singers able to honor the lyricist’s genius and express his messages about love, the joy of living, and especially the importance of racial equality."
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"Both are competent singers, but neither digs too deeply. Dressed in sterile, white attire and wearing distracting, large headset microphones, they imbue a robotic cheerfulness to their interpretations...Disappointingly, the holographic image and voice-overs are not even actually those of Hammerstein, but of actor Bob Meenan...As directed by McDonough, without aid of a choreographer, several of the stronger vocal moments are undercut by choices in movement."
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"An ill-conceived, self-indulgent, cringe-inducing, glorified cabaret act that is easily one of the worst productions I have seen on a New York stage in recent memory."
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"Unfortunately, the show plays more like a cabaret act or a theme-park amusement than a musical, and would be better suited to one of those sites than to a theatrical stage. There is no real narrative or dramatic arc...Onyejekwe’s expressive characterizations and smooth dance moves are the highlights of the show, but occur far too infrequently...If you’re a purist, or if you prefer your musical theater with a storyline and staging that flow, this is not the show for you."
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“Instead of a new musical, the evening is a lame revue featuring twenty-one songs by the renowned lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein. The timeless song list...is impressive, and Taylor has a lovely, well trained, strong soprano voice. But that’s about as good as it gets...Everything else about this production is ill conceived, and the staging...is laughable...Nothing is organic...Everything is imposed, or mechanical and the results are quite dull and tedious despite the glorious songs.”
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