Sundown, Yellow Moon NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (71)
See it if you like, sweet, simple stories of family, people making it and not. The music is lovely and enhances the production.
Don't see it if you've had enough slices of life.
See it if you like exploring real characters and how they cope with their aspirations and to others.
Don't see it if you prefer shows with action. Read more
See it if to see how characters try to connect and don't connect with each other
Don't see it if if you prefer energetic dramas to quieter ones
See it if you like new interesting theatre with good actors in it.
Don't see it if you like traditional story telling
See it if you like simple stories, sweetly told. Great performances and smart design make it an interesting watch.
Don't see it if ultimately, it doesn't hold together well as drama. The narrative threads don't really hold together in the end, sadly.
See it if You don't mind a play that hints at stories that never get resolved. This one explores relationships/loneliness and unrealized dreams.
Don't see it if You want action, story arcs, fast-paced drama. Don't like Southern summer nights w some folk music. I liked it by the end-it grew on me. Read more
See it if you like exploration of character - meandering, roaming, interesting, more like an exercise than a play
Don't see it if you are looking for linear, play with a punch or a strong story
See it if You like slice of life drama's that don't resolve and have the patience of mathusala. Lovely ensemble acting, but the pace was painful.
Don't see it if You want conflict to resolve itself, appreciate reasonable pacing. You are expecting a traditional musical. The music was a "side note" ;-) Read more
Critic Reviews (14)
"The difficulty with 'Sundown, Yellow Moon' comes with the playwright’s decision not to develop her characters fully. Each appears as a snapshot of himself or herself without any deep exposition...The cast members deliver authentic performances and, although their conflicts are engaging and believable, there is not enough to drive a satisfying plot...Without that catharsis, the dramatic arc falters. Kauffman’s direction is sensitive and embraces the sensitive core of the play."
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“This is a quiet, drearily low-key, fitfully amusing, dramatically slender, . . . slog through a family's attempts to heal its psychic wounds...It's nice to see a play in which everyone, despite their own problems, is concerned about everyone else, but..the stakes have to be higher. In 'Sundown' no specific problem seems any more urgent than any other, and when it's all over the persons most likely not to be concerned about anyone's problems are the members of the audience.”
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“The acting is first-rate and the direction by Anne Kauffman is delicate and sensitive. The play, however, is like ‘The Humans’ where everybody is tightly wound and all the characters are so flawed they are all are on the verge of breaking…The cast are all excellent and thanks to Ms. Kauffman’s direction we move through a lazy, but steady pace of these disenchanting lives...Like ‘The Humans’ it seems there is very little hope for this misfit household and their acquaintances."
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"'Sundown, Yellow Moon' is sadly lost, much like the characters...Packed into a single act, 'Sundown, Yellow Moon' provides insufficient information that leaves you unfulfilled...The content of Bonds' writing is beautiful. But as an overall structure of a play with a clear beginning, middle, and end, she falters...Kauffman directed the piece at a sluggish, cinematic pace. She did, however, capture the intimacy within the blooming relationships."
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"Sadness and regret can be minefields of sentiment and navel-gazing on stage, but 'Sundown, Yellow Moon' navigates them with an invigorating lightness of touch; it is remarkable that a story so defined by disappearances, holes, and unknowns can feel so energizing. Some credit is due to the songs by The Bengsons...The building blocks of the story, on the other hand, are nothing new...Yet what sets 'Sundown, Yellow Moon' apart is a contemporary sensibility."
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"It is not a bad thing that 'Sundown, Yellow Moon’s' original music by playwright Rachel Bonds and The Bengsons is memorable. The songs would overpower lesser material, but they are the invisible motivator of Bonds' powerful look at a fragile family…Director Anne Kauffman eases her standout cast through every plot and character layering...Songs express what words cannot…‘Sundown, Yellow Moon’ ends without easy answers. If it did, it would lose its voice."
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