The Alchemist
Closed 1h 55m
The Alchemist
80

The Alchemist NYC Reviews and Tickets

80%
(149 Ratings)
Positive
89%
Mixed
8%
Negative
3%
Members say
Entertaining, Funny, Great acting, Clever, Great staging

An updated version of English playwright Ben Jonson's rowdy, plague-set comedy. 

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Show-Score Member Reviews (149)

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127 Reviews | 15 Followers
100
Comedy gold.

See it if you enjoy farce.

Don't see it if you prefer shows that tickle the funny bone AND engage the brain...'cause that isn't what's happening here. Read more

141 Reviews | 28 Followers
100
Entertaining, Great acting, Great staging, Delightful, Clever

See it if you love to laugh and have a good time! The performances were brilliant and riotously funny!

Don't see it if you are looking for a serious drama...really just go see it! You will enjoy!!

129 Reviews | 26 Followers
97
Clever, Delightful, Absorbing, Great acting, Funny

See it if If you can handle laughing for two hours!

Don't see it if You only like contemporaryThis show is plays Read more

70 Reviews | 14 Followers
97
Great acting, Entertaining, Funny, Clever

See it if You want to see fast moving farce (like The Play That Goes Wrong). Great casting, fun, entertaining show.

Don't see it if you don't like silly, but fun, slapstick-like shows.

111 Reviews | 17 Followers
91
Great writing, Dizzying, Clever

See it if you love Elizabethan comedy, enjoy a great troupe of actors doing farce and enjoy seeing people's greed shown up all over the place.

Don't see it if You aren't into a Shakespearean experience with humor and delicious irony. If you think Red Bull is just a drink, think again.

175 Reviews | 24 Followers
90
Entertaining, Great acting, Funny

See it if you appreciate "old school" theater comedy. I like that the venue is a perfect size for this show to have right amount of engagement.

Don't see it if you prefer contemporary theater, with big musical production numbers. Though there is one song number done nicely by the female lead.

90 Reviews | 6 Followers
90
Fluffy, Funny, Great acting, Entertaining, Clever

See it if You enjoy cleverly adapted classics, appreciate very talented actors, enjoy refreshingly new takes on classics

Don't see it if Don't like restoration comedy, want a sitcom, don't enjoy silliness

139 Reviews | 25 Followers
89
Delectable and delirious

See it if you want to laugh uproariously! When farce is this well done and well-written, it’s a joy to behold.

Don't see it if you didn’t like Red Bull’s previous farcical bullseye “The Government Inspector.” Or you just don’t like farces.

Critic Reviews (7)

The New York Times
November 21st, 2021

"The dialogue often zings, and Berger orchestrates the farcical comings and goings on Alexis Distler’s bi-level set at the requisite madcap pace — at the performance I attended, the excellent Rogers (who played the director of the musical-within-the-musical in “Tootsie”) ad-libbed a line about all the stairs he had to climb. But the show is better at setting up the plot than at resolving it when we return from intermission — it is, after all, easier to throw a bunch of pins up in the air than it is to juggle them."
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Time Out New York
November 22nd, 2021

"4 stars!...Berger and Hatcher put all of them through their fast paces, disguising some structural weaknesses in the play itself; the promise of the first act isn’t quite met in the second, when the threads of the story wind up looping into knots. It’s a strange amalgam: a shaggy-dog farce. But even when The Alchemist loses the plot, its energetic plotters are fun to watch."
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Theatermania
November 22nd, 2021

"Powered by implausible situations and the kind of supercharged comic performances that make those situations seem perfectly acceptable, The Alchemist represents a mighty return for Red Bull Theater, the scrappy troupe with a joyously modern outlook on the classics."
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Lighting & Sound America
November 22nd, 2021

There's no way to describe the mélange of plot, counterplot, and subplot that follows, as the bell rings, new disguises are thrown around the room, and doors open and shut with precision. As in Jonson, the action is really a series of comings and goings with little overall design. But the hilarity remains steady for the two-hour running time, largely, I suspect because Berger and company know exactly how far to take this nonsense, staying on just this side of comic excess. It's a remarkable balancing act.
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New York Stage Review
November 21st, 2021

"4 stars!...Jesse Berger, who heads the Red Bull Theater, has a soft spot in his heart for comedy/dramas past and has now given The Alchemist more than a moment’s thought. He’s directed and produced an entertaining revival-revisal for our time. He’s accomplished this using Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation and tapping some of the best farceurs hanging around these days."
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TheaterScene.net
November 23rd, 2021

While Berger’s work with the actors is excellent, the pace might be quicker, although considering the complicated plot (Coleridge notwithstanding) it might become harder to follow. Felciano and Rogers are a bit more muted than one would expect for the con-artists but never go beyond credulity. As Dapper, Elrod who has entertained us in such David Ives’ satires as The Liar, The Heir Apparent, Lives of the Saints and All in the Timing isn’t given much to do which is not his fault.
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Theater Pizzazz
November 21st, 2021

Jonson’s farce requires rapid pacing, of course. The question is, must it be a supercharged, 0-to-3 door-slammer that would make the Marx Brothers at their zaniest look like novices? Each actor is a talented clown, with individual moments of comic glitter, and each brings distinctive…colorings to their shenanigans. But since their chief goal appears to get laughs at any cost rather than create even a modicum of reality, the play becomes secondary to their overstated carryings on.
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