The Coast Starlight NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (83)
See it if Enjoy sweet fantasies about 'what might have been' & how chance encounters can change lives, actors speaking to audience to tell story
Don't see it if you want a strict literal story, don't like imaginary, wistful plots, don't have a romantic bone in your body, don't want to shed a tear
See it if you like to see a non traditional drama with no set plot and people talking and yet not talking to each other. The staging is clever.
Don't see it if you believe the Afghan war was worth fighting. Some main characters completely disagree. Don't see if you prefer a straight forward plot. Read more
See it if U enjoy stories and fantasies - difficult to tell which is which; a good set that is a little too high for those of us in the front rows
Don't see it if Found the play inconsistent w/some good stories and others less interesting; Some actors better than others; Often confusing.
See it if you have wondered about the stories behind the passengers you encounter on a long train ride.
Don't see it if you like plays with lots of action. Read more
See it if You want a very different theater presentation. Six people on a train sometimes talking sometimes thinking out loud. Good acting.
Don't see it if You want a good old fashioned play. Some good moments, some touching, some funny, others dull and slow and boring. Mixed bag. Zero scenery.
See it if Solid script with good acting. A worthwhile live performance. Emotionally engaging.
Don't see it if If you prefer light musicals
See it if into 6 strangers on a train: personal stories, fantasies, and what-ifs. Great acting, and a unique rotating stage.
Don't see it if well... It was a rollercoaster of interesting and less-so stories, and I am still pondering if all these mount to anything cohesive.
See it if you've ever considered the lives of strangers you pass by every day & wondered what would happen if you took a chance to get involved w/them
Don't see it if you don't want to think about other people's "stuff" & just want to sit back & be entertained Read more
Critic Reviews (14)
CRITIC’S PICK: “The play often strikes a melancholy tone, but its wheels also send up sparks of generosity and in Liz’s monologue, sharp humor. So let it do what any train should, which is to move you.”
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"3/5 Stars. In theory, it's an interesting gambit to write a play in the past conditional, theatricalizing the guessing games we all play about what's going on in others' heads: Into the Woulds. But in practice here, it's sometimes difficult to discern what's being spoken out loud, what's being imagined by which character, and what’s authorial reverie. That would matter less if 'The Coast Starlight' were more consistently engaging, but the poetic discussions in this liminal space tend to veer into ponderousness."
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“I started to fantasize, in fact, about how relaxing it might be to go on a long, quiet trip by train.”
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“ ‘The Coast Starlight’s’ thesis — that strangers on a train could change each other’s lives, and that you never really know what someone else is going through...Life lessons such as these feel obvious, and the characters’s exchanges on empathy don't feel like natural dialogue.”
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“Simultaneously enchanted and approachable, ‘The Coast Starlight’ gently reveals the significance of fleeting encounters, even when no words are exchanged. It might make you look differently at the people seated around you as we all charge forth into the future.”
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“ ‘The Coast Starlight’ has a soulful contribution of its own to make...Whatever; this trip is filled with gorgeous things to see and contemplate.”
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“It is a risky idea for a play, a more-or-less plotless character study, but one in which a good many of the conversations we overhear among the characters apparently never actually take place, leaving us confused as to what to believe about any of them.”
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“ ‘The Coast Starlight’ is the sort of play that will stick in your mind long afterward. Especially the next time you find yourself in a confined space with a bunch of strangers about whom you’ll probably wind up concocting some imaginary scenarios of your own.”
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