The Golden Apple NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (77)
See it if you enjoy wonderful voices and like light opera. See it if you want to see a Robert Fairchild-type dancer with terrific moves.
Don't see it if old-fashioned musicals are not your thing.
See it if the you like innovative theater. 1954's GA feels new. Sometimes it tries too hard, but often succeeds. Many great voices. Mendez stands out!
Don't see it if you only like classic musicals. The score has hints of G&S, opera, Copland, Gershwin, etc. Clever lyrics, but some are lost to bad diction. Read more
See it if You want to hear a luscious score done by exemplary artists
Don't see it if You want dialog and script scenes or hate mythology
See it if You love musicals, enjoy some good music and voices. Lyrics are fun, a few songs really special. Good singing/dancing. It's Encores!
Don't see it if You like big staged effects, loud rock musicals, have no feel for old musical gems or semi-precious stones.
See it if You want to see and hear a cult musical with wonderful music and terrific dancing.
Don't see it if You want the book to be as good as the music and dancing. Read more
See it if you have an interest in legendary flop musicals
Don't see it if you don't Read more
See it if beautifully realized once-in-a-lifetime production of 1954 American musical curiosity. Sumptuous score, well sung and danced.
Don't see it if symphonic music, sung-thru score, requires familiarity with the Iliad\Odyssey, literary satire, odd-ball characters for specialized tastes. Read more
See it if you want to see a seldom seen cult musical that has fabulous singing and quirky, interesting plot line.
Don't see it if if you get easily confused. based on the Illiad and the Odyssey. first act drags a bit but the second act soars.
Critic Reviews (18)
"The 1954 show that earned raves for its glorious score, clever lyrics and broad but sly humor...An offbeat, sung-through operetta...Barton Cowperthwaite as Paris never speaks or sings but is poetically eloquent in his leaps, balletic stretches and graceful movements...Mikaela Bennett possesses a celestial soprano that suggests future stardom. Encores' cast of 40 is top-notch in this long neglected cult show...'The Golden Apple' is an ambitious production."
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"Extremely ambitious and wildly uneven...'Golden Apple' is the kind of show Encores! takes seriously, as evidenced here by the thoughtful direction of Michael Berresse and the often enchanting choreography of Joshua Bergasse. Their dedicated work goes a long way in both showing off the musical’s strengths and trying to cover up its weaknesses...One must also credit the Herculean efforts put forth by a star-studded cast."
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"The music is certainly is worthy of the praise. It’s powerful and electric...And with this cast of stellar singers, it’s as beautiful sounding as one could hope...It’s a strange piece of work to say the least...Lindsay Mendez's performance is not to be missed... It’s not a perfect show, and at times it feels as tedious as a lecture on Homer’s 'The Odyssey,' but the magnificence of the vocal talent collected here to sing this rich music is a gift from the Gods."
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"'The Golden Apple' got the Encores! treatment at its most glorious with a sonorous 31-piece orchestra, and a splendid 40-member cast...The score is delightful, a veritable catalogue of mid-twentieth century American music...The book is a busy, overly ambitious effort...Although many have praised Latouche’s lyrics, I am surely not alone in finding them inadequate for a full-length, sung-through musical...Still, I hope they issue a cast recording."
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"Encores! has retrieved this legendary show in a staging that reveals why so many people have revered the musical with its glorious score by Moross and lyrics by Latouche. One of the most thrilling aspects of this revival is the rendition of the score by the Encores! orchestra...Excellent singers are required and this presentation has them...'The Golden Apple' is exactly the kind of work that bears rediscovery. And Encores! has provided an enjoyable and very accomplished revisit."
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"Ending the Encores! season with strenuous ambition and serious talent in a cornball musical-comedy hodgepodge...A turn-of-the-last-century farm town full of sophisticated arcane winking and over-the-top homespun goofballs mugging through director Bergasse’s mostly coarse choreography...There are so many multiple personalities that one would think, if we didn’t know better, that its creators were afraid they’d never get a chance to write another musical."
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“A nonpareil gem…The affection vibrated through the inspired work of director Michael Berresse, choreographer Joshua Bergasse and musical director Rob Berman…A gleeful take on the Homeric epics…The music and the lyrics/book are virtually seamless...The abundance of on-the-money pastiches are enough to perhaps make even Stephen Sondheim a bit envious…The cast bursts with one formidable talent after another."
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"Despite the impressive music and clever lyrics, 'The Golden Apple' never quite becomes engaging, let alone transportive. The characters are of the one-adjective, two-dimensional type. The book is plodding, and there’s an artificial quality to many of the songs...The show just feels mechanical. The drama never becomes real, nor is there any discernible genuine emotion."
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