The Greatest Hits Down Route 66 NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (110)
See it if you enjoy American folk songs performed beautifully and want to go on a family road trip down Route 66. Very funny.
Don't see it if are turned off by budget-friendly sets or don't enjoy Brecht-style storytelling. Read more
See it if you like charming stories about a family road trip.
Don't see it if you like traditional storytelling or flashy shows. This feels like a little show with a big heart.
See it if Enjoy family stories, off broadway style musicals, you can tell the author put his heart and soul into this show
Don't see it if You want a Fast paced musical or big production. This is an intimate venue and story.
See it if Hearing American folk standards sung and played beautifully take you to an earlier time framed by a family road trip across Route 66.
Don't see it if you desire "edgy" work and a gentle script about a family road trip with all its ups and downs is not your thing. Read more
See it if you're interested in a surprising juxtaposition of early 20th century American folk songs with family on a cross-country road trip in 1999.
Don't see it if you're expecting a big production, stage is spare - mostly actors and musicians, characters are drawn broadly but do have their own voices.
See it if You’re ok with a simple show that will have you reminiscing about your own family road trips. The singing & acting was good.
Don't see it if You’re looking for a big set or big musical. You don’t want to deal with any serious topics.
See it if you like Carl Sandburg (urbane but earthy, poetic but not effete, deep dish, Chicago-style Americana). Cross-country, cross-time archives
Don't see it if Bit cute/stagey in a sorta family-friendly way. Lovely, contemplative, but not intense. Closer to "script with songs" than "musical theatre" Read more
See it if Like American folk songs— well played. Story of family and roles played.
Don't see it if A but overdone at times
Critic Reviews (8)
“Like the poor, the jukebox musical is always with us, but when one comes along displaying real ambition and a distinctive point of view, attention must be paid. I won't pretend that The Greatest Hits Down Route 66 is a musical chartbuster, but it puts its found musical goods to unusual use and it has something to say about America's tarnished melting pot. That's not nothing.”
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"...too much and not enough of a trip down the pot-holed highways and byways of life."
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"The show creatively explores personal dynamics...and cultural origins."
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The title of Michael Aguirre’s "The Greatest Hits Down Route 66," the story of the Franco family’s summer road trip in 1999, refers to Carl Sandburg’s 1927 "The American Songbag," a best-selling collection of early folksongs. Aguirre tells us that “the goal is to use music as a memory, an imprint, incidental. It should carry emotional weight but don’t depend on it to move the plot forward.” And that is the problem with the show: the songs are extraneous to the plot and have little impact as most of the 13 songs are so familiar, in the musical arrangements of Grace Yukich and Jennifer C. Dauphinais. There are no surprises in the music played by a three piece band and a lead vocalist, Hannah-Kathryn “HK” Wall.
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"...I assure you the 105-minute project is possibly more than you bargained for!"
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"...finds itself short on songs, long on family dysfunction, and scattered on Americana."
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"...mingles beauty and melancholy in its reflection of life"
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"The music seeps into the whole production"
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