" 'The Harder They Come' falls right into the trap of the rest of that title lyric: “the harder they fall.”
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“New, exciting musicals are hard to come by, and ’The Harder They Come’ features a big cast with big beats — and big potential.”
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“The Public Theater’s adaptation takes the film’s subject and setting a lot more seriously, so much so that its creators struggle to stuff in everything they want to comment on, modify, and underline from the original, alongside all the hit songs.”
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“ ‘Harder’ isn’t a bad musical, just one caught between honoring its Jamaican roots and razzle-dazzling a general audience. It could be bolder, angrier, more reckless.”
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“Onstage, The Harder They Come is a slick, two-dimensional melodrama set to a playlist of reggae hits, but Parks' by-the-numbers approach does away with the film's blaxploitation edge…The score, expanded with additional reggae hits and some contemporary contributions by Parks, remains eminently listenable and most likely you will find yourself swaying in your seat from time to time. But the numbers address the characters and their situations in only the most generalized way… One could arguably reshuffle the song order without materially affecting the narrative.”
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“Many hands, many voices, and yet all cut from the same exuberant cloth. By any measure, 'The Harder They Come' is a decided success for the Public Theater and deserves a long life after this run has ended.”
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“So much top-drawer talent has been poured into this production, it’s dispiriting to see it put in service to such a simplistic scenario. At best, the stage version may inspire you to re-watch the movie, which unfolds in gritty detail like a semi-documentary.”
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“ ‘The Harder They Come’ is a fun show, as the 25 song inclusions prove.”
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