"Unfortunately the memory-musical format only takes us out of the plot and, most crucially, the emotional impact...The original show let us progressively discover the characters’ distinct personalities through actions, words and songs; now they are archetypal pawns in an op-ed. One can agree with a message and still find its form lacking...Sampliner’s formulaic R&B- and funk-inflected orchestrations and arrangements undermine the score’s idiosyncrasies."
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"Porter's new script ends up even worse than the original. In a noble effort to give a cartoony musical a social conscience, Porter has concocted a disjointed mess that lays on the City Center stage like a lump, and they pump the volume to painful, ear-piercing levels if only to keep the audience awake...'The Life' is the most disappointingly sung and played Encores! production I've ever seen, and that doesn't feel very much like Encores! at all."
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"'The Life' is nothing if not a showcase for these terrific performers. And Cy Coleman's score is nothing if not eclectic, drawing from jazz, swing, blues, torch songs, anthemic melodies and more...Kudos to Billy Porter for building such a majestic and muscular production. But truth be told, there's an awful lot to take in. The show itself runs over two-and-half hours, what with so many center-of-the-stage solos along with the insertion of several social justice messages."
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"4/5 stars...With the support of AC Ciulla’s spirited choreography, the ensemble also shines, incorporating a greater variety of body shapes and sizes than a typical chorus line does, even today...If 'The Life' remains one of Coleman’s less memorable achievements as a composer, Porter and Sampliner have infused it with enough fresh blood to merit another look and listen."
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The ubiquitous Billy Porter was given command of the most recent New York City Center Encores! presentation, the 1997 musical The Life. His direction and re-interpretation of this tawdry portrait of 42nd Street left a great deal to be desired, but strong performances by the leading players made vivid impressions.
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"Porter (who is the show’s director and adaptor but does not appear on stage) succeeds in his main goal: giving more context to the societal circumstances that led some of these characters to enter 'the life.' But too much of the new material simply feels overwrought or unnecessary, stretching the show to nearly three hours. More importantly, the show’s new, darker tone doesn’t jibe with the essential Broadway brassiness of the Coleman-Gassman score (even though it’s consistently well performed and strongly benefits from James Sampliner’s funkadelic orchestrations)."
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"5/5 stars...Porter humanizes the characters as people and coaxes the audience to empathize with them. Instead of laughing at or dismissing their plight and misfortune, we come to know the characters, what motivates them, and how they got the hand with which they were dealt...Antwayn Hopper as Memphis steals the show...The band set prominently on the main backstage was 'out of sight!'"
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"The revision would be unstageable under normal terms–its preachy sermonizing is less than dramatic–but when presented by a book-in-hand narrator as it is here, its bluntness doesn’t need to be disguised as plot...Porter’s revisions are so close to working in this format, but the narration he gives to Destan Owens’ Old Jojo is too wordy. It requires a dexterousness that Owens is unable to deliver...The revisions succeed even less when Porter abridges or repositions the existing book. There is a lack of cohesion."
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