The Robber Bridegroom NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (473)
See it if you want a great evening of American musical theater. Better than the original of 1975.
Don't see it if you are looking for Phantom or Les Mis.
See it if You want a giddy, entertaining, uncomplicated theater experience. You like "Story Theater", clever bits and asides, tall tales, raucous fun.
Don't see it if you don't like silly plots or won't be charmed by clever theatricality. You hate all country music or didn't like O Brother Where Art Thou.
See it if I love this show. I have waited 40 years to see it again. This is one of my two all time favorite show. If you like something different,
Don't see it if You don't like blue grass and twangy music.
See it if you are into creative staging, great acting, beautiful sets, and amazing lighting. This show is a must see.
Don't see it if you are a prickly pear.
See it if Steve Pasquale is charming
Don't see it if appalachian music which i enjoyed but if you dont
See it if You love original staging,clever music, a perfectly cast ensemble and the adorable Steven pasquale
Don't see it if You don't want to have fun!
See it if You live fun story telling, you enjoyed Fiascos "Into the Woods," you loved "Peter in the Star Catcher," cause Steven Pasquale
Don't see it if You're looking for dramatic theatre, if you're team Laura and don't want to like Pasquale.
See it if if u like to be entertained
Don't see it if u r dull
Critic Reviews (40)
"Set to a wonderfully catchy country-bluegrass score this 'Mississippi fairy tale' is the kind of show where a talking head is kept in a box...[Director] Timbers goes to town, piling up the gags, and setting a breakneck pace — while giving the slower, more serious songs space to breathe...The cast rises to the challenge, including Pasquale. But even he’s eclipsed by Leslie Kritzer’s gold-tooth-flashing wicked stepmother. She gleefully goes over the top, and then over the top of the top."
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"Roundabout has produced a 'Robber Bridegroom' that is totally stylish, deeply entertaining, and almost vanishingly slight. That’s not a criticism, entirely...Timbers has made this musical a rollicking good time, a goofy, high-spirited hootenanny. It’s a mighty Mississippi of fun...But Timbers has also stripped out whatever darkness and complexity Uhry’s script once contained...It doesn’t make much of a case for why 'The Robber Bridegroom,' a forgotten musical, deserves to be remembered."
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"'The Robber Bridegroom,' which bills itself as 'a Mississippi fairy tale,' is not so much a standard musical as it is a rollicking barroom jamboree where a bunch of storytellers and musicians come together to fool around and have a good time...The chaotic storytelling offers unexpected insight into the freedoms found in role-playing and the cultural identity of the South. The production is directed with atmospheric flair and nonstop playfulness by Alex Timbers."
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"'The Robber Bridegroom' is refreshingly frisky. Robert Waldman’s twangy, jangly music lends itself to sprightly dance and slapstick comedy...Alex Timbers’ giddy staging makes use of a tireless ensemble and onstage band for maximum foot-stomping, skirt-twirling joy...Who knows if 'Robber Bridegroom' will enter the canon of great American musicals, but it’s a rip-snorting hoedown, one guaranteed to steal your heart."
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"Despite an enjoyable production from director Alex Timbers, we can understand why this Mississippi fairy tale isn't often rehashed...While levity reigns, it is difficult to ignore some of the more questionable passages...Timbers wisely mitigates this ick factor by keeping everything light and irreverent...The result is a snappy, concertlike revival...Even if 'Bridegroom' causes you to cringe at certain moments, it's saved by a cast of talented musicians and the incomparable Kritzer."
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"With director Alex Timbers' rollicking and sexy new Off-Broadway production, this underappreciated gem should prove popular with audiences looking for a swell time...An ensemble of present-day players and musicians gather to tell the story of their Mississippi ancestors along the Trace, using broad-stroke comedy, inventively basic stage craft and the occasional accents of slapstick...'The Robber Bridegroom' will steal your heart, and definitely do it with style."
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"'The Robber Bridegroom' is a slender, foolish entertainment that, even at a mere 90 minutes, suffers from the curse of overmusicalization...Because the score is largely delightful, the problem is understandable, but, given that the starting point is too much of a good thing, it is unnecessary and inadvisable to lay on the gags with the overcaffeinated gusto that marks Timbers' production...In the end, 'The Robber Bridegroom' doesn't entertain; it exhausts."
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"The South...certainly still seems like a place where miracles can happen regularly. And the two biggest of those, amid a production that otherwise has no shortage, go by the names of Alex Timbers and Leslie Kritzer....Kritzer is the heart, soul, and fullest embodiment of the aesthetic that Timbers's ' Bridegroom' celebrates, and the main reason it seems like a musical-comedy curative than a quaint, antiquated curiosity."
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