The Secret Life of Bees NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (181)
See it if you love new musicals - this one is soulful and beautiful. Beautifully staged and sung.
Don't see it if You are looking for big, brash and sassy. This is a contemplative piece
See it if You want a wonderful experience, for fantastic singing & creative but not exact retelling of the Secret Life of Bees & to see LaCHANZE
Don't see it if You are only looking for a challenging treatment of race with commentary on current racial politics - Lynn Nottage keeps it relatively light Read more
See it if You loved the book or want to see a stellar cast with amazing voices. Duncan Shiek’s score is hauntingly beautiful.
Don't see it if You don’t like stories about prejudice or violence or a play set in an intimate setting.
See it if .. you'd enjoy an original musical about the South in 1964 Great score. Great performances.
Don't see it if .. no reason not see it.
See it if A powerful musical about love, domestic abuse, racial injustice, and spirituality. Wonderful book, great lyrics and melodies. Cast excels.
Don't see it if Scenes of abuse, racial prejudice, are difficult for you to watch.
See it if you like a good story with superb vocal talent, good songs, and excellent on stage musicians
Don't see it if you are upset by prejudices involving black/white relationships that still exist in certain areas of the country;
See it if Vibrant production with very good Duncan Sheik music, Lynn Nottage book, and wonderful performances all around.
Don't see it if You don't like musicals with a message and religious undertones (although I thought it was more spiritual than religious).
See it if you loved the book and want to see a spectacular musical adaptation.
Don't see it if you don't like to see plays based on a book you've read
Critic Reviews (27)
"Let me let you on a little secret about 'The Secret Life of Bees.' Not since its 2006 production of 'Spring Awakening,' has the Atlantic Theater Company presented a musical that looks so ready to make an immediate Broadway transfer. Yes, both shows share the same composer, Duncan Sheik, but it's not just Sheik's melodic, eclectic music (with lyrics by Susan Birkenhead) that scores big."
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"Provides a musically fulfilling theatre experience supported by a compelling, straightforward narrative that includes parental abuse, religious ecstasy, sexual awakening, romantic fulfillment, and virulent prejudice...It sticks fairly close to the novel but offers a few variations…The book contains many things familiar from multiple other depictions of the Civil Rights years, and it sometimes teeters on the sentimental. Nonetheless, its expert presentation makes it all seem newly minted."
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"Efficiently, Nottage’s book introduces the characters, the circumstances, the obstacles. Sheik and Birkenhead’s luxuriant songs heighten the emotions and intensify the conflict...Nottage, a nicely unsentimental writer, maneuvers the musical away from some cliches, neatly altering a couple of plot points, but stumbles on others...Musically and emotionally, this is a lush and ardent work, sure to come to Broadway...The acting is generally deft and the singing is splendid."
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"Lynn Nottage wrote the book for the new 'Bees' musical, and like Kidd before her, she’s a master of quick resolutions...'Bees,' the musical, needs to keep the heartaches and the horrors coming even faster than the novel and the movie did. How else can you squeeze 17 songs, plus four reprises, into two hours and 20 minutes?...Gold’s staging for 'Bees' is simultaneously bare and messy."
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"Musically, the results are very rich. The songs are mostly strong and are given first-rate presentation by gorgeous voices and strong arrangements. The lyrics by Birkenhead are effective in creating the characters..After intermission it seemed like the creative team realized they had too much material to cover and began a rush to wrap things up that shortchanged important elements...Although I had some reservations about the book, I nevertheless found the production worthwhile."
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“The tasty stew I’d been anticipating turned out to be just soupy...This is yet another standard-issue tale about Magical Negroes whose primary purpose is to help a white protagonist learn about the true meaning of life...Gold’s direction is misguided...The actors try their best to make it all work...But the characters they’re playing are thinly drawn and their actions hard to believe...Nottage tries to inject notes of optimism...But that undercuts some of the drama that the show so badly needs.”
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“Stripped-down musical adaptation of Kidd’s novel...That tale should flow naturally, as it does in Monk’s limpidly written novel. And yet the exposition is often unclear here...The balance between Sheik’s numbers and Nottage’s book skews too heavily towards the latter...And Sheik’s score is muddled. Gold’s directorial interventions also misfire...In an otherwise lacklustre show, the main saving grace is Teeter...Notwithstanding its title, this musical has no great secrets to tell.
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"The music is varied and vibrant, and the cast is good...Some of the plot seems convoluted and just about everything is resolved by the end (a suicide in the original novel doesn’t happen here). Furthermore, the gritty doings don’t always cohere with the bouts of magical realism. But again, it’s about creating mood and turning sadness into honey, and there’s a lot of real beauty here. I give this a Bee plus."
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