The Winning Side

See it if You like smart well done shows that tackle a serious multi faceted subject and break it down into an entertaining easy to understand story.

Don't see it if You’re looking for fluff or mindless entertainment. You’re in serious danger of learning something if you see this.

See it if Part of history, the race to the moon. How we got there.

Don't see it if Some of the actors have an accent. Nazi/WWll.

Also Deals with American letting space scientists come here to get us to the moon first. Russia let in scientist too. They had a after talk at the end of the play. The writer talk about parts of the show who he found out information. At the end of each performance they have a after talk.... Read more Read less

See it if Sullivan Jones' charisma carries the play; interesting use of the stage with minimal sets; interesting topic but poorly structured.

Don't see it if you are looking for depth rather than breath; the story is a good one though diluted with too much nonsense; writing could be better.

Also For me, Melissa Friedman is a distraction as she overacts throughout the entirety of the play. The first act takes too long to develop while the second act, which contains the crux of the story, is not given enough attention and interesting info is superficially broached.... Read more Read less

See it if You appreciate a historical story well told.

Don't see it if You don’t like stories based on true WW II events.

See it if You are interested in history of the 20th century.

Don't see it if You’re looking for amusemenr

See it if You are interested at the ethics of science and politics or if you are a fan of The Apollo program and its secrets.

Don't see it if You are uninterested in Nazis, ethics, science, politics or The Apollo program.

See it if you like history and exploring the ethics behind some of the greatest accomplishments

Don't see it if you are in the mood for a fun show.

See it if See this long play if you are interested in the intricacies of the development of the V2 missile , atomic bomb and a love story in the mix.

Don't see it if Expect a well written and fast-moving play.

See it if You want to see a play about a historical event surrounding the Apollo moon landing and some of the folks behind the scenes.

Don't see it if You are not interested in historical events. You take offense to hearing about a Nazi officer Wernher von Braun and his role in this story.

Also I found the story line interesting and well done. I enjoyed the play and the performers and how they got the information out to the audience. Some might be offended about the Nazi SS officer but if you allow yourself to put that aside and look at the play for what it is, you just might enjoy it. Sometimes we need to fall back on politics and just sit back, relax and enjoy the performance.... Read more Read less

See it if you like plays about moral dilemmas, biography, political expediency and WWII aftermath with very fine acting.

Don't see it if you are dislike aspects of WWII history, thinking about moral dilemmas that people and governments have to face & frequent time changes.

See it if you want to see an interesting drama about the genius of Werner von Braun.

Don't see it if you don't want to see a drama about the scientist who helped create the B2 rocket that was used to kill 20,000 people.

Also Werner von Braun also helped put Neil Armstrong on the moon.

See it if you like shows with historical prospective. Interesting how the need for military technology makes for 'strange bedfellows.'

Don't see it if you don't like slow shows. It makes interesting points, but drags on and on along the way.

See it if like plays based on the history of war and science and the ethical conflicts that are sometimes covered up.

Don't see it if you have strong feelings about any character involved with the German Nazis who worked for the winning side on the Apollo mission.

Also I liked this play. The staging was interesting and effective. I enjoyed the talk-back afterwards.

Yet I found some parts confusing. The talk-back with the audience indicated that the role of Werner von Braun was clearly a man guilty of looking the other way when witnessing the Nazi death camps - but I thought the play did not depict this strongly enough. The role of von Braun was depicted more as someone who loves math, science, and women but was oblivious to everything else.

The winning side of the war, the US Government, was able to overlook his role too as they valued his knowledge of math and science above all else.

The scene where we witnessed the bathroom conversations of LBJ brought a laugh but seems just thrown in there.

I am not sure what the take-away is here.
I don't think it was a victory for ethical behaviour.

I saw this play at Theater Row Theaters in Oct 2018.... Read more Read less

See it if vonBraun is a new to you (ignore the laughable wartime romance scenes); conflicting demands of science, ethics & patriotic duty interest you

Don't see it if you're impatient with a Wikipedia-like marshalling of facts masquerading as drama

Also Play exhausts by the sheer amount of information it attempts to convey about vonBraun's life and times. In resorting to projections, animated timelines, and wooden expository dialogue to suggest context, it never effectively puts onstage what it seems to want to examine: the moral culpability of both vonBraun and the US government, which gave him aid and succor after his defection from the SS. If you know Tom Lehrer's satiric song "Wernher von Braun" (which is used as scene change music in this production) you won't come away with much more nuance than Lehrer's clever lyrics offer in far less time.... Read more Read less

See it if you are interested in how Nazi officer Wernher von Braun developed rockets & spacecraft & eventually put USA astronauts on the moon in 1969

Don't see it if you are turned off by any person or project advanced via a collaboration with Hitler & The Third Reich; you are offended by moral turpitude

Also Tom Lehrer's song lyrics about Nazi officer Wernher von Braun are amusing & accurate; he was all about EXPEDIENCE.

The goals he achieved as an aerospace engineer were prized by Adolf Hitler and, in 1944, valuable enough to the USA government who let von Braun and his team of German scientists live / work in Huntsville, Alabama. Our gov't granted him citizenship.

But the back story is very ugly.

The play pulls no punches, however, it loads the last 10 minutes with his greatest misdeeds -- and I wondered why these facts were left to the finale instead of being brought forward earlier.

At a talk-back, the audience learned more about the French woman he loved in Paris & left behind. In 1955 she wrote him an impassioned 5-page letter from Morocco, describing her hardships after being branded "a Nazi collaborator" and begging for his help. He saved her letter but ignored her plea for assistance.

Expedience again?... Read more Read less

See it if You enjoy a bit of history. The actors do a great job.

Don't see it if Like comedies and musicals

See it if You like a well acted play with a plot based on historical events

Don't see it if You prefer a musical

See it if Great acting illuminates a dark moment in American history with considerable theatrical flair.

Don't see it if you watch a lot of sit-coms and don't care much about history.

See it if a semi-biographic drama about the Nazi turned US citizen Werner von Braun would be of interest to you

Don't see it if History and two hours of tedious theater is not what you are in the mood for

Also The story is a bit slow and dragged out, but I liked it as the actors were really talented. It was really interesting to see what a complex life this man lived, and how he served the needs of two countries, and for such different purposes. He did whatever it took to accomplish his goal of attaining inter-planetary travel.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to learn more about Werner Von Braun and be entertained while also thinking

Don't see it if you want a fluffy tale, this is not about a moon landing Hoax, but rather the character of the man behind our missile to the moon program

See it if You enjoy history, space related stories, Germans and life’s challenges with love

Don't see it if You want a light or big production

See it if you are interested in truth in history.

Don't see it if you really prefer light musicals (I do - but I enjoyed this show)

Also Almost Broadway quality

See it if you are interested in how a scientist allowed people to be worked to death doing his research on rocket-ships for Nazi Germany.

Don't see it if political theater is not your cup of tea.

See it if you are interested in Wernher von Braun, or the US space program; or plays about the ethical decisions govts must make for the common good.

Don't see it if you are expecting a big cast, fast paced drama (this isn't); you don't like non-linear story line (the story, here,was somewhat disjointed.)

Also I had high hopes for this show as a someone who had studied the origins of NASA and the space program; I was hoping that the play focused a bit more on the ethicals decisions to bring von Braun into the US space program and his contributions, especially, to the Apollo missions.... Read more Read less

See it if you want a portrait of a man of ambition and no scruples, managing his reputation.

Don't see it if Hearing him deny ever seeing the deaths of 20,000 of the people forced into slave labor for his project will disgust you.

Also You may be most disturbed by our country's importing these monsters and helping them conceal their past. But the real interest lies in Von Braun's abandoning a basic human function, one anyone can do, that requires no particular intelligence, no education, training or technology - that is, distinguishing right from wrong,

The time shifting, if not the actor's accents, was very effective, with the flavor of the eras captured completely through music and a few images.... Read more Read less