This Ain't No Disco
Closed 2h 15m
This Ain't No Disco
63

This Ain't No Disco NYC Reviews and Tickets

63%
(135 Ratings)
Positive
39%
Mixed
39%
Negative
22%
Members say
Great singing, Disappointing, Ambitious, Entertaining, Cliched

About the Show

This world premiere musical from Stephen Trask ('Hedwig and the Angry Inch') and Peter Yanowitz (The Wallflowers) is part rock opera, part impressionist tone poem set in the nightclubs and art world of 1979 NYC.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (135)

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155 Reviews | 23 Followers
92
Great acting, Great singing, Great staging, Great writing, Masterful

See it if you enjoy wonderful singing and acting. Also, if you want to learn a bit of disco history and be transported back to Studio 54 days.

Don't see it if the period is not your thing. Also, the singing at times overpowered the microphone and it was hard to understand the words.

165 Reviews | 23 Followers
90
Absorbing, Clever, Great singing, Great writing, Relevant

See it if you enjoy disco music and the culture of the "Studio 54" seventies era.

Don't see it if you want a more traditional musical (it is a rock opera).

314 Reviews | 52 Followers
86
Ambitious, Great singing, Great staging, Quirky, Too long

See it if you like visually interesting and well sung Rock Operas. If you are interested in stories surrounding Studio 54 at it's heyday.

Don't see it if dislike rock music and complicated plots. If you don't care about the "Disco Days" of the 80's. Read more

576 Reviews | 88 Followers
85
Entertaining, Great singing, Great staging

See it if you like rock musicals filled with terrific singing, great choreography, & a truckload of talent.Book is a bit of a muddle, but show is FUN!

Don't see it if you are offended by LGBT issues, or are looking for a revival of yet another Golden Age of Musicals show.This is fun and edgy.Amazing voices

372 Reviews | 84 Followers
84
Fresh, Clever, Raw, Raunchy, Entertaining

See it if you like historical epochs, like to see real figures portrayed in a fictional setting, and like New York's colorful 1970's history.

Don't see it if you don't like long musicals, don't like overstaged productions, don't like stories where many characters are interwoven. Read more

e8
226 Reviews | 40 Followers
80
Clever, Ambitious, Confusing, Profound, Thought-provoking

See it if you find the studio 54 club scene interesting, enjoy experimental theatre

Don't see it if get confused easily

184 Reviews | 17 Followers
79
Ambitious, Clever, Great staging, Raunchy, Loud

See it if you'd reconnect with the disco era and the debauchery of Studio 54. There are tender moments within the raunchiness, and wonderful singing.

Don't see it if you don't like loud or scantily dressed performers [but no nudity]. Read more

419 Reviews | 52 Followers
78
Disappointing, Curious, Talented cast

See it if Strong cast and pedigree. Atlantic Theater Company.

Don't see it if Misses the mark; the artist is the most compelling character, but only flourishes at the end. Keep mise en scène intact, rewrite book/songs

Critic Reviews (30)

The New York Times
July 24th, 2018

“The tone-deaf, cliché-clogged rock opera...From the joyless frenzy of its opening number...’This Ain’t No Disco’ wears its retributive grimness like a suffocating, Lycra spandex shroud...Screeches like a repressive, single-message scold. Its electronic music repeats key phrases with an insistence that makes you long for the jolly melodic variety of Philip Glass...Such monotony fails to evoke the differently monotonous pop hits of disco...’This Ain’t No Disco’ just ain’t no fun.”
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Time Out New York
August 3rd, 2018

“Tresnjak’s production adds to the sense of fiasco with Brown’s busy but formless choreography and Sherwood’s you-are-nowhere set which at one point wobbles scarily when someone dances on it, providing the show’s single moment of genuine suspense. The cast is attractive and the music has drive, but every good thing about the show is strangled by inanities...If Rubell and Warhol aren’t rolling in their graves, they surely are rolling their eyes.”
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New York Magazine / Vulture
July 24th, 2018

“While there’s plenty to look at, there’s seldom much of substance to hold on to. And despite a host of strongly sung performances, what’s there often feels flattened by a high-energy but unmemorable score and a storyline anchored by cliché...Struggles to get us invested in its cast...A lot of plot, but the problem is that we don’t care much about any of it...Sacrifices the potential effectiveness of small moments to a heady dependence on flashing lights and forward motion.”
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Variety
July 24th, 2018

“Lyrics from a song in the new musical ‘This Ain’t No Disco’...will make us yearn for the golden age of disco...This new musical is just as dumb as that dopey lyric...The costumes are imitative, the performances are caricatures, and the choreography is awful...All energy and no style...The repetitive music doesn’t lean into the changing trends, while the choreography just re-works the same old steps for tired feet...’This ain’t no disco’, to be sure.”
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The Hollywood Reporter
July 24th, 2018

“Despite the impressive pedigree of talent...’This Ain't No Disco’ seriously flounders...The show's main problem is its diffuse, unfocused book. Overstuffed with characters and subplots that we never care about...Tresnjak's staging and Brown's choreography prove more busy than exciting...A handful of terrific numbers, but most of the songs are unmemorable...Lyrics are sometimes jaw-dropping, but not in a good way...Lacks the right moves to give it future life.”
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Theatermania
July 24th, 2018

“Hot mess of a musical...As manically unfocused as a club queen on a coke bender, it is at once thematically overstuffed and emotionally barren...Plenty of driving melodies that get our toes tapping for a minute or two before ceding ground to the next track. By the end of the evening, we're hard-pressed to remember any of them. The same could be said of the scattered book...In lieu of precise direction, the cast reverts to clichéd sensationalism...As edgy as a pair of safety scissors.”
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Lighting & Sound America
August 1st, 2018

"It's hard to believe that three book writers labored to create this cadre of cartoon figures...The score has its moments...'This Ain't No Disco' moves quickly, possibly to prevent unwanted thoughts from arising about the book's general implausibility...Missing from the production is the sense of exhilaration -- of getting away with something -- that was the main allure of places like Studio 54. The young, gifted cast gives it their all...Overall, 'This Ain't No Disco' perplexes."
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Talkin' Broadway
July 24th, 2018

“A hot mess...’This Ain't No Disco’ is dead on arrival...The clunky book...is a tired collection of clichés...A sung-through pop musical, and a lousy one at that...Tresnjak has directed 'Disco' with a feverish desperation that can't hide the fact he's trying to spin straw into gold without much success...One wishes the cast would apply the same energy they give to Brown's choreography to the lyrics they're singing...Lazy enunciation with the bad sound mixing results in much being unintelligible."
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