This Beautiful Future NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsMember Reviews (68)
See it if you enjoy thought-provoking staging, unusual juxtapositions, young romance amid war, quirky musical observations, Austin Pendleton fan
Don't see it if main WWII plot interrupted by contemporary musical karaoke, tragic sense of doom redeemed by hope, not a fan of naive youthful exuberance
See it if you’ve ever thought that Nazis aren’t humanized enough.
Don't see it if the idea of sympathizing with Nazis repulses you. Also, I didn’t understand the karaoke element or those characters (felt pretentious). Read more
See it if you want to be bored out of your mind for 70 LOOOOONG minutes
Don't see it if you love well written, structured plays.This tries too hard to be about something, but it really isn't. It just sort of sits there.
See it if When a hormonal teenager realizes her "love at first sight" is a Nazi who has killed several people in her life... what's a girl to do?
Don't see it if WWII, starring a Nazi, innocent teenage love, karaoked love songs aren't your thing. Read more
See it if you like small stories about human relationships
Don't see it if you're not a fan of "modern" stagings.
See it if great concept poorly written and even more poorly executed. The background songs could have been powerful and enlightening but they were odd
Don't see it if if you want a disturbing but intelligent treatment of the subject there are other plays that succeed. This only comes close at the end
See it if You don't mind a love story between a Nazi and some girl.
Don't see it if Be clear on what's happening on stage. I don't need everything spelled out for me but this left a little too much up to interpretation. Read more
See it if Good acting elevate a love story between naïve lovers in WWII. A quirky Greek chorus of an elderly couple giving some perspective.
Don't see it if A young Nazi in love with a stupid French girl. Slow for the first hour and sad and disturbing in its intent and ending. Read more
Critic Reviews (17)
“ 'This Beautiful Future,' an ambitious play that doesn’t succeed in balancing its seesawing styles and tones, keeps springing bewildering surprises."
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"Only the most determined will walk away from 'This Beautiful Future' having felt nothing."
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When trouble finally comes for Elodie and Otto, Kalnejais drags it out unconscionably, scrambling the time frame for sledgehammer ironies. The most obvious of these is the finale, depicting a false dawn complete with a live baby chick onstage as a risible symbol of soon-to-be-shattered hopes. The trouble is, we're way ahead of Elodie and Otto; by the time they describe their sad fates in dueling monologues, we have already imagined them.
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"Rather than being lulled into the fictional world, I became hyper aware of my own lost youth...As an added bonus, 'This Beautiful Future' concludes with a coup de théâtre that can crack the shell of the most hardened curmudgeonly New Yorker."
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"If any points are won by 'This Beautiful Future,' it’s actors Schlesinger and Carpanini and director Jack Serio who win them. They have bright futures."
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If you like your W.W. II history unadulterated, you may object to a love story between a French teenage girl and a 16-year-old Nazi soldier even if they are inexperienced and innocent and unaware of what is to come. The fact that they are both hopeful of life in the future in the middle of war and devastation notwithstanding, were people ever this naïve and unworldly? While This Beautiful Future is tastefully presented, it does not deal with the moral issues that the play hints at but refuses to recognize.
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"At a swift eighty minutes, there are scenes of beauty in 'This Beautiful Future'. It’s a shame that some of them are circumvented by some misguided detours along the way."
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"I left This Beautiful Future scratching my head. The play has received rave reviews in its several incarnations, yet it left me flat."
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