Tiny Beautiful Things NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (202)
See it if You want to see a powerful play about life and the questions we ask as told through vignettes of “dear Abby” type letters
Don't see it if You don’t enjoy non-linear story telling
See it if You love Nia Vardalos or have a heart. This show was very moving and excellently staged. I saw it 2 weeks ago and still think about it often
Don't see it if You're wanting a flashy, loud, or glossy production or just want to be entertained. Read more
See it if Wonderful acting,sensitively told stories I loved every moment you laugh and cry the audience never moved
Don't see it if I can't imagine anyone not finding something in this wonderful show
See it if You appreciate truly fine writing and first-rate acting. This is a play for connoisseurs of language. It's a comedy with a dramatic edge.
Don't see it if You don't like stories about therapy or people's problems. Read more
See it if you love good acting and excellent writing and clever staging
Don't see it if i highly recommend it.
See it if You want a talented cast working through the human condition. Be prepared to ugly cry as "Sugar" works as an advice columnist.
Don't see it if You want a linear play or a full on comedy.
See it if This is a performance piece rather than a traditional play. Riveting stories in the form of advice columns. Moving with light, funny moments
Don't see it if This is not a traditional play in terms of structure, narrative and character. More like mini vignettes strung together by "Dear Sugar"
See it if You wan.to be moved by raw and vulnerablse performances in this powerful show! Be prepared to dig deep...
Don't see it if You prefer narrative plays. This is a series of advice columns told through monologues.
Critic Reviews (42)
"Vardalos and Kail are attempting to give their audiences a comforting place in which they might heal...If the show isn’t as effective as it could be, it’s because of the twofold difficulty of theatricalizing a series of anonymous advice columns...Kail and Vardalos manage to save themselves, though, with the show’s finale...'Tiny Beautiful Things,' despite its shortcomings, ends in a place of community and generosity."
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"A tiny beautiful diamond of a show...In a theatrical setting, this built-in sense of remove is a dangerous constraint, but a risk that ultimately maintains the enchanting purity of 'Tiny Beautiful Things.' Even more so than on the page, the play offers a meditative rhythm of delivery, acceptance, and response: There's a completeness of thought in every letter... It's the novelty of thoughtful dialogue — and the realization of its near extinction — that will make you weep."
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"While the play delivers a number of emotionally moving moments, it is difficult to get past the fact that the characters who seem to be interacting are at a remove and unknowable...Director Thomas Kail has brought the stories as far off the page as possible...But no matter how much affection and design went into the production, it remains a nagging truth that none of the interaction is really taking place...In the end, it is less of a play than a book talk."
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“Nia Vardalos has done a beautiful job as both adapter and star of the stage version of Cheryl Strayed's 2012 best seller, ‘Tiny Beautiful Things,’ the book based on Strayed's online advice column which she wrote as ‘Dear Sugar.’ As co-conceived by Marshall Heyman, director Thomas Kail and actress Vardalos (who you may recall also wrote ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ her breakout role), ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ is both entertaining and cathartic, an evening of communal group therapy.”
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"Trying to bring real substance to Strayed’s popular book on stage creates its own problems. The adaptation by a genuinely fine storyteller, Vardalos, who plays the role of Strayed/Sugar, is enticing...After 85 minutes of hearing 'Dear Sugar'–utilizing the same format, over and over–it begins to get tedious...I did come away feeling that 'Tiny Beautiful Things' is an offering of hope...I also came away with the feeling of how an audience can be manipulated."
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"Not quite a play, 'Tiny Beautiful Things' could perhaps be best described as the staged version of an advice column...Prose that is often luminous and touching, but that unfortunately cannot always escape the eye roll-inducing, mawkish bits one comes to expect from the Ann Landers of the world…About halfway, both Strayed and Vardalos deliver a riveting piece of theater…It is heart-wrenching, splendidly written and acted, and somehow functions as the emotional climax."
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“Although rivetingly sad, even depressing at times, it also manages to be cathartic and hopeful…Kail’s consistently brilliant direction brings Sugar as close to her letter-writers as she can be, making for a poignant exploration of 'radical empathy'…Vardalos’s performance is nuanced and deeply human…her delivery is raw, truthful, and full of so much warmth and honesty that it impossible not to feel the strength of her embrace."
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"The ordinary miraculousness of this play is still solidly and most definitely entwined intensely inside every moment...It’s almost shocking how we can be so thoroughly engaged so quickly into these personal pleas for help and guidance...It feels utterly genuine and sometimes profound. It’s a beautiful piece of work Vardalos has created, not insignificant in the least."
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