Tiny Beautiful Things NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (202)
See it if You enjoy thoughtful dialogue and meaningful conversations.
Don't see it if You want to see a play that has a beginning, middle and end.
See it if You want a cry, and are interested in hearing personal stories told in a interesting way
Don't see it if you are easily triggered by tradegy
See it if you’ve ever written to an advice columnist. Or even if you haven’t. The situations are varied; you’re sure to find yourself in at least one.
Don't see it if you prefer traditional narratives. This show has no singular story. There’s no action. But the words will move you.
See it if You want to feel something.
Don't see it if You feel like reading an advice column out loud for a couple hours and calling it a play seems to easy.
See it if Like to have your heart strings plucked at, know about psychological terms. Play takes you through stories submitted to an advice column.
Don't see it if You want a traditional play with direct dialogue vs monologues. If you hate psychological talk or think self-help is stupid or useless Read more
See it if You love the Dear Sugar columns and/or Nia Vardalos
Don't see it if You want something fast-paced or flashy.
See it if You like 5o meditate on the human condition
Don't see it if You like a play with a plot
See it if A must-see if you read and enjoyed the book that the show is based on. See it if you want to be moved and uplifted.
Don't see it if If you only like shows that are plot based with a linear story, or like big, splashy productions.
Critic Reviews (42)
“As commendably directed by Kail...the exchanges are all semi-passive, a steady stream of shared and responsive confessionals and quires of a very personal nature...The actors make a concerted effort to not sound like they are reading their epistolary-like text but it doesn’t solve the problem of this being a play without any solidified confrontations...Nevertheless, some very sad stories are revealed and you would have to have a heart of stone to not be moved to some degree.”
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"The pros and cons of a non-linear concept or what Strayed called, 'therapy in the town square,' are still present, pluses including actress/writer Nia Vardalos' earthy honesty and intelligence and the downside is repetition and low stage drama. Strayed’s book has a substantial following and Vardalos brought its sensitivity to the stage...The raw emotions are electric...The four characters are all effective but the laser centers on Vardalos' nuanced credibility, understanding and heart."
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"Fewer shows have provided the emotional impact as this one...Vardalos stars as Strayed in a subtle but winning performance...There is a letter here for everyone. For anyone who has ever lived life in all of of its glory and disappointment—this is a show for you...In the wrong hands, 'Tiny Beautiful' could easily have veered into treacly, sentimental schmaltz. Yet with such fine actors, a wise adaptation, and gentle direction, it is one long letter of hope, comfort, and reassurance."
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"As in all resonant theater, the play provides insight into both the characters on stage and in the audience... Three actors smoothly assume the multiple personalities and stories, fluidly portraying gender and age and offering their voices as a chorus or else in heartbreaking monologues. At the center of it all, Vardalos traces a graceful arc...Dialogue and design are delicately calibrated in 'Tiny Beautiful Things,' supporting a story told in a truly digital space."
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"The work might be more accurately adjudged to be a theater piece rather than a play. It lacks the direct interplay of a typical play. But the philosophy expounded appears to strike home...The appealing Vardalos holds the stage confidently, with excellent support from the other players. It is another production from the Public Theater, stressing the warmer, more humane aspects of humanity."
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"'Tiny Beautiful Things' is dead on arrival. With its monochromatic script, repetitive staging, and tone-deaf politics, it’s the anti-'Hamilton'...The concept unfortunately padlocks the actors inside a hamster wheel...It is sporadically striking, largely thanks to Strayed’s killer metaphors...If only it weren’t all so unrelentingly tedious...'Things,' comes dangerously close to propaganda for a very limited, very white worldview...There’s a short leap from 'We’re all Sugar' to 'All Lives Matter.' "
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“A sensitive tone poem; by turns serious, funny, heartbreaking, often quite touching, and somehow almost always uplifting...The cast is splendidly in tune with each other and the material, Vardalos being the radiant, healing soul at the center...A bit long...It occasionally and unintentionally repeats emotional work which consequently makes the sustaining of dramatic tension a bit more of a test...Given the rewards of the evening, that seems an almost negligible caveat.”
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"A handkerchief-soaking meditation on pain, loss, hope and forgiveness…'Tiny Beautiful Things’ turns out to provide an ideal catharsis for those suffering from the various deep-dyed blues…This production is not a successful narrative play in any conventional sense. But it works beautifully as a sustained theatrical exercise in empathy…The cast members endow their characters with distinguishing individuality and, more important, a connective emotional transparency."
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