Vanity Fair NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (216)
See it if you want to be entertained by top notch performances, great writing, and clever staging. The Pearl has done it again. Do not miss this.
Don't see it if you are an idiot! Seriously, this is as funny and clever as it can be. It ain't the dry as dust Vanity Fair you read in high school. Go, GO!
See it if Wonderful mix of a farce and a serious drama. A circus of human desires for us to contemplate. When it gets too serious, mayhem erupts.
Don't see it if You won't enjoy a satire of 19th century British society, with a cheeky narrator breaking the fourth wall. Read more
See it if You want to see a really compelling story about two women's alternative rise and fall in fortune. It's surprisingly thought-provoking.
Don't see it if You don't enjoy a scrappy staging done on a budget: the costumes and sets and props are all ridiculous and cheap, which is part of its charm
See it if U enjoy a once in a life time ride taking u thru a long book with song, comedy, choreography all without forsaking drama making 2,5 hrs fly
Don't see it if u don't want 2 c a brilliant actor/writer transform a victorian novel w/ great ensemble acting, unique staging & FANTASTICdirection into joy
See it if Brilliant and entertaining show that brings VANITY FAIR to life. Superb acting and storytelling and both audiences and actors have a ball.
Don't see it if You like you classics to "classically" staged.
See it if you love great theater that renders a classic text with such ingenuity that it enhances its meaning and makes it mesmerizing
Don't see it if the zaniness and kinetics are too much for your brain to process, which should only be the case for very few among us Read more
See it if You like clever experimentation with plays based on classic books.
Don't see it if You prefer traditional productions.
See it if Fun, joyous, committed cast. Good fun times is what you want. Can be slightly confusing, but it's a speedy amalgam of extremely good acting
Don't see it if You need to follow every single turn in the script, you might miss one or two.
Critic Reviews (22)
"Great and glorious, equal parts cabaret, circus and non-judgmental morality play...Go see the play. It’s fun, interesting and often even touching...Kate Hamill, the adapter and star, and Eric Tucker, the director, are a smashing duo, as in turning classic stories into theatrical smash hits...I thought the second act could have been cut slightly. As for Eric Tucker’s direction, triple wows for turning an ancient classic into a fun show with a considerable undercoating of content."
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"Ms. Hamill’s play gives us a vivid, panoramic satire of English men and women striving to rise through marriage or inheritance...The production is imaginatively staged...Ms. Hamill, in addition to being a terrific adaptor of text for the stage, is also an actress of great strength and charm...The entire acting company deserves high praise for creating engaging, often deeply humorous, compelling characters."
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"A clever and creative adaptation...It’s a stellar reframing of a puppet play for a modern audience who may be bored by the straightforward historical approach to such classics, and need a little Bedlam in their drama. Emotionally it’s a bit distant, but it makes up for that with frivolity and fun...A smart and excellent portrayal by Hamill full of slyness, wit, and style."
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“This is theatre having fun with itself as a game people play, using familiar props in unfamiliar ways, and openly sharing its performance with the audience...This works in limited amounts but...it becomes a self-defeating device that deflates interest in the material it's meant to serve...The cast...shows good humor, versatility, and intelligence but the demands of making their characters engagingly real while also subjecting them to so many audience-distancing japeries proves insuperable.”
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"An eye-catching, attention-grabbing show that, although too long, lives up to Hamill’s conception with effectiveness. The trade-off is that while one can admire the acting, the costumes, the effects and the overall impact, this is not an approach that can engender very deep pro and con feelings for the characters, who mostly one-dimensionally play out their respective lives...My greatest pleasure was watching Hamill make the most of her role as Becky. She is exceptionally talented."
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“Clamorous incomprehension...Some of the actors play it straight, others are so over-the-top one winces at every appearance…Direction is as uneven as acting. It’s as if the production can’t make up its mind…Hamill creates a Becky Sharp with less grace, charm or seductive attributes–virtually everything that enabled the character to rise–than insistence…The play is periodically entertaining, but chaotic (not freewheeling) in a style I find too often self-defeating.”
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"Hamill had a remarkable and deserved success adapting 'Sense and Sensibility' and she’s done it again here...The direction, the acting, the tech elements all work in concert but above all it’s the canny script of Hamill that shines. She captures the sweep of the novel and its many ideas with spot-on choices...If the evening is more intellectually stimulating than emotionally gripping, ultimately that’s due to the limitations of what Thackeray created in his Punch & Judy of a morality tale."
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"Hamill takes a decidedly feminist approach to 'Vanity Fair,' which is particularly fitting in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s loss...Hamill has streamlined Thackeray’s novel into a treatise on judging morality, no matter the era. She plays Becky as a strong-minded 'Nasty Woman' who believes she is capable of anything. Parsons is terrific as the demure Emmy...The five other actors all expertly play multiple roles, both male and female, blurring gender lines while also making fun of them."
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