Vanity Fair NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (216)
See it if you want a fresh, creative theater experience. Funny, quirky, even moving at times, my only regret is waiting so late in the run to see it.
Don't see it if you need staid, traditional, risk-averse theater. This ain't that.
See it if you like Bedlam productions and want to see what can be done with a 19th century classic. If you liked Sense and Sensibility.
Don't see it if you won't enjoy a circus-like interpretation of a literary classic.
See it if You want a fresh take on a classic novel with splendid acting.
Don't see it if You want a short play that's action-packed and you don't want to listen to much dialogue. Read more
See it if You liked Bedlam Theater's Sense & Sensibility. You like deconstructed classics done with intelligence, understanding and tongue in cheek.
Don't see it if You don't want your classics messed with. You don't like current references in classic works.
See it if You want to enjoy a classic story with modern touches played with clever and rapid speed.
Don't see it if You are expecting "Sense and Sensibility" Part Deux. This show is lots of fun but not quite as amazing as Bedlam's last show.
See it if If you want to see a great, fun, entertaining, clever play. Surpassed great expectations (get it?) It's a delightful experience.
Don't see it if If you need your plot spoon fed and linear - you dont like to give your FULL attention to what's going on.
See it if you want to see an original, creative, wacky, weird and wonderful play. It was terrific.
Don't see it if you dislike campy humor, long plays and plays that require you to stay focused because the action and dialog careen along at a frenetic pace
See it if Yes, it lacks subtlety, runs long and includes some odd 20th century references, but a wonderful exposure to our need past & present to..
Don't see it if ...make ourselves happy at any cost. Not snarky like Sense & Sensibility, includes both broad & focused humor at human foibles and desires.
Critic Reviews (22)
“The Pearl’s seven-member cast is a well-oiled ensemble…All the actors are adept at transforming themselves…The principal weakness of this 'Vanity Fair' is its stylistic indecisiveness…Hamill and Tucker have invested this 'Vanity Fair' with theatrical gusto, a sense of contemporary relevance, and a full measure of merriment. If 21st-century irony, the prevailing voice of Bedlam, drowns out Thackeray’s dryly satiric take on Regency England, that’s unlikely to matter to most playgoers.”
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"As much as the production attempts to energize itself with movement, it fails to do so...Ironically, despite its best efforts, the play drags at moments, and part of the fault lies in the writing of the play itself. Hamill's adaptation is unfortunately overwritten...The main problem in this adaptation: the amount of time it spends telling its audience what to and what not to think of its characters...Despite the script's problems, Hamill is still a delight to watch as Becky Sharpe.":
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"Ms. Hamill, among Off-Broadway’s most intelligent young playwrights, and Mr. Tucker, among its most inventive directors, team up again, distilling Thackeray’s novel to vivid, contemporary expression...An exemplar of making the literary theatrical. I’ll go even further and declare that 'Vanity Fair' is what theatre is all about, even if, at every turn, Hamill, Tucker and company are asking—so entertainingly, so disarmingly—'Who are YOU to judge?'"
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“The satirical tone of the story can wear thin...Yes, it’s imaginative—just getting seven people to play 20 or 25 or 30 roles requires heroic imagination and energy, and Kate Hamill, the author and star, and Eric Tucker, the director, are nothing if not imaginative. But there’s something amiss…This work curdles more than charms...It’s ambitious, very ambitious. But it doesn’t live up to its ambitions."
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“A marvelous production…Except for the two women, the rest of the wildly accomplished cast play multiple roles. They all shift from character to character and gender to gender, with high-precision timing…Directed by Eric Tucker with a featherlight touch and a lively tempo, it becomes all the more remarkable that we are, from time to time, caught up in the plot, moved by events, worried about the characters’ fortunes, and eager to know what happens next.”
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"It’s a terrific production, altogether satisfying...Eric Tucker directs with enormous precision and humor. The stage is constantly animated. The pace never flags and we never weary of these 19th-century characters who behave so badly and are so like us...There are moments when the playwright throws rather too much at us at once, and we’re confused. But The Pearl Theatre Company has mounted a great success."
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