Hitler's Tasters NYC Reviews and Tickets

"In the playwright's most imaginative stroke, the girls are rendered as typical early-twenty-first-century teenagers...This eccentric concept turns out to make a great deal of sense...All of this is rendered with maximum tautness by the director, Sarah Norris, and a quartet of accomplished actresses...A funny-creepy exercise that plants some unsettling ideas in one's head about the seductive powers of totalitarianism...An original, and it is loaded from stem to stern with fresh new talents.”
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"The smart play functions on a number of different levels at once: as a history lesson, yes, but also as an exploration of group dynamics of young women, seemingly anywhere and everywhere."
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"What the playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks has successfully done is meld that past horror with the current political climate in America to create a shape-shifting presentation of the 1940s, spray- painted by 2018...Overall, the seeming disconnect to the audience is the use of 2018 dialogue in a story that is over 70 years old. But chillingly, as we hear the story filtered also through current cultural chatter, we can hear and envision the possibility of a country repeating the past."
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"The smashing together of the eras is absolutely brilliant in that it makes these girls the every girl. They are OUR girls, our daughters and sisters who are trapped in that bunker by the frenzied nationalism of a country run by a monster...Sarah Norris’ direction is music on stage. She moves her cast in and out of the joys of being a teenager and the horrors of possible death with the wand of a conductor. The cast is marvelous."
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"The ensemble cast latches onto Michelle Kholos Brooks’s script with passionate zeal and each member delivers authentic and believable performances. Unfortunately, the script does not afford them the freedom to explore their characters more deeply...The playwright’s choice to develop the conflicts of the young women through and anachronistic lens might diminish the cathartic experience in the dramatic arc. The connections between time periods is obvious and quite impactful."
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"If a reviewer can be considered a play taster for prospective audiences, I'd say I survived 'Hitler's Tasters' but not without a case of critical cramps…For some odd reason…Brooks…has deliberately anachronized the play, giving the girls cell phones, allowing them to constantly take selfies…It's hard to make out what Brooks is after with this and other choices (including a few vulgarities) other than to suggest that these benighted girls are no different from the airheads of today."
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"The show would have worked better if the girls didn’t have cell phones...This along with the contemporary speech, no accents, and contemporary music, took the show out of the time period and the devastating ordeal. When the superficial gimmicks faded away, this play was powerful and touching...The story of Hitler’s tasters could have been a powerful and relevant play...I hope they work out the kinks and bring this interesting tale back into focus."
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"The performances are faultless...Like the performances, the ideas behind 'Hitler’s Tasters' are rather good. Playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks has tapped into a fascinating story based solidly in history, making it relevant today, as scary as that is. What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in character...A disturbingly entertaining piece of work from a group of talented women. It’s funny and creepy, but also genuinely interesting to contemplate. It’s a show that will linger in your mind."
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“A quick-witted tale of the teenage girls chosen to give their lives to taste Hitler’s food...The ensemble is nothing short of breathtaking, with the brutal honesty, earnestness and confusion only found in teenage girls. Norris’s direction makes the story feel like a sort of dance as Brooks’s script flies through teenage banter with ease...A refreshing interpretation of World War II and its ties to modern day, masterfully blending charm with danger. This is a play that will grip you to the end.”
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