The Conversationalists
The Conversationalists
84

The Conversationalists NYC Reviews and Tickets

84%
(5 Ratings)
Positive
100%
Mixed
0%
Negative
0%
Members say
Smartly written, Confusing, Great music, Absorbing, Delightful

About the Show

In their most recent experiment with live storytelling and music, downtown musician-storyteller duo James & Jerome create an original movie that plays only inside the audience's minds. 

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Show-Score Member Reviews (5)

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69 Reviews | 11 Followers
95
Great staging, Entertaining, Enchanting, Clever, Absorbing

See it if You love film and want a smart, brilliant take on live cinema/theater/storytelling.

Don't see it if You need something more formal and traditional Read more

683 Reviews | 161 Followers
93
Smartly written, Well played, Musically tasty, Committed, Innovative

See it if you’d like to see smart, innovative theater that engages critical issues while pumping out some to the tastiest music you’ll hear this year.

Don't see it if you cannot tolerate forms of theater that deviate from traditional drama. Read more

659 Reviews | 103 Followers
79
Delightful

See it if Mostly a light, absorbing story of two people (Middle Eastern & Latinx) with lovely music. Breaks to talk about othering of people of color.

Don't see it if Very awkward break from fantastical story w/ music to a long, slow monologue about how anti-Blackness feeds prison industrial complex sys. Read more

121 Reviews | 22 Followers
77
Intelligent, Great singing

See it if A dark room, a man speaks in a sing-songy voice for 2 hours: almost immediately, my brain told me it was naptime.

Don't see it if Glad to see different concept for staging, tho this one didn't work for me. Most liked: the great music; the tonal breaks w/ diff actors.

774 Reviews | 246 Followers
77
Indulgent, Creative, Confusing, Melodramatic, Great music

See it if Music 90; story 65. Original, beautiful, expertly performed music. Social justice themes. Narrated “imagined movie" largely works.

Don't see it if Jarring, illogical sequence of telenovela style scenes. Inconsistent characters. Slow, interminable lecture on prison population.

Critic Reviews (2)

The New York Times
January 15th, 2020

"Staging a Movie Melodrama in ‘The Conversationalists’: Music (and eventually emotion) cuts through the alienating layers of abstraction in this new work by the musician-storytellers James & Jerome."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
January 18th, 2020

..."Just Talking, But Sometimes More: 'The Conversationalists' and 'The Truth Has Changed'"
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