Oslo (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (818)
See it if Wonderfully skillful depiction of the history of the Oslo Peace Accord. Great acting, passionate characters and entertaining.
Don't see it if You're reluctant to learn the truth about a stunning episode in attempted peace in the Middle east
See it if You like historical tales told well and love great acting.
Don't see it if You don't like plays about real political incidents.
See it if love to be absorbed, entertained, educated and inspired. a fantastic production in every way.
Don't see it if if you can't sit for the three hours -- although well worth it!
See it if You like a challenging, intelligent show filled with big ideas.
Don't see it if You want something easy and brainless.
See it if you want a remarkable true story portrayed by an even more remarkable cast! It's resonant, relevant, & engaging the whole way through.
Don't see it if politics & relationships don't interest you. The play does a great job in providing context & history, a great feat with such a large cast.
See it if If you love great acting and have an interest in history. If you like shows that are thought provoking and reveal history you Might not know
Don't see it if You like short, light hearted uncomplicated plays
See it if you want to experience OUTSTANDING B'way theatre. The overall production earns every penny of the cost of the seat. Truly a lesson in ART!
Don't see it if cannot sit in your chair for a 2 hour & 55 minute show with only one intermission. But it's worth the pains from not stretching your legs!
See it if you enjoy period dramas.
Don't see it if you're bored by a lot of talking.
Critic Reviews (74)
"This rich drama of quixotic politics fills to the bursting point its capacious new home...'Oslo' has now become the colossus it was always meant to be, while giving an even sharper focus to the urgent behind-the-scenes intimacy at its fast-beating heart...A marvel of both expository efficiency and exciting showmanship...'Oslo' features a vast cast of characters...Yet somehow, by the end, this production’s vital ensemble makes you feel you have come to know every single one of them."
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"A testament to the potential value of diplomacy, cooperation, mutual recognition of opponents’ humanity and—contra the now-trending WikiLeaks ethos—backroom secrecy...Distinguished ensemble cast...Nearly three hours long, the play demands attentiveness and works hard to achieve it. In its bittersweet final swell of hopefulness and humanity, it rewards one of our most endangered virtues, in theater as well as in politics: patience."
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"'Oslo' turns the negotiations that led to the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord of 1993 into gripping human drama. To the extent that it does so by making diplomacy not just interesting but moving, it’s a wonder of savvy stagecraft and wily performance. It’s also, quite possibly, a lie...A large cast in which nearly everyone is a knockout...The history books will have to decide whether 'Oslo' is great drama or just—just!—a great evening of theater."
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"The play is generally so smartly written...and the direction of Sher so taut that you are drawn in...If 'Oslo' means for us to recognize how important negotiations and close human contact are, I found myself agreeing but noting that they can also seduce and distort and that the arrogance of believing that you can venture out on your own and gamble with the lives of others is something not particularly deserving of praise. Aside from that though, the play fascinates."
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"The extraordinary 'Oslo,' Rogers’ riveting dramatization of a complex political tarantella...It’s even better the second time around...This all sounds talk-talky, and it is—which is what makes Sher’s accomplishment with the text so compelling...Rogers and Sher take the players in this comedy of terrors at face value, refusing to douse it in cynicism or the certainty of hindsight...For an all too brief moment, we can look back to that handshake and recall how thrilling hope can be."
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"Smart, touching and spiked with spy-novel tension and wry humor...Everything clicks in director Bartlett Sher’s elegant and evocative production...This show flows in near-cinematic fashion and pulls you in so tight that time recedes. That’s no small feat, since the play runs nearly three hours...It helps to have an impeccable cast...Peacemaking is complex. So is 'Oslo.' Broadway is all the richer for it."
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“Unequivocally fascinating...Rogers’clever dialogue really is that witty. You get the facts, but you get them delivered with intelligence and humor by this dream of a cast. It’s the petty stuff—the pseudonyms, the clandestine phone calls, the drinking competitions, and all the other trappings of macho bravado—that makes these intimidating characters so human. And so funny...This is what we call drama, and it’s what we live for.”
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"Hands down the best new play of the season. Creating riveting drama out of the intransigence of implacable enemies is no modest trick, but darned if playwright J.T. Rogers doesn’t pull it off, and grandly. This story of a three-dimensional geopolitical chess match, told as if each player were a complete human being capable of passion, error, humor and honor, reveals the keen eye and ear of a writer working in veritable mind-melding harmony with a superb director, Bartlett Sher."
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