“This Murakami adaptation is scrappy at times, coolly sexy and quietly compelling at others, and hugely involving overall. I’ll definitely give the books another go.”
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"The production has the same head-scratching sense of an illusive story and emotionally distant world, whose meaning cannot quite be grasped, and which melts away too quickly. Still, it is very beautiful to observe."
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“The performances are so strong that it’s maddening when the plot takes a late serve from romance and burgeoning detective story into cryptic magical realism, and then turns to completely new characters (losing the most compelling one.”
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“Lavery’s tight, unfussy text zeroes in on the main beats of Murakami’s deliberately undramatic story, but never attempts to expand his ethereal world or delve further into the characters’ complexities.”
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"Some admirable parts don’t add up to an impactful sum, and we’re left orbiting around it like one of those oft-mentioned solitary satellites."
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" There is an abundance of obvious talent on show both in stage and off, but something seems to have been lost in translation when taking the work of such a famous and well-regarded novelist into a completely disparate medium."
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“Overall ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ feels somewhat incomplete. While the team has made a commendable effort in capturing the book’s mood, it comes at the expense of the depth and the heart that makes Murakami’s work so beloved.”
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“The team behind ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ have worked hard to pull out the central questions of the story, but a story about perspective, on the stage, where everything is presented directly to the audience, is a round peg in a square hole.”
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