LEMPICKA Reviews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 12:18am

After 14 years, it's finally their time. 

Post 'em here, folx!

[jpbran]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 3:14am

Guessing these will be scattered ALL over the place. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[yyys]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 3:57am

Predicting mostly negative. 

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 5:41am

yyys said: "Predicting mostly negative."

agree.  with some love for Iman's vocals, charisma .. maybe not so much the acting

 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 6:45am

When life gives you Lempicka, make lemonade. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 7:26am

While far from perfect, I definitely enjoyed this more than most folks on here. Curious to see what the reviews are tonight, but I have a feeling that will be negative with a few mixed if they're lucky.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:12am

I just saw a video from a speech (I believe pre-show) where the creators said, “16 years ago we sat down and said, ‘we’re going to write a big, epic musical, and maybe someday it’ll get to Broadway’.”

This made all the sense in the world, considering most people I know who’ve seen it have shared the same sentiment of ‘all style, little substance’. Which is unfortunate because there IS a terrific story and show in there. It’s just been mixed up with all the varying factors they’ve thrown in. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:20am

It has been a while since I was rooting for a show so much. Yesterday I was talking with a friend about the preview reports so far and said that there has been more than a few saying that they didn’t care for the show because they leave not knowing who Tamara was. My friend, who attended the show, quickly replied I learned a lot about her and felt I knew her by the end.

So I asked, What did you learn exactly?  She stated the following:

What I learned about the Tamara:

1. She was bisexual and loved two people deeply
2. She was uncomfortable being labeled just a mother and asks her daughter to call her Cherieinstead of Mom
3. She was ambitious 
4. She was an astute business woman
5. She knew how to market herself
6. She had an ego and wanted to prove to the world that her work was important
7. She was concerned about her legacy
8. She was independent 
9. She was self sacrificing in order for her family to survive
10. She was an artist and a survivor

I hope the critical response leans more towards the positive since it is rare we get an ORIGINAL new musical.

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 08:20 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:04pm

Hopefully reviews start coming soon

[Popular]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:06pm

Saw it in La Jolla and was excited to see it come to Broadway. What time do reviews generally get posted? 

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:08pm

jpbran said: "Guessing these will be scattered ALL over the place."

That's a generous guess IMO. I think these will be mostly all pans. Though I've been surprised more than once by reviews this season so who knows
 

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 08:08 PM

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:11pm

Feldman rolls in at 11 PM - and he says that’s when the review embargo will lift tonight. 

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 08:11 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:20pm

Ugh. I don’t like these late night review dumps lol

[Musigamist]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:40pm

Jordan Catalano said: "Ugh. I don’t like these late night review dumps lol"

Stick it so late hopefully everyone's asleep and then too rushed on Monday morning to check in on them. It's a strategy; I'll give'm that.

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:49pm

Bold to assume that that’s a quantifiable population. 

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 8:51pm

Jordan Catalano said: "Ugh. I don’t like these late night review dumps lol"

Can’t let the reviews ruin the vibes of the opening party is the opening party is winding down when reviews start to roll in! 🤗

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 9:00pm

Dear Producers,

The late hour embargo won’t help, we‘ll all still be watching the massacre.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 10:04pm

Variety is negative:

Variety review

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 10:06pm

It reads as more mixed to me.

"Director Rachel Chavkin (“Hadestown”) keeps things moving amid Riccardo Hernandez’ deconstructive set design featuring a mix of (Eiffel) tower girders and streamlined staircases. Paloma Young’s costumes are often striking, mixing the modern with the moderne. The show’s unfolding history is relayed by Peter Nigrini’s projections, but oddly Lempicka’s artworks only appears in glimpses. Raja Feather Kelly’s choreography veers from exciting to distracting, sometimes stealing focus from the show’s star.

Gould’s music and Kreitzer’s lyrics offer an appealing rock-pop score that brings an often contemporary sound to the story, connecting eras. But some of the show’s most memorable musical moments go to the featured performers, leaving Espinosa to belt out the earnest-but-lesser power ballads. The best numbers include: “What She Sees,” a clever duet with both Lempicka’s lovers; Iman’s sizzling “Don’t Bet Your Heart;” Abud’s dynamic “Pari Will Always Be Pari;” and Johnson’s playful “Women.” Leavel is delightfully droll throughout and touching in the 11 o’clock number, “Just This Way,” a poignant call for the artist to move on. The show ends on an upbeat note with the realization of the contemporary empowered woman that the artist envisioned."

[pollster2]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 10:12pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Variety is negative:

Variety review"

I'd disagree with this assessment -- it's very much a mixed review.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 10:17pm

ha thats not a pan at all. this is what id expect--praise for many elements, frustration with the story....

and in this particular review, theres a paragraph ready-made to be pullquoted about Eden Espinosa.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 10:48pm

I didn’t say it was a pan, I said it was negative. He praised the actors but said in the kindest way possible that the material is not very good. But I supppse it is probably more mixed, overall.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 10:55pm

NY Stage Review:

LEMPICKA: A PAINT-BY-NUMBERS OLD-SCHOOL MUSICAL

By Sandy MacDonald

★★☆☆☆ Daubed with broad strokes, this sweeping bio-musical proves at once arty and inept.

https://nystagereview.com/2024/04/14/lempicka-a-paint-by-numbers-old-school-musical/

 

LEMPICKA: ADMIRED ARTIST TAMARA DE LEMPICKA MUSICALIZED, WITH LIMITED ARTISTRY

By David Finkle

★★★☆☆ Eden Espinosa stars in Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould's tuner, directed by Rachel Chavkin

https://nystagereview.com/2024/04/14/lempicka-admired-artist-tamara-de-lempicka-musicalized-with-limited-artistry/

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 10:55 PM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 10:55pm

https://newyorktheater.me/2024/04/14/lempicka-broadway-review/

Mixed - Naturally gifted cast members give polished performances, most notably Eden Espinosa in the title role, and especially Amber Iman as Rafaela.  But the songs and scenes ultimately add up to an almost mechanical-feeling sameness, loud and overwhelming.

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 10:55 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/14/24 at 11:01pm

NYT: 

Review: It’s No Sunday in the Park With ‘Lempicka’

A musical about the groundbreaking Art Deco painter is vocally thrilling but historically a blur.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/14/theater/lempicka-review-chavkin-espinosa.html

"Because yes, another reason the show is a “monster” is that it’s a jolly big sing, with superior belting from several excellent practitioners of the craft. As Lempicka, Eden Espinosa blows thrillingly through nearly a dozen songs by Matt Gould (music) and Carson Kreitzer (lyrics). She has excellent company in Amber Iman as Lempicka’s lover Rafaela and Beth Leavel as a dying baroness who sits for a portrait. For good measure, Natalie Joy Johnson, as the cabaret star Suzy Solidor, contributes a barnburner to herald the opening of her lesbian hangout. Naturally the song is called “Women” — and it’s a nice change that a musical about them gives them pride of place.

But if there’s no denying the realness of the vocal power, and the sleekness of Rachel Chavkin’s staging on deconstructed Art Deco sets by Riccardo Hernández, the story (by Kreitzer and Gould) too often feels incredible in the wrong sense of the word. It’s not just that Marinetti (George Abud, excellent) is so weirdly central, or that Rafaela is a composite, or that in real life Solidor was a Nazi collaborator and Lempicka the baroness’s betrayer, not her portraitist. (Lempicka began her affair with the baron, played by Nathaniel Stampley, years before he was widowed.) It’s that the condensing, rejiggering and flat-out fudging of the plot create a contextual blur that obscures the main character."

...

"That there is little if any historical truth in that characterization is not ultimately the problem. The painter Georges Seurat in “Sunday in the Park With George” — a show referenced in the first lines of the script — is largely fictionalized too, a cad to his mistress and generally unlikable. “Lempicka” doesn’t have the craft, especially in the mis-accented, often vague lyrics, to make its title character a relatable modern woman, nor the boldness to let her be awful and great. Perhaps if it were less of a machine she could be more of a monster."

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 11:01 PM