SIDE SHOW Reviews- Page 2

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 8:49pm

"I wonder how _________ can reach his advanced years and not understand that different people have different opinions?"

I was wondering the same thing, Namo.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 8:53pm

What a f*cking joke Matthew Murray is...

[CukorLover]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:04pm

I don't normally go for his reviews, but he's right on the money with this one.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:05pm

"Amazing The Wrap & Time Out saw the same show & yet came out with these differing reviews. This is why I never ever listened to critics."

He will never listen to them but he will remain obsessed with them and talk about how much he hates them in every thread every chance he gets again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:05pm

Newsday is positive.

"The musical about the real-life conjoined Hilton sisters, which crashed and burned in its 1997 premiere, has risen in a revision so radical and deeply satisfying that arguments could be made for calling it new."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/side-show-review-stellar-revisions-make-revival-worthy-of-broadway-1.9623876

[CukorLover]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:08pm

"They also dance, playfully and seriously to Anthony Van Laast's ingenious vaudeville and ballroom choreography."

She should be shot for that statement alone.

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:14pm

Hollywood Reporter is positive:

"Side Show may never be a classic musical, but in this superb production it's a hypnotic spectacle that packs an emotional wallop. Step right up."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/side-show-theater-review-749712

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:20pm

Daily News is mixed.

"We take a journey with these dreamgirls, but there’s no truly satisfying payoff — or a portrait that goes deeper than the skin."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater-arts/side-show-theater-review-article-1.2013711

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:33pm

Even with only a few reviews in, they already have plenty of pull quotes to use!

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:43pm

I just REALLY want to see this in May and hope reviews/word-of-mouth can further help keep the show alive.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 9:59pm

Entertainment Weekly is MIXED-TO-NEGATIVE

One aspect such revisions have not messed with: the two linchpins of Side Show's score, the twins' power-ballad duets 'Who Will Love Me As I Am?' and 'I Will Never Leave You', both as heart-stopping (and tear-jerking) as ever, and Padgett and Davie are never more connected than they are in those moments.

Speaking of connections...original stars Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley became 'conjoined' by standing side-by-side, hip against hip. The audience imagined their physical bond. (It's a little like the disfigured title character in the musical Violet, in which the lead actress wears no makeup to create a scar—we simply imagine it.) Here, Padgett and Davie are clearly connected another way: extra-strong magnets. And one can't help but wonder, why? Sure, everything is much more fleshed-out in Condon's production: Daisy and Violet's fellow 'freaks'—the Bearded Lady, the Half Man/Half Woman, the 3-Legged Man—all get full American Horror Story treatment (though Dog Boy looks an awful lot like Chewbacca). But in making Daisy and Violet's connection literal, the production robs us of a chance to fully relate to the sisters—even if it is just, as Houdini sings, 'all in the mind.'


They give it a 'C'

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:06pm

Unless a celebrity is involved, the usually **** on most shows.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:09pm

NY Post is MIXED

Here Erin Davie plays the retiring Violet, who wants to be “like everyone else/So no one will point and stare.” She’s attached — via strong, hidden magnets — to Emily Padgett’s bolder Daisy, who wants to be “like everyone else/But richer and more acclaimed.” Both actresses are impeccable, funny and affecting.

Even after all the surgery, “Side Show” is far from a great musical. The second act piles on heavy-handed calls for tolerance. The production’s also handicapped by the blandness of Silverman and Hydzik, who have matinee-idol good looks but little acting depth.

Yet this show also has a strange, slightly demented charm, especially in the vaudeville and carnival scenes. And while it makes its plea for tolerance with a big heart, it’s not afraid to unleash even bigger anthems.


NY Post Link

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:15pm

I'd say ny post is mixed to positive. Three out of four stars.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:16pm

New York Times (Isherwood) is a RAVE

But “Side Show,” based on the lives of the real-life twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, who became vaudeville stars in the 1930s, invites us to do much more than come look at the freaks, as the electrifying opening number beckons. This beautiful and wrenching musical, lovingly directed by Bill Condon, asks us to step inside their skins and feel what it’s like to be celebrated one moment, rejected the next, and to have the strange consolation of a companion who shares it all: the pain, the joy, the hope, the frustration.

Like their Broadway predecessors, the unforgettable Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner, Ms. Davie and Ms. Padgett bring alive the sisters’ conflicted but loving relationship with extraordinary grace. When they are in accord, Daisy and Violet seem to merge into a single identity, their twinkling smiles becoming one smile, their bodies one body. But when their diverging desires tug at them, Ms. Davie and Ms. Padgett are transformed: Violet’s longing for the satisfactions of marital love is etched with brutal transparency on her face, while Daisy’s equally ardent desire to shine lights her from within with a strange ferocity.

The twins’ anthems, “Who Will Love Me as I Am?” and “I Will Never Leave You,” are the musical and emotional highlights of the show. In these stirring songs the voices of Ms. Davie and Ms. Padgett unite in exquisite, heart-rending harmony, testifying to the unquenchable communion at the core of the sisters’ relationship. Listen closer and there’s a pleading undertone of sadness, for as much as they care for each other, both Daisy and Violet would desperately love to be singing a solo.

SO happy for the cast & creative team!!


NYT Rave!

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:18pm

Just about to post that IBF! I think it's safe to say the show will hold out until the Tony's.

...I hope that's not wishful thinking. Updated On: 11/17/14 at 10:18 PM

[gleek4114]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:24pm

^ Knock on wood!

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:24pm

I think if their PR team does their job they can at least hold out until nominations!

So so so so happy right now. This show deserves a long run/audiences.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:26pm

That's the review they needed. The minor quibbles probably enhance it, in odd ways, because it's a love letter to the show's emotional hold on audiences, which has always been its strength, acknowledging, even reluctantly, that imperfections are part of the package. I hope everyone who hoped for that (as I did) can go to sleep happy. Now: how to fill those seats.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:32pm

Variety is POSITIVE (She has issues with the lack of character depth given to the males)

The new, improved “Side Show” smells like a hit. Helmer Bill Condon’s shrewd reworking of this short-lived 1997 cult musical by Henry Krieger and Bill Russell (which comes to Gotham via La Jolla and the Kennedy Center) is both darker in tone and lighter in theme than memory has it. Leading ladies Emily Padgett and Erin Davie are perfection as Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins in real life who were plucked out of a carnival midway by a rascal showman and transformed into vaudeville stars. A lot of things that didn’t work in the original version still don’t work now, but no question about it, this show has the best freaks on Broadway.

But aside from the pretty clothes (and blonde hair) the twins get to wear, life on the vaudeville circuit can’t compare with the loving home they left in the first act. The twins’ individual characters are complex and, as played here, quite moving. The sentiments of “Who Will Love Me as I Am?” and “I Will Never Leave You” have thought and depth, and unlike the love songs, are not bellowed at the high decibel of football cheers.

But no one else is written with any depth whatsoever. Terry’s character is shockingly shallow and Buddy’s only slightly less so, salvaged by a modest note of sexual ambiguity. And while the clarity of the vocal arrangements enhance the lovely musicality of Henry Krieger’s lyrical compositions, that lucidity also exposes the clunkiness of the lyrics, which land on defenseless ears like blunt instruments.
Variety Review

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:39pm

! I think it's safe to say the show will hold out until the Tony's.

Plenty of fall shows that receive raves end up closing by Tony time. A Times rave isn't a guarantee anymore.

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:43pm

I did modify my certainty with cautious calm.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:45pm

However long this will run is in question at this point, but who knows, maybe the producers will pull a 'Bridges' and try to keep the show open for as long as they can until the nominations come out. Luckily, the cast will be performing on Macy's Parade on NBC, so we'll see what kind of effect that'll have on the public.

Though with that said, what nominations could this possibly get come awards season?

Revival of a Musical?
Leading Actress (Davie/Padgett)
Direction of a Musical?
Lighting Design?
Scenic Design?
Costume Design?

[HorseTears]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:46pm

So, um, dumb question, but is having such strong magnets attached to one's body for such an extended period of time safe?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/17/14 at 10:48pm

Guess we'll find out!