Great acting, Thought-provoking, Relevant, Intelligent, Clever
See it if The 2016 election has importance. An entertaining, intelligent, slyly relevant, well executed & performed reveal of our present thru our New York City past.
Don't see it if You don't like politics, history, electioneering (past or present) or well-executed and performed political campaign songs from the 1900's.
Slight of hand time travel sets up an easing into the gentlest bit of participatory theatre which makes the audience a fifth, very present, active and at times eager character. And in some ways, the most important.
There, in 1905, as immigrants herded into a Tammany Hall wigwam, a shiny American Dream success promised in exchange for a vote for, and participation in, a system of unsuspected corruption and greed; here in 2016, to be educated and reminded that not much has changed in the years since in our politics except, perhaps, the art of the deal.
The actors, still on book for this short run, are excellent, inhabiting their roles with deceptive ease & charming credibility — and great musicality, breathing life into the period songs with great vocal arrangements and harmonies.
The direction was both tight & fluid, a delicate, successful balance encouraging an apt spontaneity. Lastly a quiet authority in the script, based on actual campaign speeches, subtly draws all into the present.
RSS Feed