review<\/a> of five Broadway shows I saw, I thought I\u2019d write a second edition reviewing five new productions from this trip!\u00a0<\/p>\nTwo Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) \u2014 7.5\/10\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was the top of my list and the first show I saw \u2014 I love supporting original musicals, and the title put it on my wishlist before I even knew I\u2019d be in New York this summer. The show follows Dougal (an optimistic Brit who arrives in the city for his estranged father\u2019s wedding) and Robin (a cynical local barista and sister of the bride) as they navigate the city, their families and their unexpected bond while carrying the titular wedding cake across New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only other two-person show I\u2019ve seen was \u201cMaybe Happy Ending,\u201d which is far more emotionally ambitious, but this one perfectly achieved a sweet, comedic tone, where the characters\u2019 opposite dynamic is the heart of the show. I wish the sets, a pile of suitcases that become different parts of the city, shifted more, but \u201cTwo Strangers\u201d did a lot within the limitations of its small-scale production. I feel especially lucky when I get to see shows doubling as love letters to their setting, and this one delivered that fun energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every Brilliant Thing \u2014 4\/10\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was excited to catch this one-woman show \u2014 starring Tracee Ellis Ross as its unnamed protagonist \u2014 on closing night. The play details Ross\u2019 character\u2019s lifelong struggles with mental health through vignettes about a list of \u201cevery brilliant thing\u201d that makes life worth living after her mother\u2019s first suicide attempt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It fully involves the audience, assigning members to shout out various \u201cbrilliant things,\u201d from ice cream to things with stripes, and including viewers in directed scenes. I loved the concept and was eager to see how the list\u2019s symbolism would develop alongside the protagonist\u2019s arc, but the show never lent Ross\u2019 character meaningful development. The audience participation was charming in theory, but without much plot to anchor it, the moments felt disconnected and repetitive, more like standup interspersed with theater rather than vice versa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Overarching statements about destigmatizing mental health or dark moments being temporary were beautifully phrased, but landed without the emotional payoff to make them feel earned by the story itself. While I think mental health can be explored beautifully on stage \u2014 \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d is one of my all-time favorites \u2014 I didn\u2019t feel like the execution of \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing\u201d lived up to its concept.<\/p>\n
MJ \u2014 7\/10\u00a0<\/p>\n
I usually don\u2019t love pop music in musicals \u2026 but it\u2019s Michael Jackson. After I saw the \u201cMichael\u201d biopic earlier this summer, I immediately added it to my list. I truly respect anyone who takes on that role, the toughest act to follow of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some standout numbers were \u201cThey Don\u2019t Really Care About Us\u201d right before intermission, staged at a press conference with insane choreography from the surrounding dancers, and the two finales, \u201cThriller\u201d and \u201cMan in the Mirror,\u201d ending with the character of Jackson jumping out of the stage as the real one had for the opening of his \u201cDangerous\u201d tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Probably because I\u2019d just watched the movie, I wish there had been a bit more of his biography interspersed with the songs, but I enjoyed the high-energy performances and glowing sets all around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh, Mary \u2014 5\/10\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, Mary\u201d is a dark comedy reimagining the life of First Lady Mary Todd in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln\u2019s assassination. Now the third \u201cHacks\u201d actor I\u2019ve seen on Broadway, Meg Stalter, who plays Kayla on the show, stars as Mary here and brought her signature humor to the stage. While I love Stalter, the writing felt repetitive at times, and the beginning was slow to get moving. In fairness, I\u2019m not sure I was the target audience for the show\u2019s particularly absurdist brand of humor, but I like to try to expand my theater horizons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0The last third of the play was a 10\/10, and I wish some of its momentum had been spread more evenly throughout, but I\u2019m still glad I got to see Stalter onstage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just in Time \u2014 8.5\/10\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was the last show I saw, and also my favorite. I\u2019ve been wanting to see \u201cJust in Time\u201d since Jonathan Groff originated the starring role, and I\u2019d also heard great things about his Broadway successor Jeremy Jordan \u2014 who did not disappoint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My knowledge of Bobby Darin\u2019s life (and discography, honestly) was limited, but once the production got past the breaking-the-fourth-wall intro, I was thoroughly engaged for the rest of the performance. The only other show I\u2019d seen at this circular, interactive theater was Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler in \u201cRomeo + Juliet,\u201d and this time, I loved how immersive this format was without feeling distracting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other two leads \u2014 Olivia Holt as Connie Francis and Carrie St. Louis as Sandra Dee \u2014 were incredible, and I loved how Darin\u2019s songs propelled the story of his life forward in an impactful way. If and when Jeremy Jordan makes yet another Broadway return, I\u2019ll be just as excited to see it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques. I was so excited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[131760,207,131761,66970,12499,9,11,10,1937,5556],"class_list":["post-353312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-audrey-chang","tag-broadway","tag-broadway-reviews","tag-every-brilliant-thing","tag-michael-jackson","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-stanford","tag-tracee-ellis-ross"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}