Nicholas Nickleby – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Theater for the New City presents Nicholas Nickleby, a new musical based on the classic Charles Dickens novel of the same name. Robert Sickinger wrote the book and Alaric Jans wrote the music and lyrics.
The show is structured as a play-within-a-play, in which The Crummles Troupe, a fictional theater company, brings Dickens’s hefty novel to the stage. The play staged by The Crummles is Nicholas Nickleby, the story of Nicholas and his sister Kate and their struggle to survive after their father loses all of the family’s money and dies. The story brings to life an array of characters from different social classes in the early Victorian era and touches on the injustices suffered by many at the time.
Maxamoo
This musical adaption miraculously crams the 1000-page novel of Nicholas Nickleby into a 2.5 hour performance with most of the main plots points uncompromised. It features a score of catchy songs sung to live piano accompaniment and a variety of dance numbers, including gleeful tap and elegant ballet pieces.
However, we question Sickinger’s decision to structure the show as a play-within-a-play. It makes the story more elaborate than it is already and requires an extended opening sequence to establish the construct. To cover the many plot twists, the scenes change rapidly and the show devolves into a chronology of events rather than an emotional, character driven story. As a result, we found it difficult to empathize with, normally empathetic, characters. It is simultaneously too fast-paced and too long. At times the production feels amateurish, and we couldn’t help but laugh at moments where laughter was clearly not the desired reaction.
Public Opinion
Have you seen Nicholas Nickleby? What did you think? Comment below or tweet to us at @maxamoo.
Critics’ Review
Theatre Is Easy
An entertaining, if intentionally melodramatic, musical drubbing of Victorian England’s one percent.
TICKETS
$18 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through May 4, 2014
LOCATION
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
2 hours 30 minutes, one intermission
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Book by Robert Sickinger
Music and Lyrics by Alaric Jans
Directed by Lissa Moira
Featuring Luba Mason,Karen Kohler, Becca Gottlieb, Douglas McDonnell, Rachel Daye Adams, William Broderick, Jonathan Powers, David F. Slone, Jose Amor, Sage Bachalter, Anik Baker, Malin Barr, Alex Baturin, Rachel Baum, Sam Benedict, Thom Brown, Autumn Nia Fore, Virginia Franks, Carlos Gomez, Hannah Granik, Chloe Himmelman, Larry E. Johnson, Patrick Kenner, Stephanie Leone, Gloria Makino, David “Zen” Mansley, Rita McCann, Tanner Murray, Chris Neher, Nia Nichole, Elisa Nikoloulias, Holly Rae Phillips, Robert Charles Russell, Mary Elizabeth Schneider, Amanda Yachechak.