Big Fish, a musical – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Big Fish, one of the most highly anticipated shows of this fall’s theater season, has finally swum its way into the heart of New York.
This contemporary musical centers on Edward Bloom, a traveling salesman with a penchant for telling larger-than-life stories–stories that include Edward’s encounters with a witch, a mermaid, a giant, and, of course, a big fish.
Frustrated by the absurdity of the seemingly too-tall tales, Edward’s pragmatic son, Will, is determined to unravel Edward’s fantastical accounts. In his quest to debunk his father’s claims, however, Will stumbles upon a string of truths that transforms the production into a fable.
The show–an adaptation of screenwriter John August and director Tim Burton’s 2003 film (which was based on the book by Daniel Wallace)–captured the #1 spot in Maxamoo’s public survey on the most anticipated shows of the 2013 Fall theater season and was widely bolstered by critics and bloggers in their fall preview articles.
Reviews by major theater critics after the show’s New York debut, however, all bear a tinge of disappointment.
The New York Times, while calling the visual aspects “spectacular eye candy,” asserted that Big Fish “fails to forge the crucial connection between its characters and their fantasies,” and the New York Post concurred that the show is visually “inventive, playful and often downright magical”; however, “Andrew Lippa’s score is a hack job stringing one banal non-tune after another.”
Big Fish features choreography by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman and music and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Andrew Lippa.
UPDATE: November 10, 2013
Big Fish announced it will close December 29, 2013.
LOCATION
Neil Simon Theater
250 West 52nd Street
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
2 hours and 30 minutes, 1 intermission
TICKETS
$58.00 – $217.00 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through December 29, 2013
NEWS & REVIEWS
Reviews
NY Times
“For a show that celebrates tall tales, “Big Fish” feels curiously stunted. Granted, this movie-inspired musical about a whopper-spinning traveling salesman, which opened on Sunday night at the Neil Simon Theater, is certainly big by most conventional measurements.”
Chicago Tribune
“With the indefatigable, deeply engaged and seemingly irreplaceable Norbert Leo Butz driving its storytelling and willing the show’s crucial emotional subtext into being by sheer force of talent and will, “Big Fish” arrives on Broadway as an earnest, family-friendly, heart-warming and mostly successful new American musical.”
Entertainment Weekly
“Fantasy wages war with reality in Big Fish, a delightfully old-fashioned musical based on Daniel Wallace’s beloved novel (and Tim Burton’s 2003 film).”
NBC New York
“Edward Bloom will die a “glorious” death at the end of “Big Fish,” which has just opened at the Neil Simon Theatre. That’s not a spoiler; it’s an explanation. Blessed, if you’d call it that, to know the “when” and “how” of his life’s final chapter, the peculiar protagonist of Susan Stroman’s giddy, overstuffed new musical is free to take risks the rest of us wouldn’t, for fear of bodily harm.”
Broadway World
“Big Fish, the new musical that tattoos its heart on its arm, displays no fear in plopping its unabashed wholesomeness right in your lap. Its spirit is steeped in Rodgers and Hammerstein decency that propels an evening that’s adventurous, romantic and, yeah, kinda hip.”
Bloomberg
“I doubt Broadway has ever seen a prettier, more sensuously kinetic musical than Susan Stroman’s adaptation of Big Fish set to music by Andrew Lippa.”
NYtheater Now
Director Susan Stroman brings the story (and stories) to life in her clear, focused direction. She has some delightfully fun elements (many animal-related) to aid the transitions from everyday to fantasy, which I won’t detail here, as their surprise quality is part of their charm. Unfortunately, her choice to introduce all of the fantastical characters in the opening number diminished the mystery and surprise that would have been experienced had we not met them until the plot organically got to those characters.
Huffington Post
The Broadway Musical Reviewers Threw Back in the Water
News
The NY Times
For ‘Big Fish,’ Susan Stroman Lures Investors, Too
The NY Times
In Performance: Norbert Leo Butz
Vanity Fair
Costume Fittings for Big Fish the Musical, Starring Kate Baldwin
Newsweek
Catching Broadway’s ‘Big Fish’
Broadway.com
Book Writer John August on Bringing the ‘Funny, Weird, and Touching’ Story of Big Fish to Broadway
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Book by John August
Direction and choreography by Susan Stroman
Featuring Norbert Leo Butz, Bobby Steggert, Kate Baldwin, Krystal Joy Brown, Zachary Unger, Anthon Pierini, Ryan Andes, Ciara Renee, Kirsten Scott
OFFICIAL WEBSITE