About Alice NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (48)
See it if it was kind of sweet in parts
Don't see it if it's not a play. it was very forgettable. it made me feel weird seeing the guy pretend that the actress was his dead wife.
See it if you enjoy Calvin Trillin's work and want to know more about the wife he adored and lost too soon.
Don't see it if you get frustrated by a skin-deep characterization -- but what a skin! Alice was a marvel by all accounts.
See it if You’re up for a contemporary take on Alice in Wonderland, with interesting staging and rock music.
Don't see it if You hate Modern, monotonous, confused “experimental” musicals Read more
See it if you don't mind a slower paced 2 person, monologue heavy show that feels more like listening to a husband read a love letter to his wife.
Don't see it if you need action. Sit back and just let the story slowly unfold.
See it if you want to see a lovely, romantic show about true love. It is quite touching and nicely acted. It is also heartbreaking because she is gone
Don't see it if you expect elaborate staging, a real plot, or if you are not a real romantic. You might find it dull. But I found it enchanting. Bravo.
See it if Calvin Trillin's love letter and memoir to his late wife Alice is a delightful departure from the typical stage play.
Don't see it if this is not a big play, it's not very traditional. the structure is a little non linear. staging is very minimal.
See it if you like the writing of Calvin Trillin and like a good story of a long love.
Don't see it if you have no interest in a beautiful marriage.
See it if you want a lovely story based on Calvin Trillin's likfe with his wife.
Don't see it if you don't like small, intimate pieces of theatre
Critic Reviews (16)
"The emotional terrain has shifted with the genre, so much that the restraint now feels like withholding. As a result, the dramatization...is sweet and mild and less emotional than the book, when what you want is for it to be more so...Not that the actors in any way fall short of inhabiting their characters...But creating these simulacra of the book’s characters is not the same as dramatizing them."
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"A humorous, sweetly touching account of the couple's relationship that revolves around one main theme: Trillin really, really adored his wife, who he admits was way out of his league...It works beautifully as a two-character piece, because it allows Alice to represent herself...Despite its brief 75-minute running time, the piece wanders at times...But despite its occasional tedious patches, the play, staged in rewardingly simple fashion by Leonard Foglia, proves deeply affecting."
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"Humorous and heartfelt, this touching tribute to Trillin's late wife is not just the memoir of a marriage, but an intimate look into a lost culture shared only by two...This is a play about cancer, but it is no depression-fest. ‘About Alice’ is the story of an unlucky thing that happened to two otherwise very fortunate people who managed to find each other and spend 38 wonderful years together. For 75 charming minutes, Trillin invites us to bask in some of that warmth.”
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“’About Alice’ is an efflorescence of grace in a world that very much needs it...Trillin has a found a way to transform prose into theatre...Trillin has effectively dramatized his essay...The actors display an easy intimacy that may rouse envy in many in the audience...In size and scale, ‘About Alice’ is a little thing, but under its polished surface lurk profound and enduring emotions.”
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"An affectionate and touching portrait...A warm, often funny, altogether charming account of two nice, educated, cultured people...The story easily skips about in time as it is narrated mostly in an anecdotal fashion by Trillin...This husband and wife, or the author and his muse, or the delightful couple of New Yorkers whose interplay is so naturally acted here, are winningly portrayed by Jeffrey Bean and Carrie Paff."
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"Bean and Paff have a tremendous rapport, he somewhat wry as Trilln's writing, she bemused by his pronouncements; he, the fantasist, she, the realist. Described as a beautiful blonde, Paff lives up to that description...Neither of them seems to age even though 36 years go by in the course of the play's 80 minutes. The play also seems lightweight as it is very episodic, being told as a series of vignettes. It also doesn't have a cumulative feeling as it is not told in chronological order."
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"A New York love story that will touch your heart and perhaps make you cry... It can be a little disorienting at times to keep up with the free-wheeling repartee. However, while Trillin is more a journalist than a playwright, his wry humor and instinctive comic timing keep things on track...Maybe the only fitting way to sum up the production is to say it achieves its aspirations to bring Alice dramatically alive in the here and now."
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"The love that Calvin feels for Alice is obvious, but at the end of the piece I found myself wanting more...I left the theater wishing I had read Trillin’s memoir in order to get a fuller picture of his wife that he so loved and admired, rather than seeing snippets of their happiness together played out onstage...'About Alice' was expertly performed, and the simplicity of the production elements let the performances and the relationship be the true center of the story...A beautiful love letter to a lost soul mate."
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