"The arc of 'All is Calm'...is coolly predictable, urging the men from enlistment to deployment to battle to détente to battle again, and the choice of song and excerpt aren’t so surprising either...More extraordinary is the beauty of the songs...The plangent tenors, lush baritones and rumbling basses are in excellent voice, and when they come together, the sensation is tremendous and the musical chill effect engulfing...A staunchly apolitical and warily genteel work."
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“Hands down, the most emotionally moving Christmas show I've ever seen...Lichte and Takach's gorgeous a cappella arrangements of popular songs...underscore testimonies in multipart harmony, making the play feel like a live Ken Burns documentary...Rothstein stages it all with cinematic fluidity...A true ensemble piece...It's hard not to get choked up with performances as honest and unvarnished as these.”
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“An extraordinary moment in twentieth-century history is the subject of this carefully wrought, deeply moving piece...That it is likely to be a familiar tale matters not at all: From the moment that the company of eleven emerges from the darkness - this story feels freshly imagined and deeply felt...Music is the thread that holds the evening together, providing an emotional bridge that crucially supports a story made up of a collage of anecdotes.”
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“A touching musical tribute to that brief time when peace on Earth reigned over desolate battlefields...A sincerely affecting music-theater work that resonates with beautiful singing, 'All Is Calm' suggests how essential humanity can triumph—even if only briefly, as here—over the most horrible of circumstances...The actors confidently perform...and they make extremely handsome music together...An unusually inspiring musical event for the holiday season.”
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"In this deeply moving production, the actors give voice to the real-life words of a variety of soldiers who took part in the unorthodox celebration. After a character speaks his piece, he identifies himself by name, stating the division in which he served. It's a little like the tags in the narration of letters and diaries in a Ken Burns documentary. But these speeches are only a part of the soundscape. The production is suffused with music-all of it a cappella vocalizing by the cast. "
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“’All Is Calm’ is the kind of work that makes you want to shout its greatness from the rooftops...It’s the studied minimalism of ‘All Is Calm’ that gives it its power, driving an emotional tempest that won’t soon be forgotten...As the story unfolds Rothstein reveals a work of visual poetry...The cast comprise a singular, well-oiled machine, their acting versatile and compelling. But it is their vocal prowess that’s electrifying. Every voice is a musical instrument.”
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"The production is certainly polished and occasionally poignant. But 'All is Calm' strikes me as not quite the staged version of a Ken Burns-like 'docudrama' that its creators claim for it; it’s best appreciated as a beautifully sung, intelligent Christmas concert...There is no question that some of what they say hits home...For all the dramatically-lit haze and stoic faces, the 10 performers speaking the words of 39 men have little time to develop characters or create scenes."
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"One of the most special of the well over 200 shows I've covered this year…The company gives remarkably harmonious voice to song after song, with Lichte and Takach's exquisite arrangements...They also deliver their spoken lines with truth and theatrical force…The set is merely an arrangement of wooden boxes, allowing Rothstein to move his ensemble about in gorgeously arranged tableaux, given exceptionally beautiful chiaroscuro lighting by Marcus Dillard."
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