“Nearly fifty years after its initial commercial failure, 'Lolita, My Love' in its current form is revealed as a well-crafted musical theatre piece with fine wit and attractive melodies. Perhaps that's not enough to get it to Broadway, but it's certainly enough to earn a visit to The York's excellent production."
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"Maltby, works thoughtfully and well, maintaining a good pace during a lengthy, exposition-heavy first act...She has a stunning Humbert in Sella, who handles his ballads in achingly controlled fashion...'Lolita, My Love' constitutes a daring stab at the impossible, and all thanks to the York for letting us finally get a look at this sometimes brilliant, often misbegotten work. It offers living proof that some failures are more interesting than some successes.”
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The writing's smart and enveloping, as we'd expect from a master like Lerner; it's just about something profoundly disturbing. Maltby's direction, clarifying the truth vs. Humbert's version of it and framing the action is a huge help. So is Sella. His Humbert is wonderful casting...The subject matter is just too upsetting, and even Haagensen's expert blending of drafts can't obscure some structural liabilities."
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"The York Theatre Company is to be applauded for taking the risk of staging this famously controversial musical in its New York premiere. As Alan Jay Lerner is one of the legendary giants of the musical theater, it is a pleasure to be able to see this lost musical in a workable version. However, despite the excellent staging of director Emily Maltby, 'Lolita, My Love,' the casting still seems problematic and the musical is ultimately disappointing."
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"There’s much to admire in director Emily Maltby’s presentation...Lerner’s book is turgid. The run-time of three hours is too long. It’s as if he forgot he was writing a musical with long patches of exposition without song. And some of the songs are snippets versus full numbers...'Lolita, My Love' is best for those who must see the entire Lerner cannon or the theatrically curious."
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“There’s a reason this show closed out of town. The unsavory material resists rehabilitation...The musical is heavy, imbalanced, and way too long...The cast does its best, but they cannot shift this material into second gear...'Lolita, My Love' does have a couple of good songs...’Lolita’ should be an opera...It demands texture and depth. As a musical, it is impossible to find the balance between weighty material and palatable composition."
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"After seeing this musical, I completely understand why it failed. The production and the York do a superb job of this material, but it is incredibly hard to watch...Some of the songs in Lolita are catchy and the First Act is definitely better than the Second...Sella does his best to make us understand his plight while sounding glorious...Maltby does a wonderful job at directing this piece and keeps it flowing and palatable...For me it is just too much to take when done in song."
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"It is definitely worth this fresh look in the concert style staging...The difficulty with the work—and I speak of the musical itself, not this presentation—is that as it grows more and more complicated and serious, Nakokov’s satirical vision is overshadowed, and the right tone that we experience in the first act, is lost. Although there still are some good numbers that Lerner wrote, the story turns primarily nasty...An interesting attempt to make a musical out of a difficult subject."
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