"For the 75th anniversary of New York City Center, the creators of this season’s Encores! Off-Center summer series of staged concerts came up with the charming idea of interviewing City Center employees and weaving their stories into the fabric of a show...I wish that the show in which they appear — each in a multitude of roles — were similarly quirky and spontaneous-seeming. Yet there’s a weariness about this latest version of 'Working.'"
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★★★★ "New York City Center has had great success with its Encores! and Encores! Off-Center programs where they present musicals in concert form. In the Encores! Off-Center program, they take ground-..."
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"This latest iteration, performed by a cast of eight talented principals, shows why the material remains relevant and relatable...As for the presentation, it's pleasantly entertaining, if somewhat lacking in vitality — marred by some static staging, abrupt transitions and a problematic sound mix on opening night. It doesn't exactly make a revelatory case for the disjointed musical, but it showcases the sui generis piece's singularity."
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"This well-intentioned but forced reworking leads to uneven results in what is otherwise an enjoyable and high-spirited 90-minute production...The City Center-focused monologues do not fit in well with the rest of the musical and tend to be slow and repetitive. However, it was a novel idea to pay tribute to the people 'working' all around the audience. It also leads to a visual surprise at the end."
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"The lovely thing about Anne Kauffman's Off-Center production is that it's delivered with a wholesome spirit of generosity and gratitude, and expects nothing in return...It's one of the more modest productions City Center has seen in recent years...This production hasn't been created for City Center's regular patrons, but rather is a long overdue gift to the workers who keep those patrons safe, secure, and entertained."
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"Encores! Off-Center Turns WORKING Into A Tribute To New York City Center's Employees"
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"Comes thrillingly and most entertainingly alive...Truly, it shouldn't be effective at all...But thanks to a splendid cast that includes the highly talented Helen Hunt, Andréa Burns, Javier Muñoz, Christopher Jackson, Mateo Ferro, Tracie Thoms, and David Garrison, along with smart and spritely directing by Anne Kauffman, what you get is not just a series of songs, but a series of self-contained musical plays."
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"Javier Muñoz and Andréa Burns are grateful in Miranda’s 'A Very Good Day,' concerning immigrants biding time and sending money to families who have yet to immigrate. Needless to point out, the threnody is extremely resonant in 2019. In the intermissionless 90 minutes that 'Working' entertainingly takes up, director Anne Kauffman does her own work with the kind of effortless effort that some but not all workers (depending on the kind of demands put on them) are able to achieve."
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