I know this musical is extremely popular and very widely covered, but I still felt the need to review it. I took quite a few theatre classes in college and in each one we not only got to evaluate the work as a piece of theatre, but as a piece of literature. This entirely changed the way I watched any play or musical. 

 

This play really caught me by surprise. I didn’t know a lot about it when I first walked into the theater besides that Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathon Groff were two of the three main characters. The set was beautiful. It was the outer wall of a modern house complete with a set of steps to stage left and large windows upstage. I found myself wondering how they could possibly use this set to move through space and time as I knew the plot required. 

 

The set transitioned beautifully throughout the show. I had never seen anything like it that moved so beautifully from an indoor to outdoor scene, from New York to LA, from a small first apartment to a large, elegant apartment. Usually, I feel as though sets can only accomplish a few venues pretty well. I think I’ve seen quite a few shows where to represent being outside they just dimmed the lights and stood downstage, far removed from any sort of structure. I know some shows are limited by budget, but this always took me too far out of the world of the play and I was never a fan of it. 

 

They also utilized a repeated transition number and the actors themselves to help move from scene to scene. I’m not usually a fan of this as I feel it pulls you out of the world of the show too much, but I think it worked surprisingly well here. Because of the musical moving backwards in time, the show was already in the world of the surreal, so our characters moving props didn’t really change too much about that. Each transition scene was meant to pull you out of the world of the play and push you a few years back into the next scene, so I wasn’t as bothered by it as I usually am.

 

The other element of this musical I really loved was the fact that it moved backward in time. My favorite play, How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel, also moves back in time. The time change provides a new perspective to any play or musical. This is more of my literary analysis of the book of the play rather than of the show itself, but I am always a huge fan of this choice when it is done well. I always find it so much more fascinating to ask how and why things ended up the way they did instead of wondering what is going to happen next. A play that moves backwards in time allows me the time to do just that.

 

I also think it’s one of those rare musicals where you can take the lessons learned and apply them to your own life. I find that many shows don't translate well into the real world or they're too satirical or too metaphorical. I think part of the reason I loved this show so much was because it felt very real. I think every person in the audience was able to see themselves in the characters and their decisions. I believe every person left that theatre wondering how they got to the point they are at in their lives.

 

Moving backward in time also makes the lessons learned throughout the show more obvious in my opinion. I believe this is because I was waiting throughout each scene to see where the problems started; they are glaringly obvious to the point where the audience would sigh or gasp when the moment finally came. I haven’t seen that sort of reaction to any show in a while. 

 

Since seeing this show I think I have become much more aware of how every little thing I do can have a drastic effect on my life. Though that may sound scary, I think it can be comforting to a certain extent. It makes you realize how many possibilities and choices there are and makes you feel a little more in control of your life path because you never really do know what can happen. All you can do is continue to make the choices that feel right to you. 

 

Until I have some moore thoughts,

Elizabeth