What: 44 Lights
Where: AMT Theater
354 W. 45th St.
New York, NY
Who: Recommended for Ages 13 and Up
When: Through May 25, 2024
 |
44 Lights is the story of a group of officemates dealing with 9/11 and its aftermath. The musical's book, music, and lyrics were all written by Tim Tuttle who also serves as the show's narrator. Tuttle is fine as a narrator but he doesn't have the best singing voice so he should have left the singing to the rest of the cast. The women in the show have the best voices particularly Constance Hastie as Donna, Lindsay Wheeler as Nellie, and Erin Morris as Mary.
The show spends too much time, most of the first act, establishing the character's lives before 9/11. Of course, some exposition is necessary, but too much mundane office stuff just becomes boring. The songs, for the most part, don't really enhance the story either. Rather than increasing the show's momentum, they just slow it down.
The acting is, for the most part, good though. Marcus Lorenzo, in the role of Tommy, does a particularly nice job in the scene where his character has an emotional breakdown after realizing how destructive and soul-destroying his initial enraged reaction to 9/11 is. This is one of the few truly heartfelt, gut-wrenching moments in the show that actually make the audience feel something. However, overall it just feels like 2 and 1/2 hours of dredging up a lot of sadness, particularly for anyone who lived in New York City or its vicinity at the time of 9/11, with minimal payoff.
And that's our view. For more about 44 Lights or to purchase tickets, visit 44lights.com.
Tune in Saturday for Still More Theater Saturday.
Photo credits:
All 44 Lights production photos by Michael D'Angora
Images used in this post have been sent to us from publicists, artists, and/or PR firms and are used by permission. If there is a problem with the rights to any image, please contact us here, and we will look into the matter.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment