If/Then is a contemporary new musical that follows two distinct story lines in the life of Elizabeth, a city planner who moves back to New York to restart her life in this city of infinite possibilities. When her carefully designed plans collide with the whims of fate, Elizabeth's life splits into two parallel paths. If/Then follows both stories simultaneously as this modern woman faces the intersection of choice and chance.
If/Then is an original musical written by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning creators of Next to Normal, and starring Idina Menzel in her much-anticipated return to Broadway after her Tony Award-winning performance in Wicked.
If/Then also stars Tony Award winner LaChanze (The Color Purple) and reunites Idina Menzel with her original Rent co-star, Anthony Rapp.
If/Then surely answers all those needs. You absolutely never know what is going to happen, right up to the last, surprisingly moving beat. You appreciate its addressing the central dilemma of career vs. family in a very direct way and then, quietly but completely, undermining it in the end. That it does all this while also looking as beautiful, and moving as smoothly, as any modern show could, with superior performances from top to bottom from a gorgeously multi-everything cast, are just some of the signs that the director Michael Greif is offering his finest work to date.
Beautifully and accessibly scored, 'If/Then' tracks its central character, an urban planner by trade, through two different sets of life choices. One involves kids and a traditional guy. The other features a bigger career but less cultivated, and thus more complex, romantic entanglements with the indecisive and conflicted (the choice between saving the world and liking Whole Foods being another dichotomy that confounds the Coldplay generation and thus infuses this show)...'If/Then' is, for sure, overstuffed with huge crises in both storylines, and since we're double-timing here, they cascade at times in Yorkey's book with dizzying, credibility-sapping rapidity. The expositional needs are intense, but once it's clear that we're tracking Elizabeth's happiness, or lack thereof, and once Kitt and Yorkey provide her with a blistering number about bad choices that she can sing in her bathroom, the audience is in Menzel's and the show's pocket.
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