Based on the legendary Hilton twins, Daisy and Violet, SIDE SHOW follows their heartwarming search for first love and acceptance amidst the spectacle of fame and scrutiny under the spotlight. The world of SIDE SHOW is set against the backdrop of 1920's and '30s show business that seamlessly blend the worlds of carnival, vaudeville, and Hollywood glamour.
Directed by Academy Award-winner Bill Condon (Chicago, Dreamgirls, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2, Gods and Monsters) making his Broadway debut, this exciting new staging of SIDE SHOW has "the flash and velocity of a Hollywood motion picture" and "puts gripping emotion in the main tent" (Los Angeles Times).
Don't miss this remarkable true story of two sisters. The very thing that makes them different... makes them extraordinary.
And yet, putting all that aside the real and tragic problem with Side Show is that I never for a single moment thought I was seeing conjoined twins, two individual sisters with passions and desires of their own who were also connected in every possible way to each other. They merely seemed like two women who just happened to be standing very close to each other. I don't know why. Having heard repeatedly about the magical symbiotic performances of Ripley and Skinner, I was eagerly looking forward to what Davie and Padgett would do. They are good and sing with precision and passion on the big numbers 'Who Will Love Me As I Am?' and 'I Will Never Leave You.' I just never felt they were very well connected.
For a musical about true-life conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, the strange and stirring 'Side Show' has a nagging habit of losing its grip. Chalk it up to dramatic inconsistencies and thin characterizations. Even so, there's a lot to like about the revised vision...Beyond a laudably offbeat topic, two very good leading ladies and a shadowy, evocative design, this show's most stunning jewels are brilliant songs by composer Henry Krieger and lyricist Bill Russell, who revamped the book with director Bill Condon...Despite its unusual material, this reimagined 'Side Show' remains standard singing bio. Par for the course, the tale of two long-forgotten curios zips along quickly but feels like a lot is missing -- and what's here is sanitized...We take a journey with these dreamgirls, but there's no truly satisfying payoff -- or a portrait that goes deeper than the skin.
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