Review Roundup: A WRINKLE IN TIME Opens at Arena Stage
What did the critics think of A WRINKLE IN TIME at Arena Stage?
By: Joshua Wright Jun. 30, 2025
Arena Stage's new musical adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time has opened. Staging this intergalactic voyage will be Nicholas Barrón (New York City Center’s Ragtime) as Calvin, Tony nominee Amber Gray (Broadway’s Hadestown) as Mrs. Whatsit, Taylor Iman Jones (Broadway’s Six) as Meg Murry, Vicki Lewis (Broadway’s Damn Yankees) as Mrs. Which, Mateo Lizcano (Broadway’s Kimberly Akimbo) as Charles Wallace, and Stacey Sargeant (Broadway’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf) as Mrs. Who.
Directed by two-time Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans, A Wrinkle in Time will run through July 20, 2025, in Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater.
A Wrinkle in Time is an interstellar world-premiere musical adaptation based on the classic novel by Madeleine L'Engle that has captured the hearts and imaginations of generations. The musical features a book by Doris Duke Artist Award recipient Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band) and music and lyrics by two-time Obie Award winner Heather Christian (Oratorio for Living Things.
While experimenting with time travel and The Fifth Dimension, Meg Murry's father disappears. In a race to rescue him, Meg, her friend Calvin, and her younger brother Charles Wallace set off—across galaxies and time itself—to bring him home. Can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space? Guided by stars, shadowed by darkness, and armed only with her intellect, heart, and a few improbable friends…Meg will learn that love is the most powerful force in the universe.
The gravity-defying ensemble for A Wrinkle in Time will include Leanne Antonio (Broadway’s The Lion King), Michael Di Liberto (Broadway’s Tammy Faye), Kimberly Dodson (Broadway’s Summer), Andrea Jones-Sojola (Broadway’s The Music Man), Aidan Joyce (Monumental Theatre Company’s Spring Awakening), Rebecca Madeira (Signature Theatre’s Sweeney Todd), Gabrielle Rice (Signature Theatre’s The Color Purple), Jon Patrick Walker (Hamilton National Tour), Ronald Joe Williams (Arena’s Unknown Soldier), and Jayke Workman (Broadway’s Chicago). The company is rounded out by swings Alex De Bard (Signature Theatre’s Hair), Edward Simon (Signature Theatre’s Ragtime), Dillan James Smith (PAW Patrol Live!), and Alyssa Enita Stanford (Asolo Rep’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical).
What did the critics think?
Jesse Green, NY Times: Though that voice, and the often obscure if haunting lyrics, are not the root of the trouble here, they necessarily become cloying as they respond so sensitively to a story that enters an endless time wrinkle of its own. The repeated pattern of arrival, crisis and victory, followed by removal to another world where the same thing happens, soon grows laborious, grinding part of the first act and the entirety of the second into an undifferentiated powder. Even the wondrous visuals — in particular the costumes by Sarafina Bush and the faceless eight-foot-tall, purple-furred beasts made by the puppeteer James Ortiz — run into the wall of diminishing returns.
Naveen Kumar, Washington Post: The musical could also make more coherent commentary of its muddled moral: Love still conquers evil, which L'Engle’s book suggests is everything from communism to self-doubt. But what the darkness signifies now — productivity and numbing difficult feelings, the show appears to hint — could be brought into sharper focus. As is true of YA fiction, clear ideas and an economy of words are often the most striking combination.
Rachael F. Goldberg, BroadwayWorld: It's a pleasant surprise, then, that A Wrinkle in Time seems to fit so naturally into its new musical home – particularly since other adaptive mediums have received such mixed receptions over the years. While the production certainly has its rough points, overall there’s something harmonious about a musical interpretation of a tale of internal uncertainty and growth, high-stakes conflict, and the personal, emotional center of the battle between good and evil.
Peter Orvetti, MD Theatre Guide: The narrative flow of the production is uneven, with some elements of the journey stretched through redundant vignettes and others summed up much too rapidly. “A Wrinkle in Time” does not require its mega-musical run time, and would be far more successful if some of these longer scenes were condensed and others given more room to breathe. A two-hour version of this daring new musical could become a true crowd-pleaser for young and adult audiences alike.
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