Review Roundup: SEAGULL: TRUE STORY at the Public Theater

Seagull: True Story is officially open at The Public Theater’s LuEsther Hall. Following runs at La MaMa and London’s Marylebone Theatre, the play will now run through May 3. Read reviews for the production.

Created and directed by Alexander Molochnikov, an internationally acclaimed director from the Moscow Art Theatre, and written by Eli Rarey, Seagull: True Story fuses autobiographical drama and biting political satire with classic Chekhovian themes. This politically charged retelling of Molochnikov’s attempt to stage Chekhov’s The Seagull unfolds as a whirlwind of comedic mayhem, artistic rebellion, and deeply personal reflection on displacement, censorship, and the pursuit of creative freedom. 

The show features Gus Birney, Andrey Burkovskiy, Ohad Mazor, Myles McCabe, Quentin Lee Moore, Keshet Pratt, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Eric Tabach, and Elan Zafir. Read BroadwayWorld's review of the production at London’s Marylebone Theatre HERE!

Bobby McGuire, One-Minute Critic: My main quibble is that it feels like two plays. Act I works as a prescient recent-history prologue, while Act II leans harder into Chekhovian parallels, making the earlier drama feel more like setup than a seamless whole. Still, Molochnikov’s direction has cohesiveness that grounds the evening with satire and sincerity. If you’re adapting a play about staging The Seagull, you’d better mind Chekhov’s famed gun principle. Seagull: True Story aims a few too many and forgets to fire half of them. But when it does pull the trigger, the shot rings loud, true, and absolutely worth the theatrical mayhem.

Thom Geier, New York Theatre Guide: In the end, Kon’s New York production of The Seagull is the joke, an impossible dream dashed in both countries, so he signs up to direct an artistically empty spectacle to advance his career. The play creates parallels between how both Russian censorship and American greed make it nearly impossible to create real art. Despite some misfires and unevenness, the play offers a crucial lesson: Russian authoritarianism may seem like the clear evil, but America’s obsession with turning art into profit can be similarly stifling for artists who want to make political work.

Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: One drawback of this modern interpretation of The Seagull is the decision to center the new show entirely on Constantine/Kon, which gives short shrift to Chekhov’s other main protagonists (who here receive much sketchier treatment). But Molochnikov is less interested in grappling with a classic than using it as a proxy for the threat to artistic expression by institutional censorship. In that regard, Seagull: True Story can pack a powerful punch — perhaps never more so than when Anton comments as he’s dragged off to prison, “Something like THAT could never happen in America, right?” It’s a good question, well timed for an era when the Trump administration has publicly targeted artists and institutions it loathes. This show reminds us that freedom, like love, must be nurtured and defended on a daily basis lest it fall into disuse — or worse, into the hands of a tyrant who would quash it.

Sarah Downs, The Front Row Center: In Seagull: True Story, currently playing at the Public Theater, writer Eli Rarey; and creator/director Alexander Molochnikov welcome us into the wild and wooly world of their imaginations, in a smart, “Cabaret”-esque, autobiographical absurdity where art and life collide at lightning speed. It goes from dog and pony show to fractured fairy tale, in a searingly nihilistic evocation of ‘plus ça change.’ Seagull: True Story is mostly bedlam — and I kinda love it.

Brian Eugenio Herrera, #TheatreClique: An ambitious and not infrequently engaging exploration of the role of the artist in a society overdetermined by political cataclysm, social instability, and economic disparity. The hook? A juxtaposition of Russia and the US as not exactly alike but not all that different either. This Seagull’s “true story” is that of Constantine (or “Kon”) — a figure not without resemblance to the show’s director/creator Alexander Molochnikov.

Gregory Fletcher, Stage and Cinema: What emerges is a vivid exploration of artistic survival, resistance to censorship, and the enduring necessity of live theater. Molochnikov’s production doesn’t merely argue for theater’s relevance—it embodies it, with restless energy and a palpable love of the form. In its final moments, Seagull: True Story reminds us that even in exile, even under constraint, art finds a way to take flight—and here, it soars.

Scott Harrah, Stagezine: At times, the production may remind audiences of Cabaret. In both works, performance unfolds against a backdrop of political unease. Likewise, the presence of LGBTQ identity within a repressive environment adds urgency. In particular, a gender-bending character named Gorgeous (Ohad Mazor) appears in androgynous clothing—something that would likely not be tolerated in Putin’s Russia, where even expressions of gender nonconformity are policed. These elements deepen the emotional and political stakes.

Average Rating: 72.9%