THE LITTLE PRINCE Reviews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 12:00am

Post 'em here, kids.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:24pm

DTLI Consensus: Lost in space.

10 negative (including Elisabeth Vincentelli’s NYT review), 1 positive.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/the-little-prince-2/

[David10086]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:32pm

TimeOut New York couldn't possibly bash it more than they did (one star) :

 

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/little-prince-broadway-review?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&cid=~newyork~natsoc~facebook~echobox&fbclid=IwAR1nxDdzTqhC-JLQ4B-Kz0iWKaWW2kEorir5qCQrazJaejsxPShVDNdYICM#Echobox=1649726219

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:33pm

Au revoir petit prince.

[David10086]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:39pm

NY Post couldn't have hated it more than they did:

 

https://nypost.com/2022/04/11/the-little-prince-review-a-lackluster-show-not-fit-for-broadway/

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:43pm

Quite easily the worst overall reception for a Broadway show since Diana.

In other words...

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:43pm

This seems to be the worst-reviewed production this season. Absolutely brutal. I think it just wasn't a good fit for Broadway. 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:45pm

jkcohen626 said: "This seems to be the worst-reviewed production this season. Absolutely brutal. I think it just wasn't a good fit for Broadway."

I'm sure Christopher Ashley, Kelly Devine, David Bryan, and Joe DiPietro would like a word.

[David10086]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:51pm

Christopher Ashley, Kelly Devine, David Bryan, and Joe DiPietro have just thanked the heavens above for the reviews of 'The Little Prince'. The all screamed in delight, 'We're no longer the worst !' 

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 10:54pm

The set, such as it is, is comprised of lazy, textureless projections that bring to mind the 1993 video game “Myst” and the planetary opening sequence of “3rd Rock From the Sun.” 

 

Lol, sounds like six margaritas and a joint would make this an awesome night out!

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 11:02pm

I didn't think this would happen, but I'm so glad people understand my asdfmovies reference (hence the upvotes).

For those that don't: asdfmovies was a series of two-minute comedy YouTube episodes from many years ago, and it involved many stick-figure stock characters. The character in the center of my GIF above is Dougal Flopguy, and whenever he shouts "EVERYBODY DO THE FLOP", everyone around him falls flat on their face with him. 

How apropos for a show like The Little Prince.
 

Updated On: 4/11/22 at 11:02 PM

[bwayplays]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 11:13pm

Not too familiar with this show but it’s the same show that was supposedly super successful overseas, right? Did they change anything from then to now to cause it to flop? I agree maybe the audience for this show isn’t a Broadway crowd. 

[Lumiere2]

Posted: 4/11/22 at 11:59pm

These reviews are worse than terrible...now we'll see what happens to ticket sales...

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 12:43am

jkcohen626 said: "This seems to be the worst-reviewed production this season. Absolutely brutal. I think it just wasn't a good fit for Broadway."

If it had just gone to the New Victory, it might have been largely overlooked by critics. Though maybe families would still hate it even with lowered expectations.

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 12:53am

The New Victory programs some of the very best cirque companies in the world. I can guarantee the families who make up the membership would have hated this. The aerial acts in this show pale in comparison to what they are used to, except for the end where the prince flies over the audience. I was like, NOW you’re going to pull out something show-stopping? When we all have our coats in hand?

 

the narrator was the biggest sin of this production. She was SO distracting. Everything had the same weird affectation, line readings didn’t make sense, no character delineations. They should have just included minimal narration in the form of silent movie style dialogue cards which could appear on the large screen on set. It would have been 100x more successful if it could have just lived as a dance piece without the weird narrator. 
 

the original book remains a whimsical classic. But it has yet to translate into another medium with great success.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 1:22am

How goes he fly over the audience? 

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 2:21am

This will be gone by months end I am sure

[BritCrit]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 5:42am

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "This will be gone by months end I am sure"

It’s a limited run anyway, but it could end up being even more limited...

I am reminded a bit of Rocktopia, another “not a musical, not a play” oddity which opened at the climax of the season (2017/18) and was generally critically panned. It seems like March/April is the time to bury these projects...

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 6:56am

The poor reviews are very interesting because I’ve heard nothing but positive praise from customers at work (albeit they’re all over 65). 

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 7:13am

Lumiere2 said: "These reviews are worse than terrible...now we'll see what happens to ticket sales..."

There weren’t that many sales to begin with. I was at the show last week and the box office had a stack of comps set aside the size of a brick of cheese. I can’t imagine many are actually paying for this show at all.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 9:27am

These reviews are odd because I really enjoyed the show.

My sole reservation was the Aviator flying over the audience without a net. (I was directly under him!)

[Lauren2]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 10:03am

Saw it Saturday night. Got a rush ticket and was front row center. Yes the show wasn’t great, not knowing the story the plot was really odd and didn’t like and sometimes could not understand the narrator. But otherwise the dancing and aerial work was great! If you are going for the dancing you will live it otherwise you won’t enjoy it. 

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 10:33am

Re: "How does he fly over the audience?"

The dancer/aerialist uses rigging hung from just outside the proscenium, allowing him to swing out over the front orchestra seats. This was a genuine "wow" moment, not only because he was twirling above my head, but because this was the best constructed aerial moment of the show when it came to choreo. 

And I'm sure there will be plenty of folks who do enjoy the dancing and circus work. But if you've seen dance or circus before, you will probably be underwhelmed by what's going on here. Cirque du Soleil pitches a tent in New York usually once a year. You could buy a very inexpensive ticket to whatever cirque company The New Victory has booked (they generally have at least one during their season. They've recently had Circus Abyssinia, Circus Oz, 7 Fingers, and Cirque Mechanics). And then dance...there's an astounding number of places in the city to see some of the best dance companies in the world. If The Little Prince is your first exposure to these disciplines, you may be impressed. But if you're a theatergoer who has taken in circus and dance before, it'll leave you mostly shrugging your shoulders. 

Updated On: 4/12/22 at 10:33 AM

[David10086]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 12:51pm

MayAudraBlessYou2 said: "Re: "How does he fly over the audience?"

The dancer/aerialist uses rigging hung from just outside the proscenium, allowing him to swing out over the front orchestra seats. This was a genuine "wow" moment, not only because he was twirling above my head, but because this was the best constructed aerial moment of the show when it came to choreo.
."

I remember when "Sunset Boulevard" was preparing to being staged in London, there were rumors of a plan that "Joe Gillis" (Kevin Anderson) was to float over the audience in a 'dead man's float' position and then land on his feet to narrate the story. That way the audience would feel that they were at the bottom of the pool, looking up at the corpse floating above them.  They were going to use a similar mechanism as they did with the chandelier falling to the stage over the audience's heads in 'POTO'. 

 

However, the idea was nixed when they found out how costly it would be, and Anderson felt it was too dangerous. Does anyone else know more details about this ? That story has stayed with me for a long time. (I had heard it from someone who was working as a stage hand in the LA production, and they were thinking of doing it in LA).

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/12/22 at 1:30pm

I’d never heard that before - man that sounds like it would have been amazing!