Night Side Songs Off-Broadway Reviews

Night Side Songs can assuredly boast of a stalwart cast, directed by deft Lazours collaborator Taibi Magar. Among them there’s one particularly accomplished member. Three-time Tony nominee (and multiple prize-winner elsewhere) Testa is at her best,...

Night Side Songs can assuredly boast of a stalwart cast, directed by deft Lazours collaborator Taibi Magar. Among them there’s one particularly accomplished member. Three-time Tony nominee (and multiple prize-winner elsewhere) Testa is at her best, as she always is. Just wait for her to go to town on “My Stuff,” the Lazours’ gritty second hot number. Any production is lucky to have this incomparable vet on board. There’s no denying that the Lazours had something substantial in their sights. Too bad they don’t quite hit their target squarely.

Although Night Side Songs’s lyrics intermittently disappoint in their ungainliness, the show’s overall effect is impressive nonetheless. There’s a sense of communion the show reaches for and nearly achieves, as if sickness and suffering, as des...

Although Night Side Songs’s lyrics intermittently disappoint in their ungainliness, the show’s overall effect is impressive nonetheless. There’s a sense of communion the show reaches for and nearly achieves, as if sickness and suffering, as despairing as they can be to experience, are part of an infinite cycle of being taken care of and caring for others. Like time is composed of people by each other’s bedsides for eternity.

Night Side Songs, the new musical by sibling writer duo the Lazours, wears its heart on its sleeve. And nubby sweater. And hospital gown. But for all its earnestness and yearning for connectivity, this song cycle about life, illness (what Susan Sonta...

Night Side Songs, the new musical by sibling writer duo the Lazours, wears its heart on its sleeve. And nubby sweater. And hospital gown. But for all its earnestness and yearning for connectivity, this song cycle about life, illness (what Susan Sontag called “the night side of life”), and death flatlines.

Patrick Lazour and Daniel Lazour, the brother songwriting team who call themselves The Lazours, have composed twelve songs for their show. Eight of them have a choral part for the audience; the cast members hand out a booklet with our parts, and Robi...

Patrick Lazour and Daniel Lazour, the brother songwriting team who call themselves The Lazours, have composed twelve songs for their show. Eight of them have a choral part for the audience; the cast members hand out a booklet with our parts, and Robin de Jesús serves as our choral director for the refrains, while one or more of the other cast members sing the verses, accompanied by Kris Saint-Louis on guitar and Alex Bechtel on piano. Most of the songs have generic lyrics. This doesn’t necessarily make them less powerful. It was terribly moving to sing, over and over again (after Yasmine learns of the results of a biopsy)

The subject matter may be challenging, especially if it elicits memories of your own loved ones’ struggles, but the nature of Night Side Songs ensures that it isn’t lonely. In those aforementioned instances of collective singing—about loss, end...

The subject matter may be challenging, especially if it elicits memories of your own loved ones’ struggles, but the nature of Night Side Songs ensures that it isn’t lonely. In those aforementioned instances of collective singing—about loss, endurance, happiness and care—the show movingly enacts how sharing hard experiences can be a powerful tool for togetherness, learning and healing. For a few precious minutes, we’re on the same side.

Director Taibi Magar successfully creates a warm environment for this show that asks its audience to confront the coldest of human realities and to do it together. In a world that currently often feels so divided, Night Side Songs leans into the grea...

Director Taibi Magar successfully creates a warm environment for this show that asks its audience to confront the coldest of human realities and to do it together. In a world that currently often feels so divided, Night Side Songs leans into the great, final commonality.

While the inescapably weighty themes addressed in Night Side Songs are common to all of us, there’s a trigger warning that “viewer discretion is advised as the subject matter explores emotional and sensitive topics” and the “performance conta...

While the inescapably weighty themes addressed in Night Side Songs are common to all of us, there’s a trigger warning that “viewer discretion is advised as the subject matter explores emotional and sensitive topics” and the “performance contains descriptions of medical procedures, cancer treatments, caregiving; dramatizations of loss and mortality; strong language,” and some might find it overwhelmingly heartrending and tear-inducing. But the intent is to offer a fully cathartic and unifying look at the power of music, theater, and community to help heal what we can’t change, with the realization that we’re all in it together.