Oratorio For Living Things Off-Broadway Reviews

First, let’s hear it for the highly effective elements: Christian’s music is both sumptuous and austere. That’s to say, its presentation as a modern-day oratorio sounds exactly right, certainly as conducted by Jane Cardona and interpreted by the six-part orchestra playing unseen above the end of the room where audience members enter and exit. The resultant overarching spirituality catches listeners in the palm of its many, many pages of exacting measures.

Oratorio for Living Things completely reshapes what a theatre performance can be. Featuring 12 performers and six musicians, composer Heather Christian's immersive musical work is a sweeping aural experience that blends jazz, soul, blues, and gospel. It moves fluidly between the cosmic and the intimate, zooming out to the Big Bang and in to the small moments that make life worth living.