Based on the legendary Hilton twins, Daisy and Violet, SIDE SHOW follows their heartwarming search for first love and acceptance amidst the spectacle of fame and scrutiny under the spotlight. The world of SIDE SHOW is set against the backdrop of 1920's and '30s show business that seamlessly blend the worlds of carnival, vaudeville, and Hollywood glamour.
Directed by Academy Award-winner Bill Condon (Chicago, Dreamgirls, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2, Gods and Monsters) making his Broadway debut, this exciting new staging of SIDE SHOW has "the flash and velocity of a Hollywood motion picture" and "puts gripping emotion in the main tent" (Los Angeles Times).
Don't miss this remarkable true story of two sisters. The very thing that makes them different... makes them extraordinary.
Despite what seemed like weeks of buzz about its radical transformations, the revival of Side Show that opened on Broadway tonight is not as meaningfully different from the 1997 original as its current creatives would like to think. Now as then, the cult musical about the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton is itself conjoined. (There's no avoiding the Siamese imagery; many of the songs, and even the title, play on the theme.) The story of the Hiltons' rise from circus freaks to vaudeville stars in the early 1930s, with all the requisite references to cultural voyeurism and its human costs, is fused to an intimate story of emotional accommodation between sisters as unalike as sisters can be. The problem with Side Show is that these stories can't be separated, and only one can thrive.
The musical about the real-life conjoined Hilton sisters, which crashed and burned in its 1997 premiere, has risen in a revision so radical and deeply satisfying that arguments could be made for calling it new...And with composer Henry Krieger ('Dreamgirls') and author Bill Russell, Condon created a big, old-fashioned, shamelessly entertaining musical that tells its human story while embracing, without forcing, issues beyond the showbiz saga of the sisters' sensational and sad freak show/vaudeville/Hollywood lives...Emily Padgett and Erin Davie are beautifully matched as the twins...While their predecessors in the roles were soaring pop belters, these women blend and contrast with sophisticated delicacy...the staging is so smart that we hardly notice such schlocky remaining lyrics as 'You should be cherished like the first bird of springtime.' The sisters may sing 'goodbye to the side show,' but Broadway is saying hello.
| 1997 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2006 |
Welsh Revival |
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| 2006 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2014 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Ryan Silverman |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Erin Davie |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Bill Condon |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Side Show |
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Peter Hylenski |
| 2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Side Show |
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