Side Show - 2014 - Broadway Tickets, News, Info & More

United by Life, Divided by Dreams - New York Times

This beautiful and wrenching musical, lovingly directed by Bill Condon, asks us to step inside their skins and feel what it's like to be celebrated one moment, rejected the next, and to have the strange consolation of a companion who shares it all: the pain, the joy, the hope, the frustration...As portrayed with layered complexity -- and pin-you-to-your-seat vocal chops -- by Erin Davie and Emily Padgett, the Hilton twins embody an essential truth about the human condition: On some level we are forever divided in our desires and, life being what it is, thwarted in at least some of them. Also: It's just a wonderful musical. Imperfect, yes, but most shows are. And in this engrossing showbiz saga, story and song are knit together with liquid finesse, particularly as newly revised by its authors, with the help of Mr. Condon (the films "Gods and Monsters" and "Dreamgirls"), whose direction mixes the goth and the glam to flavorful effect...The rich, melodic score and a passionate cast bring alive the tumultuous yearnings in the characters' hearts.

New 'Side Show' brings thrills, chills, compassion - USA Today

It's impossible to see Side Show...and not marvel at how much pop culture and media have changed -- not just over the past century, but also since the show premiered on Broadway 17 years ago...Director Bill Condon's darkly glittering, substantially revised new production of Side Show (***½ out of four stars)...does invite us to question the increasing nonchalance with which we dissect and ridicule public figures of all sorts...Erin Davie and Emily Padgett make the Hiltons convincing as both sisters and wounded survivors. Their bright, resonant sopranos blend impeccably; Davie's Violet tackles the top notes with a delicacy and ardor that emphasize the character's fragility and fear, while Padgett gives Daisy pluck and wit...In the scorching finale, other members of the side show gather upstage as the Hiltons face the merciless glare of the spotlight with a chilling sense of resignation. "Come look at the freaks," they sing, but this Side Show reminds us, at every turn, of the humanity they share with us -- all of us.