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

'Side Show' review: Stellar revisions make revival worthy of Broadway - Newsday

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.

'Side Show': Theater Review - Hollywood Reporter

Bill Condon's fabulous "revisal" maximizes the material's strengths and minimizes its weaknesses, serving up mesmerizing entertainment veined throughout with haunting poignancy...Condon puts the sideshow exhibits on lurid display, starting with the intoxicating opening number, "Come Look at the Freaks." This has the unexpected effect, however, not of vulgarizing but humanizing not only Daisy and Violet, but their entire "odditorium" family...Davie and Padgett simply couldn't be better...the synchronization of their movements is as remarkable as their exquisite vocal harmonization. Their performances are both symbiotic and beautifully individualized...Irrespective of any awkwardness that creeps into the plot-heavy storytelling, the flaws are never enough to take us out of the show's enveloping world or to compromise our investment in the fates of Violet and Daisy...even when it borders on kitsch, the music pulls you in. It's not a top-tier score but it's a very good one, melodic and memorable despite lyrics that can be a tad literal and emphatic...Side Show may never be a classic musical, but in this superb production it's a hypnotic spectacle that packs an emotional wallop. Step right up.