Review: Sense and Sensibility

Hey readers!
It's time for my review of Sense and Sensibility.
With not many new shows being on Broadway at the moment I decided to turn to Off-Broadway and see what interesting shows were on. After months of reading the BroadwayWorld forum, I decided to join it to ask if anybody had any recommendations on what to see, so I would like to give a shoutout to Susanswerphone who recommended this play to me. I wasn't really too sure what to expect, but I had read a glowing review of the show by Ben Brantley, so was very interested to see it for myself. The show is so creative and such an interesting concept. I have never, ever, seen a play like this, ever... and that is what is so wonderful about this show. It is so great to see such originality and creativeness like this, it is truly rare to come across a show like this. I did not know any Jane Austen story's beforehand, but it is great to be told one of her stories in this way. The company has limited props and set, and yet they use them so perfectly. The play features a very talented group of actors featuring Laura Baranik, Kate Hamill, Nigel Gore, Jason O'Connell, Kelley Curran, John Russell, Vaishnavi Sharma, Samantha Steinmetz, Eric Tucker and Jack Haley (who was performing in the place of Stephan Wolfert). This cast are absolutely phenomenal. They are each so well cast and all had great chemistry. There was not a single weak link, I was really impressed. The English accents (coming from a Brit) were brilliant. I actually thought a few of them may be English. I stagedoored after the show and asked the cast if any came from England and to my amazement they were all American. English accents can be quite difficult to do and they are often confused with an Australian accent (I'm looking at you Jake Gyllenhaal), but this cast did the accents to perfection. The actors do occasionally interact with the audience, which I absolutely loved. I felt like I was transported to olden days England. I also really liked the venue of The Gym at Judson, it was nice and intimate, which works for a show like this (Even though I  wasn't really a fan of the uncomfy seats). As I stated, I don't really know too much Austen, but one thing I found really interesting in Ben Brantley's review is that he thinks that people who don't usually like Austen will like this play. The only criticism I have for the show is that at several points during the play I did get a little confused. Some of the actors play several roles each, which I think was the source of the confusion, but I feel this can be easily resolved if more was done to differentiate the characters (for example, one character could have glasses and the other without).

The featured star of Sense and Sensibility is, drum roll please... KELLEY CURRAN!

This was a really touch choice as I thought they were all exceptional, but if I had to choose a featured star, I think Kelley would have the edge. I thought she was perfectly cast in this role, she was really good from start to finish. She also reminded me of Anne Hathway, who I am a big fan of!

Now for my final verdict on Sense and Sensibility. I give Sense and Sensibility...

I give this rating because I found this to be such a unique and innovative production, there is nothing like it, but I did get slightly confused at parts.

Think it should have got a higher rating? Think it should have got a lower rating? If so comment below.

Join me next time when I will be reviewing Cageny.

Thanks for reading!

-The Reviewer