Picnic at Hanging Rock @ the Greemwich House Theater

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The Play: Picnic at Hanging Rock, a musical based on the 1967 novel and 1975 film about the mysterious disappearance of a trio of female boarding school students and one of their teachers during a picnic near the site of a former volcano in the southeastern corner of Australia on Valentine’s Day in 1900

Book and Lyrics by: Hilary Bell        Directed by: Music and Arrangements by: Greta Gertler Gold

One good thing: Money has clearly been spent on the atmospheric set, character-defining costumes and finding a committed and strong-voiced ensemble of young actors, several making their New York debuts

One not-so-great thing: The storytelling is muddled and might have benefitted from breaking away from the beats of the source material—particularly its unsatisfying ending—and deciding what message this version wants to tell

 

 


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