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.
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.
If ever there was a show that defines the phrase 'cult musical', it's Side Show...If you saw Side Show the first time around, you may not recognize it...And if you didn't see it the first time around, you're likely to leave asking: what was all the fuss about? Certainly not this leaden, sporadically moving update -- which bears little resemblance to the original production...in giving the girls a backstory...Condon subverts the show's momentum...One aspect such revisions have not messed with: the two linchpins of Side Show's score, the twins' power-ballad duets 'Who Will Love Me As I Am?' and 'I Will Never Leave You', both as heart-stopping (and tear-jerking) as ever, and Padgett and Davie are never more connected than they are in those moments...But in making Daisy and Violet's connection literal, the production robs us of a chance to fully relate to the sisters -- even if it is just, as Houdini sings, 'all in the mind.' C
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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