Washington Post - Recommended
"...Its name is "Candide," and for those who simply seek to savor its luscious music, the overblown, endlessly digressive story it has to tell will not be much of an obstacle. Be forewarned, though: The show's so enamored of its own cleverness that the marvelous musicality is crushed at times under the weight of its ungainly literary conceits."
Washington Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...If you think you know Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" because you've seen it somewhere along the line since it premiered on Broadway in 1956, think again. The "Candide" currently playing at the Shakespeare Theatre, a co-production with Chicago's Goodman Theatre, indeed reproduces Bernstein's brilliant music, Hugh Wheeler's book adapted from Voltaire's original, and lyrics by Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Bernstein."
MetroWeekly - Recommended
"...Adapted by Mary Zimmerman – who also directs this production – from the operetta created by Leonard Bernstein and Hugh Wheeler with lyrics by Richard Wilbur and additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker, Shakespeare Theatre Company has dressed Candide in as many frills and sparkly sequins as possible. Set designer Daniel Ostling has transformed the Harman into an ever-changing series of nesting boxes, each scene coaxing something new and unexpected into view. While every move in his bag of showy tricks is not a total triumph (the show's finale actually feels somewhat anemic after the grand adventure we've been led on) it's one of this season's more memorable visual productions."
The Wall Street Journal - Somewhat Recommended
"...Of all the great musicals, "Candide" poses the biggest problems to anyone who tries to stage it. It's universally agreed that Leonard Bernstein's brilliant operetta-style score is altogether worthy of Voltaire's ferocious satire of 18th-century optimism, but the original 1956 Broadway production closed after 73 performances, mainly because of the heavy-handedness of Lillian Hellman's book, and since then the show has been revised and rewritten repeatedly in an attempt to make it work. Now Mary Zimmerman, whose "Metamorphoses" hit big in 2002, has taken up the challenge, concocting a new version of "Candide" co-produced by Chicago's Goodman Theatre and the Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington, D.C., where I saw it last week. I wish I could say that Ms. Zimmerman has finally cracked the "Candide" code, but her version, despite many memorable moments, fails once again to solve the problem of creating a convincing context for Mr. Bernstein's miraculously effervescent music."
WeLoveDC - Highly Recommended
"...Let me be up-front about this: part of what hooked me in Candide is the same thing I enjoyed in Zimmerman’s Argonautica – a way of presenting the scenery and action that is very stage-specific. Model boats held up in in a puppet style on sticks “float” along the background to represent ships in the distance. Ropes stretch from above, held by actors portraying nameless sailors, and are whipped about to set the scene on a storm-tossed and tragic journey by boat. A field of colorful tulips sprout up all over the stage when Candide is in a city of pastoral beauty."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...The large cast and capable orchestra, conducted by Doug Peck, are most in their element when they get to perform Bernstein's music. The production runs three hours; the dialogue scenes sometimes get a little slow, packed as they are with both exposition and philosophical debate, but they never become too ponderous. (Zimmerman also never works too hard to emphasize the contemporary parallels with the narrative, although she does include a reference to the "great intelligent design" that powers the world.)"
Washington City Paper - Highly Recommended
"...All these things, taken individually, might be merely clever, merely rich, merely pleasing. Zimmerman marshals them so that they come together in breath-stopping moments. A battle is a ballet for cannonballs. A swordfight in Buenos Aires is somehow slow-motion buddy-comedy slapstick. (Never mind that it’s being performed live, without benefit of a half-speed projector.) That moment with a shattered Candide in a corner, washed in pewter light? The stage has, until seemingly that instant, been teeming with people sing merrily about the tonic pleasures of a good auto-da-fé; Zimmerman somehow makes them vanish all together, or tricks the eye so thoroughly that you’re convinced they have, and the shift in tone is a fist to the gut. Another breath, and she’s brought you to an ecstatic height again, with a tug on a veil and a resurrection that’s as gratifying as the one she once gave a princess in Pericles."
Washington Times - Highly Recommended
"...Voltaire’s "Candide," directed capably by Mary Zimmerman, features a stellar cast, gorgeous costumes and impressive set design. Co-produced with Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, this musing on whether everything is for the best because God is benevolent (i.e: every experience in life is always in divine order) is both hilarious and serious and delicious, visually and musically. With music by the late Leonard Bernstein (with witty lyrics added later by both Richard Wilbur and Stephen Sondheim), this parody on religious and political authority, marriage, war and commerce will keep you thoroughly engaged during the more than 2-½-hour production."
Washingtonian - Highly Recommended
"...Imagine a naive young man who has been indoctrinated from an early age with the philosophy that “this is the best of all possible worlds” and everything that happens is good. Cast this young man off to seek his fortune amid wars, inquisitions, earthquakes, and other calamities both natural and man-made. Expose him to the evils that lurk in the hearts and minds of nearly everyone he meets. How long can his blind faith survive? Is optimism a gift or a curse?"
Fairfax Times - Highly Recommended
"...Packard is perfectly cast, with a sweet tenor voice and boyish good looks for this plum role of a young man who begins life at the top -- though of illegitimate birth -- and then must face one awful challenge after another as he seeks to win the hand of the beautiful Cunegunde."
BrightestYoungThings - Highly Recommended
"...Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is cheeky, energetic fun. Using Voltaire’s 1759 as its source material, Bernstein’s musical satirizes western civilization with an equal cheerfully wicked punchlines. The music and lyrics are full of punchy wit, and under the direction of Macarthur fellow Mary Zimmerman, the production finds resourceful ways to convey its globetrotting plot. With a strong cast and several exceptional performances, Candide is an absolute delight."
Curtain Up - Highly Recommended
"...Voltaire wrote that optimism "is a mania for maintaining that all is well when things are going badly." Thanks to his wit and satire and those who are interpreting it, Washington has something to laugh about this December. "
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new production of Leonard Bernstein’s time-traveling satirical operetta Candide is a thumping-good evening of intellectual musical theater. Generally fast-paced and loaded with political and social satire, it comes to DC at just the right time in this over-hyped, whirlwind political year.
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...I first became aware of this masterpiece thanks to the Hal Prince production in 1973 where he gutted the entire orchestra of the Broadway Theatre, made it a theater-in-the-round so that actors intermingled with audience members. I recall they even had free peanuts. Prince had playwright Hugh Wheeler rewrite Lillian Hellman's original script. This production lasted two years and starrEd Lewis J. Stadlin with the great Patricia Birch doing the choreography. Prince got help from Stephen Sondheim and John Latouche who added additional lyrics. Even though I saw this 37 years ago, I remember it fondly and can still picture it."
