Open Field: Review Roundup

Adam Smith, Marta Rainer, and Kevin R. Free

You Are in an Open Field, the new Off-Broadway musical from New York’s Neo-Futurists, received mixed but generally positive reviews. The creative team is Eevin Hartsough, Kevin R. Free, Marta Rainer and Adam Smith (book and lyrics), Carl Riehl (music), Chris Dippel (direction), Laurie Berg (choreography), Liliana Dirks-Goodman (videos), Lauren Parrish (lights), and Chris Dippel and Lauren Parrish (sets and costumes). The cast includes Kevin R. Free (Kevin), Marta Rainer (Marta), Adam Smith (Adam), Steve French (Actor), and Cherylynn Tsushima (Dancer).

Matthew Murray (Talkin’ Broadway): There are fascinating issues underlying all this … but no one convincingly makes the case for this form of storytelling as the proper communications vehicle. … Though the show would be well served by focusing its message and loosening its dependence on drive-by name-checking … it is fundamentally effective at demonstrating both what electronic games have given a generation and what they’ve inspired those once-young people to give back. These titles don’t rot people’s brains, runs the argument here: They provide a new vehicle for way to expand our concept of the universe, which can be either positive or negative depending on the qualities we provide. You Are in an Open Field could go a lot further with that message, but at just 70 minutes it’s an acceptable start.

Andy Propst (Theater Mania): The first line of classic text-based adventure game Zork gets an existentialist spin coupled with a pounding hip-hop beat. … Although plenty of energy, ideas, and talent abound in this romp, the show, directed by Christopher Dippel, never sufficiently harnesses its considerable assets into anything more than a rowdy series of what feel like improvisational sketches. … Turning video game obstacles and challenges into a metaphor for the hurdles one has to overcome in life is a cunning idea, and when the show manages to zero in on this notion specifically it is at its most interesting. And at other moments, certain absurd flourishes can induce hearty laughs. … However, the enterprise is unbearably weighed down by trivial details, notably bouts of couch-fort building and other pre-pubescent game-playing.

Bess Rowen (NY Theatre): Filled with witty allusions to everything from video games to theatre history to science, this show has something for everyone. The infectious charm of the performers is a joy to watch, and their energy makes this show a non-stop adventure. … The design is clever and even sarcastic at times, which leads to another overall theme of the production. This is a self-aware show, and a great deal of the humor comes from the constant reminder that this is a play – about a video game – by the NY Neo-Futurists. The awareness of each of these levels causes a relationship that includes the audience in an immediate inside joke of doing a play. … You Are in an Open Field is the kind of theatre that inspires me to think about the future of this art form. Equal parts intelligent, funny, and exciting, this show is a postmodern musical that had a modulated vocal track stuck in my head for hours.

Frank Scheck (New York Post): Described as the first “nerdcore musical,” this video game-themed show by the New York NeoFuturists is playing to the initiated. So if your last gaming experience was Pong, you’ll want to skip this one. … It’s all exceedingly silly, but done with enough good humor and antic wit to amuse nongaming aficionados. And there are genuinely funny metatheatrical touches, such as a late-stage meltdown by the hooded actor who says his character doesn’t have “enough of an arc.”