Birthday Candles
Opening Night: April 10, 2022
Theater: American Airlines
Website: www.roundabouttheatre.org
Debra Messing (Will & Grace) returns to the stage as Ernestine Ashworth, who spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, dozens of goldfish, an infinity of dreams, one cake baked over a century. What makes a lifetime…into a life?
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
April 10, 2022
Noah Haidle’s “Birthday Candles,” which opened on Broadway Sunday night at the American Airlines Theater, tries to build poignancy and depth through moments that repeat like a record needle stuck in a groove. Instead, this Roundabout Theater Company production gets caught in a superficial cycle of wannabe profundities and emotional pantomimes.
READ THE REVIEW
April 10, 2022
But Birthday Candles, directed by Vivienne Benesch, is little more than a compendium of twee pseudo wisdoms: Everything is made of stardust, forgiveness is the heart of most major religions, goldfish only have a three-second memory span, and so forth. There’s a slice of life somewhere in this oversugared and underbaked confection, but even that slice is stale.
READ THE REVIEW
April 10, 2022
Despite whatever missteps, though, Messing and the rest of the cast nicely convey the spectrum of emotions that a life’s sweep encompasses, from happy times to sad (at the reviewed performance, audience sobs and sniffles were as audible as the laughter). Not even a tacked-on final birthday scene that strains credulity can sour the simple, icing-sweet pleasures of Birthday Candles.
READ THE REVIEW
April 10, 2022
As it confronts the big and small questions of existence and time itself, Birthday Candles itself proves simultaneously over-baked and under-baked, but its performers ensure it is served warm.
READ THE REVIEW
April 10, 2022
Because what begins sweetly enough only grows treacly and saccharin the longer it lingers on the palate. The blatantly tear-jerking final scenes manage to feel both overwrought and too easy, tugging at low-hanging heartstrings until they’re thin as a wick.
READ THE REVIEW
April 10, 2022
But even with Messing’s surface-level engagement and the lack of an exciting plot, by appointing a supporter as Birthday Candles’ heroine, Haidle manages to prove that toiling for one’s daily bread and serving others is often a holy act.
READ THE REVIEW
April 10, 2022
Without any particular viewpoint, Haidle takes us through a woman’s time on earth without a shred of philosophy: humanism, nihilism, objectivism, objectivity are nowhere to be found. All we’re left with is these candles that just won’t blow out.
READ THE REVIEWApril 10, 2022
Still, judging by the sniffs in the audience by the play’s conclusion, it’s clear Birthday Candles landed with some. Personally, I was more upset about the cake’s fate than Ernestine’s.
READ THE REVIEWApril 10, 2022
“Smokefall” was an unforgettable play. “Birthday Candles” is even better.
April 10, 2022
Birthday Candles as a play feels much like this overly-hyped cake, which in reality is just a run of the mill vanilla cake made up of a single, unfrosted layer. Sure it may smell nice for a minute or two when it comes out of the oven but it is hard to not feel underwhelmed by its lack of complex flavors, its missing layers, and its absent decorations. This production certainly won’t be getting Star Baker anytime soon.
READ THE REVIEW