D.C. Theater Review: ‘Side Show’ Directed by Bill Condon

Remembered for its unconventional theme, its inviting score, its polarizing effect on audiences and its brief, 91-perf run on Broadway in 1997, the cult-favorite flop Side Show now emerges as a thoroughly engaging musical — chock full of satisfying moments and, just as importantly, stripped of the elements that have limited the appeal of this offbeat saga about vaudeville’s conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Credit the dogged determination and creativity of the team that has extensively revised the original — author/lyricist Bill Russell, composer Henry Krieger and screenwriter/director Bill Condon — in a staging that had its initial run at the La Jolla Playhouse last year and now, with further tinkering done in the interim, has opened at the Kennedy Center in D.C.