Ripping Thriller Shows How Hell Broke Loose

Herding all of it into a smashing piece of entertainment is director Daldry (The Inheritance, Billy Elliot: The Musical) and his co-director and frequent collaborator Justin Martin (Prima Facie), who funnel all the moving parts, colors, smoke, mirrors and monsters into a non-stop thrill ride. Sure, it’s more surface than substance, and its depictions of how we humans long for connection of any sort is sincere if not particularly original. But just try not to be tickled by even the simplest of the show’s trickery, like when a book fallen from a school locker flies right back in. At one point in the play, young, brainwashed Henry, under the villainous Brenner’s sway, can only surrender to the dark magic. I know the feeling.