The local reviews for the new Broadway play Magic/Bird are, well, a jump ball.
From the Boston Herald’s Inside Track:
‘Magic/Bird’ has got game
“Magic/Bird” had the team, the plays and an exuberant fan base to open on Broadway last night with a slam dunk!
(It’s possible that the Herald will also send a theater critic to review the play, although the hardworking staff kind of doubts it.)
From the Boston Globe’s Don Aucoin:
‘Magic/Bird’ misses the mark on Broadway
Nut graf:
With this play, the team behind “Lombardi,’’ a 2010 Broadway drama about the late Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, has heaved up an airball — or, at best, a jumper that clangs off the rim.
The plodding pace, greatest-hits superficiality, and hagiographic tone of “Magic/Bird’’ feels jarringly dated, especially at a time when ESPN’s “30 for 30’’ documentary series has shown what provocative stories can be found and told by those willing to probe beneath the myths that surround sports icons.
Instead, “Magic/Bird’’ floats along the surface, giving off a strong whiff of authorized biography.
Ouch.
Here’s a trailer in case you want their side of the story:
And here’s the New York Times review in case you want a tie-breaker:
Basketball Rivals in a Rematch With Low Stakes
About a third of the way through “Magic/Bird,” a new play about the basketball greats Magic Johnson and Larry Bird that opened on Broadway Wednesday night at the Longacre Theater, a moment of conflict, that crucial building block of drama, finally arrives.
Taunting insults are exchanged. Simmering hostility is heated to a boil. Words are flung like fists, and violence threatens to erupt.
Unfortunately this tense encounter does not involve either of the play’s nice-guy central characters but anonymous fans in a bar, rooting for their favorite teams and displaying the Rottweiler instincts of sports maniacs the world over. Their brief, volatile encounter turns out to be the most dramatic moment in “Magic/Bird,” an efficiently informative but uninspired trek through the lives of two towering (forgive the pun) figures in sports history.
Double ouch.
We’ll see how soon this one fouls out.
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