The Best of Everything

NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS’ PICK!  “To my surprised pleasure, The Best of Everything is neither a delirious sendup nor a mordant, finger-wagging deconstruction. It’s a respectful, hysteria-free, streamlined and appealingly modest effort that lets Jaffe’s working girls speak for themselves.... The whole show is refreshingly free of the 'aren’t-we-clever' self-consciousness that often accompanies such excursions into pop-culture past....  There is a welcome humility at work here, which in turn creates a feeling of unvarnished transparency. This approach gently and divertingly reminds us that Jaffe’s novel focused a clear and abidingly useful gaze on women caught in a moment in time that isn’t as distant as you might suppose.”

--Ben Brantley, The New York Times

 CRITIC’S PICK! 4 STARS! “It’s Stage Door in a Mad Men world, with a jigger of Peyton Place, and Kramer treats its soapiness like a bubble bath whose froth conceals some pretty dirty water.”

--Adam Feldman, Time Out New York

 "This clever adaptation of Rona Jaffe's novel about secretaries in the 1950s is an absolute treat.... The Best of Everything nimbly lives up to its title."

--TheaterMania

"The Best of Everything had me at hello... Everything about this show is impeccable.... the superb acting across the board brings out the humanity in every character... Not to be overlooked is some very precise direction that keeps the flow seamless.... The Best of Everything invites us into the world of typewriters and sexual harassment and by the end I’m left asking the same questions as our grandmothers: can anyone, man or woman, find both fulfillment and love?"

--nytheatre.com

“This tight production zips through Jaffe’s book… plus, it adds a key ingredient: humor… Smart and entertaining… spot-on.”

--Fern Siegel, The Huffington Post

"An eye-opening and enjoyable trip to the '50s... The Best of Everything is one of the rare shows that is funny, entertaining and still shows you something new."

--Reviews Off-Broadway

"There’s always the danger of imitation when a famous film is translated to the stage, but that pitfall is expertly avoided here....in this neatly packaged stage version, [director Julie] Kramer offers only a hint of parody... Rather than treat them as punchlines, the actors and Kramer present these characters as real women dealing with the constraints of their time."

--Backstage

“smartly crafted, staged, and acted”

--Curtain Up