'Oratorio for Living Things' Off-Broadway review — an aural explosion of joy
Read our review of Oratorio for Living Things off Broadway, the second NYC run of the acclaimed concert-style theatre piece composed by Heather Christian.
Summary
- Oratorio for Living Things is a 90-minute concert-style theatre piece exploring the nature of time
- The cast of strong singers and musicians performs all around the audience
- Audiences have called the show moving and uplifting
- The show is recommended for fans of nontraditional theatre and poetic works
Oratorio for Living Things completely reshapes what a theatre performance can be. Featuring 12 performers and six musicians, composer Heather Christian's immersive musical work is a sweeping aural experience that blends jazz, soul, blues, and gospel. It moves fluidly between the cosmic and the intimate, zooming out to the Big Bang and in to the small moments that make life worth living.
An oratorio is a sacred musical composition for an orchestra and vocalists. In Oratorio for Living Things, time itself is sacred. Christian explores this theme through songs that examine how time operates on quantum, human, and cosmic scales. One piece, titled “Iteration 4: Building DNA Via Ticker Tape of Time Spent,” drew laughter from my audience with lines about spending “10 minutes giving bad directions to strangers,” “3 hours waiting for the water to get hot,” and “18 days looking for a bathroom” during a lifetime.
In some pieces, the voices unite in chorus. In others, like “Memory Harvest,” multiple stories unfold through the song at once. In these moments, proximity shapes the experience. Audience members hear most clearly the performer nearest to them, who may even lock eyes with those close by. I heard a core memory about singing the Bible at a bat mitzvah and another about waking up on Christmas morning to a mountain of comic books.
There’s no shortage of things to see or hear: the performers are in constant motion, and the ear is drawn from one thread to another. The visual center is a glowing, pendant orb that hangs at the center of the theatre (scenic design is by Krit Robinson). Maybe it’s a nebula, a cumulus cloud, or a cluster of cells. Whatever it is, it’s a life force that serves as a focal point for the actors and the audience as it slowly ascends over time.
Another visual stunner is the cast, dressed in striking blue-hued outfits accented with pops of yellow and red (costume designer is Márion Talán de la Rosa). Under the direction of Lee Sunday Evans, the performers play, clap, and move up and down the aisles of the stadium-style space. It’s hard to single out any of the performers; each shines in unison and breakout solos.
Together, the music and movement of Oratorio for Living Things create something vast, intimate, and spectacular.
Oratorio for Living Things summary
Oratorio for Living Things is a sung-through, concert-like work featuring vocalists and musicians. Traditionally, an oratorio is a religious or sacred musical composition. Here, what is holy is time itself. The piece unfolds in three sections, each exploring time on a different scale: the quantum, the human, and the cosmic.
Oratorio for Living Things had its world premiere at Ars Nova in New York City in 2022, and its composer, Heather Christian, was recently awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant.
What to expect at Oratorio for Living Things
Oratorio for Living Things runs 90 minutes with no intermission. The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center is transformed into an arena-style auditorium, with musicians positioned at either end of the space. The action takes place all around the audience members.
Some of the songs are performed in Latin, adding to the disorienting sensation of being part of something bigger while not fully understanding your surroundings. That’s a key theme of the piece, but you can borrow a copy of the script to follow along with, and there are lyric sheets provided at the end of the show for further exploration.
What audiences are saying about Oratorio for Living Things
As of publication, Oratorio for Living Things has an audience approval score of 81% on the review aggregate site Show-Score. Some theatregoers note the challenge of understanding the lyrics, while others praise the show’s uniqueness.
- “I enjoyed this show tremendously... It was an incredible lift to my spirit to have twelve people take me from the beginning of time to the present, showing us that time is so precious/meaningful and at the same time fleeting/meaningless. I was smiling the entire time, turning to see where the music was coming from and from which singer. The seating/staging allowed for a unique delivery of sound and connection with the audience…” - Show-Score user Phill 5282
- “A powerful and moving musical meditation on time. The music, singing, and harmonies wash over the audience in an exhilarating 90 minutes. It felt both personal and cosmic, cleansing and nourishing. A profound, must-see experience.” - Show-Score user Dennis
- “I so wanted to like this. And its major positive is a superb cast, with uniformly exquisite voices. However, I could not understand 90% of what they were singing…When I could make out the lyrics (in the booklet), and looked at the booklet after the show, I felt the lyrics were 90% infantile poetry that one might write in their diary when they were 11. A few were in Latin for absolutely no reason other than some kind of affectation? The other 10% of the lyrics were actually clever and poignant - not enough to support a show…” - Show-Score user CharlesDickensLover
- “This is what I imagine the rapture would've felt like. Words are less meanings to ponder on and more melodic devices. If you love the enveloping power of a choir, this is the thing for you. Each and every actor was locked in throughout the show.” - Show-Score user Bach
Read more audience reviews of Oratorio for Living Things on Show-Score.
Who should see Oratorio for Living Things
- Those who have enjoyed composer Heather Christian’s other New York shows, including 2024's Terce: A Practical Breviary and 2017's Animal Wisdom (returning off Broadway this spring), will want to see this piece.
- Theatregoers who enjoy nontraditional works that blur genres will appreciate Oratorio for Living Things, which is part musical, part choral concert, and part meditation on life. The piece wrestles with big concepts.
- Art lovers who appreciate imaginative, poetic theatre will enjoy this piece. Fans of Sarah Ruhl, whose play Eurydice was recently staged in the same space, are likely to be drawn to this as well.
Learn more about Oratorio for Living Things
A singular musical experience, Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things bends time, blends genres, and defies expectations.
Photo credit: Oratorio for Living Things off Broadway. (Photos by Ben Arons)
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