‘Between The Lines’ CLOSING NIGHT @ Tony Kiser Theater: NYC (9/11/22)

Happy Trails to Between the Lines! Sunday, September 11, 2022 was the final performance of this lovely little off-Broadway show that stole my heart! I ended up seeing it 3 times, but oh how I wish I could’ve seen it more, and seen more understudies in the main roles!

You can read my reviews of previous times I saw Between the Lines here (1st time) and here (2nd time).

I’m going to try and be as honest and open in my reviews as I can. Please note these are my personal opinions and I’m always open to discussions!

Show Name: Between The Lines
Show Type: Musical
Location: Tony Kiser Theater at Second Stage Theater, NYC
Date Seen: Sunday, September 11, 2022

“Just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

Between The Lines musical is based on the book by New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer. It follows teenager Delilah as she discovers she can talk to the prince in fairytale book she checked out from the library, and finding a way for them to be together.

The Tony Kiser Theater is a small one, there isn’t a bad seat in that theatre – the energy was so high, I loved all the enthusiasm and cheering after almost every single song! There’s truly magic about a closing night because you know every person there knows what is happening and wants to be there – the show was sold out, of course.

While this chapter may be done, the story isn’t over. We were told after bows that this show was actually recorded!!!!!! As in VIDEO recorded!!!! I will be sure to keep you all updated when and where that will be!!! (I’ve heard rumors of Disney+…) And we’re also getting a cast recording, hopefully soon! I’m so excited, some of these songs have been stuck in my head and I need to hear them recording. Especially “When I’m Talking With Oliver” – its so catchy. (And thats a direct line from the book!)

I’ve spoken about this show before so I won’t go into too specific details, but after Delilah falls into the fairytale world with Oliver and they have their fun, but then she realizes all she left behind and she has to go back to her mom and her life. There’s a song called “Something to Hold On To” that just hit me right in the feels for this last performance. It was more emotional than usual, as the book was being opened (which means the story resets) and Delilah was being pulled away from Oliver, her true love, back into the real world. It’s such a good scene of her being carried away back into real life. I loved the interactions between Arielle Jacobs (Delilah) and Jake David Smith (Oliver) – they were so fun together.

I also have to mention how much I love the character of Jules, played by Wren Rivera – Jules is a non-binary character and so is Wren and I love that accurate casting for that role. Jules teaches the audience just a bit about what it means to be non-binary. When Jules describes themselves, they tell Delilah, “You know how some books are fiction, and some are non-fiction?” Delilah replies, “You’re both?” And Jules said, “I’m the whole f-ing library!” and yes. YES.

Another Jules moment I loved is when Delilah is talking about the “popular” kids at school and how they’re normal, and Jules replies, “Normal is a dryer setting.” and how it’s okay to be different. Words of wisdom from Jules.

When Delilah says she wants to change the ending to get Oliver out of the book and Jules says “How can you change a story you didn’t write? Isn’t that just fanfiction?”… I laughed so hard!!!

The main actor for Rapskullio/Dr. Ducharme, John Rapson, had left a few days prior to the final show (he always planned to leave then, the show was supposed to go on for another month remember!), so we had the understudy take over the role and Martin Landry was SO GOOD IN THIS ROLE! I loved John and thought he was the best, but MARTIN DID SO GOOD I’M SHOOK!

I never got to see the Prince Oliver understudy but I hear he was incredible too and I’m genuinely sad I didn’t get to see him since I love the character of Prince Oliver.

The overall message of this musical is, “Live the story you want, if it’s not the story you’re in.” and that’s so true.

I was able to read the book this musical is based on last week and it was amazing to see the similarities and differences! I took notes (yes, really) during the performance and am going to be sharing my book review and my comparison review soon.

You can watch the final curtain call bows here:

This show has my entire heart and I’m sad I can’t see it on stage anymore, but I’m happy it was recorded! Despite the rain outside, we decided to stage door because YOLO and I’m so glad we did. The energy was just amazing at stage door and everyone was so genuine! I took a selfie with Arielle Jacobs who plays Delilah and she’s such a sweet person, she was like, “Here let me hold the playbill for the photo!” as I took a selfie and MY HEART!!!!! (We had to run over to Brooklyn for My Chemical Romance after this show, so sadly we didn’t see Wren, but that’s the only main person we missed!)

One quick trigger warning: this show does have at least 2 Harry Potter references that I can think off offhand. I wish those were removed honestly. They don’t add much to this story and….JKR….yeah no.

Are you familiar with the novel Between The Lines?
How do you feel about fairytale stories?

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