'The Picture of Dorian Gray' Broadway review — Sarah Snook gives a visionary performance
Read our review of The Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway, a solo adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic novel starring Succession Emmy Award winner Sarah Snook.
The camera loves Sarah Snook. In this one-woman stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Snook masterfully plays to both the camera and the audience at the Music Box Theatre in a career-defining performance. The Picture of Dorian Gray flips the script on the solo show and offers the most innovative use of cameras on Broadway to date.
Snook tackles dozens of roles with remarkable aplomb, from a cynical aristocrat to a Cockney maid to the dynamic protagonist and beyond. This is where the cameras come in: the live Snook shares scenes with pre-recorded footage of herself. The camera also captures her performance in real time, portraying her expressive face on large screens suspended above the stage. Almost like a 19th-century portrait.
Written and adapted by Kip Williams, the show playfully explores the timeless obsession with youth and beauty. It juxtaposes these ideals in the Victorian era — with corsets and wigs — and the modern era, with tools like Facetune and lip fillers. At its core, the production celebrates Wilde’s brilliant storytelling while offering new insights to the 1890 book.
And while the source material is dark (spoiler alert: the title character sells his soul), Williams and Snook imbue this production with pure joy. For a comic bit, Snook and a pre-recorded version of herself have overlapping dialogue and argue with each other (themselves?) about who can tell the next part of the story. At my performance, Snook was having so much fun on stage she made herself laugh more than once.
It’s a good thing she was laughing because if she wasn’t, the tour-de-force performance might have made her cry. I was exhausted and completely enthralled by Snook’s boundless energy onstage. The 2-hour, intermissionless play gave few opportunities for Snook to catch a breath, let alone take a sip of water.
Her performance is a masterpiece in both the physical demands of theatre and the brilliance of camera work, with every subtle rise of an eyebrow captured on screen. She deserved all the cheers at the multiple curtain calls, and a very long nap.
The Picture of Dorian Gray summary
The Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted by Kip Williams, is based on Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel of the same name. The story follows Dorian Gray, an innocent young man whose beauty is immortalized in a portrait. Dorian makes a fateful wish that he would sell his soul to remain as beautiful as his picture.
As Dorian grows older, his face remains youthful and untouched, but the portrait becomes distorted and grotesque, representing the corruption of his soul and the consequences of his hedonistic lifestyle.
What to expect at The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams's production first wowed audiences in London in 2024, where Sarah Snook won an Olivier Award for her performance. And while Snook is the requisite star, the production is made possible with a small army of camera operators who also move set pieces and help Snook into wigs and costume pieces on stage. Everything requires incredibly precise blocking, and in some scenes, the camera operators dance around Snook in careful choreography.
What audiences are saying about The Picture of Dorian Gray
On the review aggregator Show-Score, The Picture of Dorian Gray has an audience approval score of 91%, with audiences praising Snook’s performance and the innovative staging.
- “WOW. Just beyond exceptional. The use of cameras and technology and screens to have her do all these characters was really creative. And I was blown away by her stamina to keep going for that long. I wish they'd do an audiobook of her performance! Cannot recommend this more. I'd wager that Wilde would be proud.” - Show-Score user kritvenks
- “Redefined theater and the use of other media forms within it, the genre of a one person show, and has introduced never seen before masterful storytelling. And that's even without talking about the mesmerizing abilities of Sarah Snook as a wizard of her craft.” - Show-Score user Tal 3125
- “A mesmerizing evening in the theater. I'm usually not a fan of the use of cameras within the confines of the actual piece, but with this one it succeeds gloriously. Sarah Snook is transcendent and gives one of the great theatrical performances of the season and more.” - Show-Score user Mark K 6139
Read more audience reviews of The Picture of Dorian Gray on Show-Score.
Who should see The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Fans of HBO’s award-winning television drama Succession, for which Sarah Snook won an Emmy Award, will appreciate her captivating Broadway debut.
- Theatregoers who enjoy stage adaptations of classic literature, particularly those that bring new insights into timeless stories, will enjoy this adaptation.
- Audiences who appreciate groundbreaking use of technology in live theatre will find that The Picture of Dorian Gray wonderfully blends live performance and video footage.
Learn more about The Picture of Dorian Gray on Broadway
You don’t have to have read The Picture of Dorian Gray to appreciate this theatrical marvel. From the storytelling and innovative staging to Sarah Snook’s incredible performance as numerous characters, it’s a show you won’t want to miss.
Photo credit: Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray. (Photos by Marc Brenner)
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