‘The Kite Runner’ Review: An Uplifting Broadway Adaptation of the Bestselling Novel

variety.com:

Marilyn Stasio Theater CriticPlaywright Matthew Spangler’s adaptation of “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling 2005 novel about the friendship of two boys living parallel lives in Afghanistan, is a heartbreaker – but so uplifting, it’s worth the pain.The scribe puts it succinctly when he tells us, in a program note for the current Broadway production, that “this is a story about a father and son; two best friends; a husband and wife; immigration; the relative peace of 1970s Afghanistan; global politics; class and ethnicity; and much more.” More pointedly, he adds that, above all else, this epic-scaled drama is “a story of guilt and redemption.”If there’s a fault in Spangler’s meticulous adaptation and Giles Croft’s dynamically inventive direction, it’s that Amir (Amir Arison, who grasps this demanding role with both hands and holds on for dear life), the flawed hero based on the author’s biographical persona, is so exceedingly selfish and cruel to his loyal best friend in Act I, it takes herculean acts of atonement in Act II to earn his righteous redemption.

As narrator of his own story, Amir initially presents himself as an adult, but a call from Afghanistan offers him “a way to be good again” if he will return home — and to the pivotal events that forged his character at the age of 12. “I thought about how the winter of 1975 changed everything,” he says of that painful time and the lasting shame and guilt he still carries.

And in an uncharacteristic burst of courage, he goes home.At this point, Croft’s production unfurls like the beautiful, giant kites that dominate Barney George’s stunning set and serve as symbols of both the play’s flights of emotion and despairing depths.