Off Broadway: Between the Lines

It’s a whole new story at Between the Lines at the Tony Kiser Theatre—one where characters jump to life before our eyes.

The new musical adaptation of Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer’s novel Between the Lines tells the story of Delilah, a teenager who is balancing her parents’ divorce and being the new kid in high school who finds comfort in reading. She stumbled across the book Between the Lines at her school’s library and finds refuge in the book’s pages.

One day, Prince Oliver, the dashing prince of Between the Lines, leaves Delilah a message in the book and Delilah realizes the characters in the book can communicate with her. She seeks to escape from her life at home and school in the pages of the book, and eventually develops an infatuation with Prince Oliver as comfort through her struggle at school.

The musical is an enchanting tale that takes audiences on the journey of discovering a place of belonging in this world and the power of taking ownership of our own stories.

I am thrilled I could catch this musical while I was in New York this summer! As a big reader and theatergoer myself, it seemed like the perfect combination of my two favorite hobbies, and it did not disappoint!

The cast of this off-Broadway production is stellar, with familiar names such as Arielle Jacobs (Delilah), Julia Murney (Grace/Queen Maureen), Vicki Lewis (Ms. Winx, Jessamyn, and others), as well as breakout performances by Jake David Smith (Prince Oliver), Wren Rivera (Jules/Odine), and Jerusha Cavazos (Janice/Marina).

I loved getting to see Arielle Jacobs in action in this role. I think she captured the role of Delilah so well, and she’s a powerhouse voice in the cast. I connected with Delilah as a character and am so glad I got to see Jacobs bring her to life. I think she also played really well with the charming Jake David Smith and his performance of Prince Oliver. Some of my favorite scenes in the show were those Delilah and Prince Oliver share.

I can’t talk about Between the Lines without mentioning how much I loved Vicki Lewis’ performance as Ms. Winx/Jessamyn and Others. Lewis is a master at comedic timing and it warms my heart to be able to see her on stage again. I saw her as the Countess Lily Malevsky-Malevitch in Anastasia in 2019, and I’m so glad I got to see her performance in Between the Lines. There is nothing quite like a number dedicated to Lewis playing a cheeky school librarian with the hots for Mr. Darcy in “Mr. Darcy and Me.” Lewis covers a variety of roles in the show, from the spunky librarian Ms. Winx, to Queen Maureen’s Lady in Waiting, to a fiery chemistry teacher, to the author Jessamyn, and she is so fun to watch flip between roles. Lewis is a master of tongue-in-cheek comedy and I’m so glad I got to see her in this production.

Wren Rivera as Jules/Odine was a standout performance in the production for me. I was familiar with Rivera from when they joined the Broadway cast of Jagged Little Pill before the production’s penultimate closure in December 2021, and I am so glad I got to see them in this role in Between the Lines. I was floored by their performance of “Do it for You.” One of the really fun parts of this production is getting to see the actors swap between different roles. Rivera masterfully switches between the edgy, teenage outcast Jules in the real world and the delicate and graceful Odine in the fairytale world, allowing them to flex their range of acting between the different characters. I think Rivera has a bright future ahead on Broadway, and this is only the beginning for them.

I thought the set design was one of the standout characteristics of this production. Going into the performance, I was curious how they would handle the fairytale and real-world colliding, and they did a brilliant job of simulating the two. When Delilah reads the book, a screen with projections creates the page, and the actors playing the fairytale characters appear behind the screen to act out the story “on the page.” I thought this was a very smart use of set design.

In addition to the separation between the fairytale world and the real world, I loved how they would use doors on the stage to mimic the opening and closing of the book. When Delilah opened the book on stage, Oliver would open the door on stage, and when Delilah slammed the book shut, Oliver slammed the door. I found this to be a very creative use of space and conveying something that, as a theatre audience, you need to visually see.

The costume design (Gregg Barnes) of this production is also very visually stunning. I loved the enchanting costumes of the fairytale characters and the dress Delilah wears in the fairytale world.

The production runs approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes, which does start to feel a little long once you start to get the 2-hour mark. The production does a wonderful job of giving as many of the characters spotlight moments as possible. However, a few too many side quests start to drag the main plot of Delilah’s journey. The plot is already complicated and asks audiences to suspend disbelief from the start, and I think that is an area to keep in mind, though I suspect certain features must come from plotlines from the original novel.

Overall, I thought this production was heartwarming and the kind of feel-good piece of theatre we need in this state of the world. I am so grateful I was able to catch this production—and if you’re in the NYC area, it is running until October 2 at the Tony Kiser Theatre. Read more (and snag tickets!) at BetweenTheLinesMusical.com.