Every once in awhile a show comes along that is so different from the recycled movie scripts taking up the majority of Broadway theater today you feel compelled to tell everyone you know about it. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is just that type of production. Here’s my review and why I suggest you run to see it before it closes in September.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play adapted from the book by Mark Haddon. The story surrounds an autistic boy his neighbor’s dead dog and the relationship he has with his parents and school mentor.

The play started in London’s West End and quickly came to Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 2014. It won the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, 2015 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding New Broadway Play, the 2015 Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play, and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.

I don’t feel it’s fair for me to detail the play’s plot as it’s nearly impossible to do so without giving away some spoilers. Instead, I’ll tell you that this play is so wonderful that I saw twice in the same month. First, my mother’s husband took her and I to the show with second row tickets, which for true theatre goers you know can be both a blessing and a curse.

Being that close to the action immediately bonds you to the events happening on stage. A good play becomes a great play and a bad play becomes the worst night of your life. The set design of this show includes complex LED displays on all three sides of the theater as well as the floor. Sitting in the front you lose the floor display making front-center mezzanine the best seats in the house.

Seeing the play twice so close together meant I had the opportunity to explore the same actor’s ability and depth of performance. Christopher Boone the lead character was played by Tyler Lea making his Broadway debut after graduating from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and doing a stint in Cygnet’s Shakespeare’s R+J.

I actually had to do a little research into what Cygnet’s Shakespeare’s R+J meant because the way it was written in the playbill made it seem as though there was a minor character named Cygnet in Romeo and Juliet and I knew that wasn’t right. What I found was that Cygnet is the production house and Shakespeare’s R+J was a 1997 off Broadway play whereby all the characters from Romeo and Juliet are played by men.

To say that Tyler Lea’s performance in the lead role was good is an understatement. In fact he’s mesmerizing. To play this type of character so early in an actor’s career is a stunning accomplishment and reminds me of a young Daniel-Day Lewis in the movie My Left Foot.

What’s truly fascinating about both the script and stage direction is it requires the lead to not only become the character and know his lines but it’s so specific on where and what he’s doing on stage and it becomes as important to the storytelling as the interaction and dialogue between the characters. You’re probably thinking that’s the case for every show on Broadway and really every play that’s out there in the world. And yet something’s very different with this play, again I don’t want to give any spoilers out but Christopher needs to complete something he’s been working on throughout the first act in order for the show to move forward. That just shows how truly talented this actor is.

Another fun aspect of the show is that it’s a play-within-a-play and the fourth wall gets broken at times. This does a great job at keeping the modern distracted audience engaged. There are even elements outside the stage that interact with the audience; particularly if you’re sitting in a prime number seat.

Unfortunately, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has run it’s course on Broadway. Though I’m not sure i