Reviews are starting to pop up for “Yesterday Happened: Remembering HM.” The music is receiving favorable comments! The play runs through May 13. Go and see it!
Boston Globe – Investigating the absence of memory “…the most inspired element of “Yesterday Happened” happens in the five minutes before the play starts. Pianist Tae Kim rambles from one musical snippet to another — everything from Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” and Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto to “As Time Goes By” and “White Christmas” — as if he couldn’t remember any of them for more than a few seconds. During those five minutes, you get a sense of what it’s like to have Henry Molaison’s brain.” (Editor’s note: The Globe review does not mention that Tod Machover composed the music for the play and that this musical “ramble” was in fact composed by him.)
Broadway World BWW Review: YESTERDAY HAPPENED More Science Than Art “The highlight of this theatrical experience is the musicalization by Composer/Sound Designer Tod Machover, affected brilliantly by Pianist Tae Kim. Classical improvisations infused with variations on popular themes strike chords in our collective memory that imply a sense of what Henry’s mind might have felt like when something tickled his recollection. I heard snippets of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” “As Time Goes By,” and a Scott Joplin riff, to mention a few, woven into the music of the prologue. Kim’s accompaniment flows under the play and provides a buoyancy that it otherwise lacks.”
Edge Boston – Review of Yesterday Happened “…the play’s score, a mishmash of recognizable classical pieces that emerge, transform, and subside into an ever-shifting musical landscape. (Pianist Tae Kim creates a sonic nebula, a sort of dream made of music, that sets an appropriate mood. Kudos all around to scenic designer Justin Townsend, lighting designer Jeff Adelberg, and composer / sound designer Tod Machover, whose efforts help turn this quite heady play into a visceral experience.”
From Here to There – The Quickening Art “I was particularly impressed by Tod Machover’s music for the play. It was composed of dozens of tiny fragments of familiar music which were tied together in strange and unexpected ways. Throughout the play, your brain kept waking up and yelling “I know this music”, and then going, “no, nevermind, that’s not it”.”
Nature: Boston Blog – “Remembering HM”: Neuroscience takes the stage at Central Square Theater “Yesterday creates a bridge between neuroscience and art that fulfills the production’s mission of “providing artistic and emotional experiences not available in other forms of dialogue about science.” Sitting in the audience, thinking about Henry’s memory revealed a more subtle view of my own memory. I walked out of the theater with a new way of seeing, which is ultimately what good art and good science can do, especially when we put them together.”
Opera of the Future 
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