‘The Kite Runner’ Broadway review: Gripping stage adaptation of bestseller

nypost.com:

Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 tearjerker novel “The Kite Runner” has no shortage of terrible traumas: deaths, beatings, a rape, the disastrous takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

To say the very least, it’s a lot. All that immense pain could prove overwhelming for the reader, yet the author’s gift for writing sumptuous imagery and tender, nuanced relationships softens the blow.

It became a book-club staple for years.2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At Hayes Theater, 240 W. 44th St.Onstage, of course, we don’t have hundreds of pages to let the ambitious tale breathe.

We’ve got 2½ hours. So the sheer number of tragedies makes “The Kite Runner” an especially tough story to adapt without turning it into a soap opera — an emotional shellacking.