Review Roundup: PIPELINE at Lincoln Center Theater

Tasha Lawrence, Morocco Omari, Karen Pittman, Namir Smallwood, Jaime Lincoln Smith, and Heather Velazquez are featured in Lincoln Center Theater's production of Pipeline, a new play by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, which opened just last night, July 10, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

In Dominique Morisseau's Pipeline, Nya Joseph (to be played by Karen Pittman) is a dedicated, inner-city public high school teacher who is committed to her students' achievement, while she sends her only son, Omari (Namir Smallwood), to a private boarding school. When Omari is involved in a controversial incident which threatens him with expulsion from his school, Nya is forced to reconcile Omari's rage and her own parental decisions, as she rallies to save her son.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, New York Times: The play's title refers to the "school-to-prison pipeline," wherein underprivileged students are channeled directly from the public education system into American penal institutions. The subject was trenchantly explored in Anna Deavere Smith's journalistic drama "Notes From the Field," seen last year in New York at Second Stage Theater. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed play or musical through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. But our primary goal is that this feature adds value to your reading experience. "Pipeline" offers nothing like the cleareyed overview that Ms. Smith's work does. Social context is largely meant to be inferred, as if it is assumed we are already well acquainted with the history and implications of its title.

Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld: If Dominique Morisseau wasn't already established as one of the most exciting theatre voices that have emerged in this young century, Pipeline should surely confirm that status. Hopefully, she'll be one of the next playwrights making an overdue Broadway debut.

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Dramatic incidents abound in Dominique Morisseau's new play receiving its world premiere at Lincoln Center Theater, but the show has little dramatic urgency. That's partly because the eventful moments mostly occur offstage in this work about a dedicated inner-city schoolteacher and her troubled teenage son. But it's also because the playwright strains too hard for a poeticism that feels unearned and unnatural to a majority of the characters. While there are some powerful moments, Pipeline overall fails to come to life.

Roma Torre, NY1: "Pipeline" is a riveting new drama by Dominique Morisseau that specifically deals with issues of race and education. But as great plays are wont to do, it paints a mirror that reflects on all of us.

Robert Hofler, The Wrap: Ninety minutes is just not enough time and space for all the pain, trauma, and injustice that Dominique Morisseau loads into her new play, "Pipeline," which opened Monday at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

Steven Suskin, Huffington Post: Part of what makes Pipeline impactful is Morisseau's storytelling. "Issues" theatre can be off-putting; preach to us and we might feel instructed, not entertained. From the start, here, we are engaged with Morisseau's characters. By the time we understand the enormity of the problem at the play's core, we are thoroughly aligned with the personable-but-overwhelmed mother on a tightrope and her keen-but-troubled son.

Robert Kahn, NBC New York: "Pipeline" powers through its 90 minutes under the steady direction of Lileana Blain-Cruz, who between scenes evokes the war zone aura of an urban public school with video projections of clashing students-it reminded me of a similar technique used to depict Arab and Israeli violence in "Oslo," which was first staged in this space before moving upstairs to the Vivian Beaumont.