"Slave Play" Broadway Reviews

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 6:47pm

I couldn't find a thread for this. Very interested to see how they compare to the reviews from NYTW!

Post 'em as they come!

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 7:57pm

Where are they reviews!?

[n2nbaby]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 8:06pm

Hoping it gets many, many raves tonight! Saw this last week and it is honestly one of my favorite plays. Incredible.

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 8:11pm

Same, n2nbaby!

But also, I can't seem to find any of the reviews yet. I keep refreshing a Google search of "Slave Play Broadway" with a time filter for the past 24 hours and it's just the same few articles from yesterday. 

[zachvandyke]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 8:14pm

I predict mostly raves with one or two reviews that absolutely hate it. Saw it a couple weeks ago and my wife and I are still talking about it. It was the most thought provoking and uncomfortably enjoyable play we’ve ever seen.

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 8:33pm

"Time Out" is positive, with 4 out of 5 stars, and they have named it a Critic's Pick.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/slave-play-broadway-review-jeremy-o-harris

[Ryantheatrekid]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 9:56pm

New York Times Critics Pick!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 10:13pm

Interesting it would be a critic's pic for Time Out but not a full 5 stars? 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 10:35pm

Here's a long list from Playbill:

https://www.playbill.com/article/read-reviews-for-the-broadway-premiere-of-slave-play

[IAMREADING]

Posted: 10/7/19 at 1:26pm

Deadline is neutral if not positive https://deadline.com/2019/10/slave-play-broadway-review-jeremy-o-harris-robert-ohara-1202753477/

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/7/19 at 1:36pm

After Eight started reviewing shows?!

https://www.showbiz411.com/2019/10/06/review-controversial-slave-play-opens-on-broadway-begins-with-graphic-sex-play-ends-with-a-rape-critics-love-it

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 10/7/19 at 1:38pm

NY Post sums it up: "the sort of show you see to say you've seen it."

thoughtful mess

[Rosette3]

Posted: 10/7/19 at 2:31pm

I appreciated that the New York magazine/Vulture review was actually a conversation between the critic (who is white) and her friend (who's POC). I saw the play on my own a few weeks ago and am still unpacking all my thoughts. How I felt an hour after seeing the show was different than how I feel 2 weeks later. I've had a couple "uh-ha!" moments since I've been "ruminating" on my thoughts, discussing with others and reading reviews that articulate similarly with my own similar thoughts and reactions. The below excerpt from NY mag hits it right on the head of the nail for me:

"Taylor Barfield: I deeply feel that. I think there’s something about the play that leads each individual audience member down a path of introspection that can be incredibly fear-inducing and insular. I know each time I’ve experienced the thing—I’ve seen it three times now, definitely not something I thought I would do—I’ve left wanting to have a million conversations with myself, but a little tentative to have them with other people.

S.H.: Exactly — it leaves you in an ongoing feedback loop inside your own brain. And, at least for me, doing a lot of second-guessing of my own impulses. Even feeling semi-paralyzed. This time around, I find myself trying to work through this visceral feeling of isolation just as much as I’m working through the play itself. I think I’m left wondering: Does this play prescribe something about how to go forward as a human being in the world with other human beings? Or does it avoid prescription?

T.B.: I think lack of clarity is exactly right for this play. So much of it involves the process of interrogating our own impulses, beliefs, and thoughts on the rawest of levels. This time, knowing the overall structure of the play a bit better after two sit-downs with it, I found myself doing a very similar thing: trying to reconcile my gut emotions with the thoughts racing in my head and the thoughts and emotions of the characters portrayed onstage. It induces that symptom that the characters talk about — alexithymia, the inability to describe one’s own feelings."

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 10/7/19 at 3:40pm

Seeing this on Wednesday. Can't wait to see reactions.

[Rosette3]

Posted: 10/8/19 at 3:28pm

NYT Op-ed: What's It's Like to See 'Slave Play' as a Black Person

I was very curious when I saw the title especially since most theater critics writing these reviews are white. I (WOC who also primarily dated white men) saw Slave Play sandwiched between two white men in their 50s/60s. When I saw who I was sitting next to my initial reaction was a disappointing "damnit now I have to be careful how I react!" to a curious "well THIS is should be an interesting experience..." and was interesting to observe the differences/similarities in reactions throughout the play. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/8/19 at 10:00pm

I saw the play with a predominantly white audience and really had no feelings either way. It was the same when I saw FAIRVIEW. I just assumed they were there because they wanted to be. I had problem reacting to anything. I did react at both. Quietly, but the people next to me knew I was reacting. At Slave Play I whispered "thank you" at one point and I know people around me heard it. I also didn't find this play to be one to elicit a lot of audible reactions. There was laughter and applause, most likely at the same points as the "Black Out" evening. I didn't need to be in an audience of all black people. The people around me in the theater and when walking out seemed to get it. And nobody seemed uncomfortable. I heard good conversation happening about what they just saw.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 10/9/19 at 8:03pm

Ok I had tickets to Slave Play today. However a trip to the podiatrist for a severely sprained ankle turned out way longer than I expected, made worse when I fell on the way home in the pouring ran with my walking boot. Is it possible to post-date my ticket? Or am I just better off getting a ticket off tkts? 

[jagman1062]

Posted: 10/9/19 at 8:23pm

poisonivy2 said: "Ok I had tickets to Slave Play today. However a trip to the podiatrist for a severely sprained ankle turned out way longer than I expected, made worse when I fell on the way home in the pouring ran with my walking boot. Is it possible to post-date my ticket? Or am I just better off getting a ticket off tkts?"

Check with the box office about your options.  I've had a few situations where I couldn't get to the theater for a show I had tickets to (e.g., blizzard, stuck in bumper to bumper traffic because of an accident).  Life happens.  In both situations I was allowed to check with the box office for a future performance and trade in my previous ticket for a new one as long as I checked in shortly before the new performance and there were tickets available.  Granted, on each occasion the new seats weren't as desirable as the ones I missed, but at least I didn't have to purchase new tickets.  Good luck!   Hope you're feeling better.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 10/9/19 at 10:40pm

Thanks. I'm beyond bummed. But considering how much pain I was in it's better I didn't end up going. The two hour fifteen minute no-intermission thing is going to be hard for my foot.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 10/10/19 at 12:16am

I saw this this afternoon. Was the first rush seat I have ever purchased. Coming from out of town, I usually get my tickets In advance. This time I left two slots unfilled. I paid $39 for an incredible seat front row center, with incredible leg room.

I am Caucasian, my wife Is Caucasian, so I have never thought once about the issues raised. I would also acknowledge that I was not sure how to interpret the end of the last scene (‘thank you’); it made me wish I’d gone
with someone, so I could discuss it. I thought the overall performance was incredible, so much so that I have already managed to tell two different people what happened in excruciating detail. It was mesmerizing.

I don’t have the playbill in front of me (it is not handy either), so I can’t use names. The cast was outstanding, but I would single out two performances as standing out for me: the black woman married to the Brit, and the white member of the gay couple. Both gave incredibly raw performances. The woman in particular gave a performance ‘for the ages’ IMO. I was reminded of when I saw King Hedley 2 in DC 15 years and saw Viola Davis, who I had never
heard of, give a performance so monumental, raw and full of pain that it has stayed with me to this day. The performance I saw today was on par with that, and I am assuming I will become much more familiar with her in years to come.

The highest praise I can give: were I in NYC for another week, I’d Probably see it again. I live in Sarasota, FL, for 7 months a year, and Sarasota has three excellent theatre companies, one even focused on Black themed productions. Yet I am not sure that I will see it performed in one of these theatres any time soon, for fear of offending their subscription audiences, who tend to be pretty liberal in their tastes, but maybe not this open minded. I mention that because I can usually see local versions of plays done on Broadway a season or two later (both Lifespan of a Fact
and American Son are being presented this season), and get a chance to see them again. Not sure that will happen with this one, which is a shame. I guess I will need to buy the play so I can read it and reflect on it further.

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/10/19 at 10:29pm

Jarethan said: "I guess I will need to buy the play so I can read it and reflect on it further."

This came up in a different thread, but the complete text of the show is in the July/August issue of American Theatre magazine, which you can order here: http://www.tcg.org/Default.aspx?TabID=251&productId=7892373

[Jarethan]

Posted: 10/10/19 at 10:44pm

haterobics said: "Jarethan said: "I guess I will need to buy the play so I can read it and reflect on it further."

This came up in a different thread, but the complete text of the show is in the July/August issue of American Theatre magazine, which you can order here:http://www.tcg.org/Default.aspx?TabID=251&productId=7892373"

Great.  Thanks very much.  I will definitely do that.

[AntV]

Posted: 10/16/19 at 2:19am

Was there nudity removed in the transfer to Broadway?

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/16/19 at 10:22pm

forgetmenotnyc said: "<<deleted by BWW staff>>"

Your comment contributes to my overall feeling that you didn't understand the play.

 

Also, AntV, the nudity is still in the show.

 

Updated On: 10/17/19 at 10:22 PM

[AntV]

Posted: 10/17/19 at 1:05am

I saw the male nudity, but I thought there was female nudity Off-Broadway, or am I mistaken?