Review Roundup: Alia Shawkat and More Star in YOU GOT OLDER At Cherry Lane Theatre

The Off-Broadway revival of YOU GOT OLDER is now in performances at the newly reopened Cherry Lane Theatre. Read reviews in for the production starring television star Alia Shawkat.

In the play, Mae (Shawkat) returns to her small Washington hometown after losing both her job and her boyfriend. As she cares for her ailing father, she encounters a mysterious stranger and begins to question where intimacy and connection can truly be found. The play blends realism and fantasy in a story about family, illness, and resilience.

The cast features Shawkat as Mae, Tony Award nominee Peter Friedman as Dad, Misha Brooks as Matthew, Paul Cooper as Cowboy, Caleb Joshua Eberhardt as Mac, Nadine Malouf as Hannah, and Nina White as Jenny. Understudies are Jonah O’Hara-David, Carl Palmer, and Nicole Rodenburg.

The creative team includes scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado, costume design by Ásta Bennie Hostetter, lighting design by Isabella Byrd, and sound design and composition by Daniel Kluger. Aura Michelle serves as Production Stage Manager, and Taylor Williams, CSA, is the casting director.

Written by Clare Barron and directed by Anne Kauffman, the production began performances on February 12, 2026, with an official opening on February 23. Originally scheduled to close March 29, the run has been extended through April 12, 2026.

Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: Barron presses on tender bruises—loss, comfort, fear, concern—in ways that often leave you laughing with a strange pleasure of recognition. But if you find yourself in tears by the end, the play can handle that, too. It holds you in a bracing embrace, as close as it needs to—which is to say, too close.

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: It’s a shame, because Kauffman has provided a first-rate staging that easily handles the play’s stylistic diversions, and Shawkat, so amusing in such sitcoms as Arrested Development and Search Party, makes us acutely aware of her character’s emotional pain while mining laughs in the process. It’s not enough to prevent the evening from succumbing to its ambitions. By the time You Get Older ends, you’ll feel older.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: The awkwardness between father and adult daughter is a sound insight, but did we need quite so much banal chatter? These scenes might have been more effective had Shawkat portrayed Mae more expressively; as less of a cipher.

Allison Considine, New York Theatre Guide : By the end of the play, this critic could’ve used a baseball cap. You Got Older remains a timeless meditation on adulthood in all its messiness, pain, and sometimes humor — and it is well worth seeing.

Average Rating: 65.0%