Review Roundup: THE DINOSAURS at Playwrights Horizons

The critics have stopped by for The Dinosaurs at Playwrights Horizons read their reviews of the new play by Jacob Perkins below!. The production was directed by Les Waters. Performances will run February 4 - March 1, 2026 at the The Judith O. Rubin Theater.

The cast includes Kathleen Chalfant as Jolly/June, Elizabeth Marvel as Joan, April Matthis as Jane, Keilly McQuail as Rayna/Buddy, Mallory Portnoy as Janet, ​and Maria Elena Ramirez as Joane.

Every week at the same time, in the same place, a group of women share their stories of recovery. As weeks slip into years and decades spin into eternity, the women keep coming back amidst an ever-shifting, unfamiliar world. Jacob Perkins’ The Dinosaurs is a piercingly funny, loving ode to the infinite, innately human battle between holding on and letting go. An Unplugged production.

The creative team includes Dots (Scenic Design), Oana Botez (Costume Designer), Yuki Link (Lighting Designer), Palmer Hefferan (Sound Designer), and Jo Fernandez (Production Stage Manager).

Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: At the same time, the women—as in Bess Wohl’s Liberation, another celebration of female support—are crisply individualized, both in the writing and by a first-rate multigenerational cast under the direction of Les Waters. The presiding eminences are the testy Marvel and the patrician Chalfant, icons both of the New York stage, but this is, appropriately, very much a group effort. Together, the performers give fresh breath to the old observation that theater is like a church. Through their congregation, mutable yet constant, the play demonstrates the healing power of other people’s stories.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: It’s confusing at first, one of the few explicit clues that “The Dinosaurs” is not just what it at first seems, which is an ordinary meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. I’ve been to plays about support groups before that I thought were low-key (such as Someone Spectacular in 2024); “The Dinosaurs” is full of moments that seem positively banal. But the banality engenders a feeling of authenticity, and the authenticity at its best – rendered by some of the finest stage actresses working in New York – helps us at least pause and consider the significance of moments that we might otherwise have ignored.

Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review: Of course, action-hungry viewers may dismiss The Dinosaurs as one of those watching-the-paint-dry affairs. Theatergoers who savor a smart, subtle use of language or can appreciate the generosity of feelings shared in such support groups likely will find this new play by Jacob Perkins to be a quietly touching show. Certainly there is no question regarding the excellence of the acting or the production as sensitively staged by Les Waters, a director who has helmed the premieres of works by the likes of Caryl Churchill, Will Eno and Lucas Hnath, and surely knows how to effectively present meaningful modern dramas like this one.

Caroline Cao, New York Theatre Guide: If the AA storytellers actively engage, The Dinosaurs also illustrates those who exist to listen. The audience doesn't witness everyone sharing a story. Some characters offer only fragments about themselves, whether through their behavior or whispers. A novice playwright or director would act on the impulse to expand or resolve, but The Dinosaurs commits to the feeling of leaving a room with an unspoken story suspended in the air.

Lane Williamson, Exeunt: But it also feels unfinished, like many of the plays that pop up in the Summerworks festival. Clubbed Thumb and Playwrights Horizons both have a talent for spotting new voices and producing plays that feel so fresh the printer is probably still spitting out pages. That can be thrilling, but it can also mean that the plays haven’t fully incubated.

Average Rating: 84.0%