Waiting For Lefty Off-Broadway Reviews

Just when you think Classic Stage Company’s revival of Clifford Odets’s 1932 play Waiting for Lefty might be an endeavor more well-meaning than elegant, something clicks. A rhythm takes hold, a communal sense of purpose and shared pulse of breath...

Just when you think Classic Stage Company’s revival of Clifford Odets’s 1932 play Waiting for Lefty might be an endeavor more well-meaning than elegant, something clicks. A rhythm takes hold, a communal sense of purpose and shared pulse of breath drop in, and the rest of the production’s brief yet weighty 75 minutes is often very beautiful. Steven Pasquale, prolific and robust as an actor and here directing for the first time, has put his finger on something in turning Odets’s agitprop one-act, often referenced but seldom performed, into a kind of workers’ dream ballet. The show — which puts its audience in the middle of a New York cab drivers’ union meeting as they debate whether to strike — is already a series of vignettes, Stanislavskian in tone, Brechtian in purpose. Weaving in new music (and new settings of old tunes) written by the folk duo Yeller Tooth and lambent, increasingly gripping choreography by Susan Misner, Pasquale and his ensemble refashion Lefty as a mournful yet determined open mic, a review and a revue of the movement.

This revival captures both the spirit of its time while offering an urgent warning to modern audiences. We must stop complaining and waiting on an outside rescuer who may never arrive, Odets seems to say from a near-century ago. We must lift our own ...

This revival captures both the spirit of its time while offering an urgent warning to modern audiences. We must stop complaining and waiting on an outside rescuer who may never arrive, Odets seems to say from a near-century ago. We must lift our own voices, and our own feet, to forge our own destinies.

Another seemingly eternal specter, capitalism, is getting a downtown whacking courtesy of Classic Stage Company’s revival of Waiting for Lefty. Clifford Odets’ episodic, pro-union drama from 1935 still has plenty of potency even if Steven Pasqual...

Another seemingly eternal specter, capitalism, is getting a downtown whacking courtesy of Classic Stage Company’s revival of Waiting for Lefty. Clifford Odets’ episodic, pro-union drama from 1935 still has plenty of potency even if Steven Pasquale’s staging struggles to maintain momentum. It’s hardly his fault: each vignette amounts to “The Man = bad” and, true as that is, it grows tedious even with a top-notch cast that includes Tala Ashe, Raffi Barsoumian and Adam Kantor.

Lefty's message is timeless but fairly basic — poverty and greedy bosses bad, living wage good — but Odets excels by resisting the instinct to turn a collective into a monolith, instead thoughtfully fleshing out the varied individuals and perspec...

Lefty's message is timeless but fairly basic — poverty and greedy bosses bad, living wage good — but Odets excels by resisting the instinct to turn a collective into a monolith, instead thoughtfully fleshing out the varied individuals and perspectives that make up the working class. In a way, Pasquale's patchwork production does the same. But neither a movement nor a show can be truly successful if it's not fundamentally united.

Pasquale’s attempt to expand Waiting for Lefty is well intentioned, of course, but proves to be a fatal experiment. Dressing up Odets’ work with songs and dances takes a drama that should appear spontaneous and makes it instead look terribly stud...

Pasquale’s attempt to expand Waiting for Lefty is well intentioned, of course, but proves to be a fatal experiment. Dressing up Odets’ work with songs and dances takes a drama that should appear spontaneous and makes it instead look terribly studied.

Still, the revival hits home with the disheartening realization that inequality has returned in record levels. Pasquale makes the point with handouts to the audience providing statistics illustrating the disparities between the haves and havenots in ...

Still, the revival hits home with the disheartening realization that inequality has returned in record levels. Pasquale makes the point with handouts to the audience providing statistics illustrating the disparities between the haves and havenots in this country. My handout states the average American worker salary is $58,260 and we have now seen the planet’s first trillionaire. It asks how long would the average American worker need to work to approach trillionaire status. The shocking answer: 17,241,379 years. As Communism, Socialism and Fascism are back in the political debate, Odets’ Lefty doesn’t seem all that old after all.