Pass Over (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Somehow Nwandu gives us the recognition of horror that has informed drama since the Greeks while also providing the relief of joy — however irrational — that calls to mind the ecstasies of gospel, splatter flicks and classic musicals, all of which are sampled."
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'There are stretches that drag—in fairness, I feel the same way about Waiting for Godot—and others whose knowing deployment of clichés about Black and white Americans threatens to fall into them...But if this urgent and provocative work is sometimes on-the-nose, a firm whack on the nose might be what the current Broadway moment demands."
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"Nwandu was raised in (and left) the Evangelical church, and a sermonizing energy is certainly at work inside the play. It exhorts and exposits; it kindles the faithful...Nwandu’s superimposition of our own world on Beckett’s helps us see the tragedy: Young Black men in America are just as exhausted and catastrophically resigned as old men worn out by life."
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"There are also plenty of vaudevillian pratfalls in director Danya Taymor’s dynamic staging, along with sendups of racial stereotypes and juicy exchanges of street talk that reach new depths of humor. By the time the plot veers into ambiguity at the end, you’ve probably had enough thought-rich fun not to care."
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"The play instead comes across as the embodiment of an escalating frustration over how to make Black lives matter...The magnetic Hill and Smallwood infuse Moses and Kitch with exuberant physicality; though they create distinct characters, the ineffable, mutual dependence they conjure is their chief accomplishment."
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"Pass Over is a compelling, if flawed, way to start things off in Times Square...more modern than Sam’s tramps, but just as immobile."
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"The extraordinary thing about this production is that, despite the threat of violence that hangs over its two main characters, Taymor and her cast have dug into the play's abundant comedy this time around. Nwandu's language bubbles over with joy and humor throughout many of the scenes."
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"Whether or not Pass Over is well-served in its Broadway incarnation is debatable, but Danya Taymor's production offers two stunning performances. For at least the first third, there's considerable pleasure in watching these two characters, confined to a small strip of concrete, fight the surrounding darkness with plentiful reserves of streetwise wit."
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"Too often, you feel Nwandu straining to weave together her numerous themes and allusions. Nonetheless, the play packs a powerful punch, abetted by Danya Taylor’s highly theatrical staging."
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"Hill and Smallwood (in his Broadway debut) are deft and winning, and they imbue their talky parts with a dynamic, nearly acrobatic physicality."
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"In holding up a dark funhouse mirror to the brutal extremes of Black life, Nwandu’s play transcends its theatrical form to become a poetic meditation that almost defies classification. It’s not so much a play as an experience."
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"The TIME in the program is listed as “the (future) present, but also 2021 CE, and also 1855 CE, and also 1440 BCE;” the PLACE as “the river’s edge, and also a ghetto street, and also a plantation, and also a desert city built by slaves, (and also the new world to come ((worlds without end)).” But it all plays out in real time, making those program listings, like every other aspect of the drama, seem more than a little pretentious."
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"More than just a foul-mouthed, funny, beautifully acted and blisteringly pointed play... It arrives on Broadway surrounded by significance... (which is) as much a burden as a boost...[S]ome will be impressed enough to overlook the play’s flaws, others...might be scared away, overlooking its virtue"
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“Pass Over...finds its own singular way to shine a light (technically, a streetlight) on the personal, systemic and institutional racism that pervades this country. Many audiences will be tempted to pass on “Pass Over.” Do not pass. Go!"
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"Nwandu blends gritty realism with dreamlike surrealism in a script with obvious reflections of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. But, despite its woke goals, its superb three-man performance, and inventive staging, it fails to be more than momentarily engaging, and makes more of a cerebral than an emotional impact.”
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"Danya Taymor’s direction alternately treats “Pass Over” as a light comedy and a horror movie."
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"It’s an invisible force that traps them there, freezes their limbs, and pulls them back. Call it white supremacy. Call it institutionalized racism. Call it police brutality. Smartly, the play never mentions any of those words, but it doesn’t need to."
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