See it if Excellent play! Discusses important issues in a way that has never been done before on Broadway, and we've desperately been in need of.
Don't see it if You're racist
See it if This was a piece that is completely of our time yet never gets preachy. I was involved all the time with the brilliant acting and writing.
Don't see it if You don’t have interest in the issues of Black young men today.
See it if Two men try to figure out how to get out of the situation they’re in - homeless, uneducated, broken. Are they waiting to Pass Over?
Don't see it if If you’re looking for bright and cheery entertainment, this is not the show for you. it’s deep and complex.
See it if This play should be required viewing for everyone! It was superb. A play that perfectly encapsulates a voice, a movement. Top notch cast! A+
Don't see it if As an audience member you aren’t ready to listen to someone else’s story through their words, history, pain & joy. An intense & real play.
See it if you want to dive into the racial conflict/divide at the deep end of a non-prescriptive, dynamic, often hysterically funny end of the pool.
Don't see it if you only want to play at the shallow end of the pool.
See it if You care about inequality and want to be moved.
Don't see it if Black lives don't matter to you. Read more
See it if You enjoy small scale productions focusing on serious content. Fast paced, Relevant and thoughtful. I saw it at Lincoln center. Different 👍
Don't see it if You like light musical with fancy costumes and sets
See it if You enjoy edgy, surrealist plays and are interested in stories about race.
Don't see it if You’re offended by racial violence onstage, or need something fast-paced.
"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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"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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"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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