Pass Over (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

78%

(225 Reviews)

Positive

81%

Mixed

14%

Negative

Members say

Great acting, Thought-provoking, Relevant, Ambitious, Absorbing

About the Show

Following a sold-out run at LCT3, "Pass Over" will come to Broadway for a limited run this August.

Starring Jon Michael Hill and Namir Smallwood, Antoinette Nwandu's award-winning "Pass Over" draws inspiration from "Waiting for Godot" and the Exodus story. Moses and Kitch stand around on a city street corner, talking smack, passing the time, and hoping that maybe today will be different.

You can read member reviews from the 2018 LCT3 production here.

Member Reviews (225)

Indulgent, Intelligent, Great acting, Was better off broadway

See it if You enjoy Waiting For Godot-esque shows. Intelligent. Great acting.

Don't see it if Enjoyed it much better off Broadway. The ending was indulgent and snuffed all power of the text with baffling needless shameless nudity.

Overrated, Thought-provoking, Relevant, Clever, Great acting

See it if You're like intimate plays regarding current topics and race. The acting was excellent. I was engaged for most of the show.

Don't see it if Show was too long. I saw it off-broadway and I preferred it there. They added extra scenes to the end that kept it going way to long.

Edgy, Intelligent, Relevant, Profound, Great acting

See it if You saw the original at Lincoln Center. This updated version bookends the original in a way that feels nothing short of genius!

Don't see it if You hate anything that hints at “being woke” or wades into the BLM discussion. You’re exactly who SHOULD see this but you’ll hate It. Read more

Insipid, Excruciating, Disappointing, Dated, Cliched

See it if If you want to see a play that is confusing, limited, unchanging set with a lot of cursing.

Don't see it if If you like talented writing ,a good story. This show was poorly directed and staged. Only costumes noteworthy. The swearing is non stop

Great writing, Great staging, Quirky, Relevant, Resonant

See it if you like to be challenged by exploring a topic from the actions and words of two contemporary Black men looking for something better.

Don't see it if you do not want to spend 90 minutes dwelling on the topic of how Black men are treated and how they react to the police. Read more

Insipid, Edgy, Relevant, Great acting, Ambitious

See it if you're curious about direction of Black theater. It captures the emptiness of being a young jobless male in an urban environment very well.

Don't see it if you are hoping for an uplifting experience. Depressing, possibly accurate. The author says this is a new version with a more positive ending

Best play to come out of blk lives matter movement

See it if Profound rumination on terror of black experience w police violence; hilarious byplay btwn 2 main characters - homage to Waiting for Godot

Don't see it if Play lost something in transfer to Bdway; new "happy" transcendent ending, passing over to Paradise, feels unearned

Indulgent, Excruciating, Disappointing, Cliched, Banal

See it if you have no other choices. I don't understand what this play is doing on Broadway. The swearing is relentless.

Don't see it if you object to seeing a small, intimate play in a theatre designed for musicals. Also, if you cannot tolerate endless swearing.

Critic Reviews (17)

"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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