Skeleton Crew (Broadway)
Closed 2h 0m
Skeleton Crew (Broadway)
81

Skeleton Crew (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

81%
(184 Ratings)
Positive
90%
Mixed
9%
Negative
1%
Members say
Great acting, Relevant, Absorbing, Thought-provoking, Great writing

Tony winner Phylicia Rashad stars in the Broadway premiere of Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (184)

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127 Reviews | 15 Followers
100
Closing time.

See it if you like powerful dramas that are beautifully acted, with touching moments throughout.

Don't see it if another blue-collar drama about our declining economy (and this one is set in the early 2000s!) wouldn't interest you, at all Read more

115 Reviews | 19 Followers
95
Exquisite, Great staging, Great acting, Masterful, Must see

See it if What could you say, excellent play great acting.

Don't see it if If you can not follow the production

101 Reviews | 4 Followers
94
Riveting, Must see, Great writing, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if You want a brilliant play based in a very real setting at a very real time. This play is hyper-realistic.

Don't see it if You don't like realism. The play is based on real historical events and encompass the everyman during the time period.

219 Reviews | 40 Followers
94
Must see, Masterful, Great writing, Clever, Absorbing

See it if if you are interested in a new play but a skillful playwright. the cast is excellent - the show is well staged

Don't see it if if you are tired of work place plays

68 Reviews | 10 Followers
92
Great staging, Relevant, Refreshing, Thought-provoking, Entertaining

See it if If U want to đź‘€ what workers in the plants in Detroit dealt w/towards the end like FIRESTONE TIRES when generational families LOST it all.

Don't see it if BECAUSE It is a PLAY....NOT A MUSICAL. If U don't like listening to speaking about the struggle...& no 🎶 except in the lounge area.

159 Reviews | 20 Followers
92
Intense, Relevant, Absorbing

See it if You are interested in the issues that face the common man\woman who work paycheck-paycheck with thought provoking performances from the cast

Don't see it if you are not interested in seeing a great show!

51 Reviews | 5 Followers
91
Riveting, Relevant, Great writing, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if shows blue color angst and the interpersonal relationships between workers, each supporting the other

Don't see it if some of the characters are less developed than they should have been

51 Reviews | 2 Followers
91
Funny, Entertaining, Clever, Absorbing, Great acting

See it if You like well-written, excellently-acted dramadies that are topical

Don't see it if You like fluff with no intellectual content

Critic Reviews (20)

The New York Times
January 26th, 2022

"CRITIC’S PICK...So begins “Skeleton Crew,” a play by Dominique Morisseau that in considering the ways we must sometimes break rules, breaks none itself. It’s so adroitly built and written — and, in the Manhattan Theater Club production that opened on Wednesday, so beautifully staged and acted — that you hardly have time to decide, until its brisk two hours have passed, whether it’s a comedy or a tragedy. Even then, as in life, you may not know for sure."
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Time Out New York
January 26th, 2022

"Rashad can’t resist being charming; she twinkles a bit, like the star she is. But if some of the grit has been lost in Skeleton Crew’s refurbished Broadway form,which also includes flashy video effects, Morisseau’s play remains firmly based in the lives and evocative language of its characters, whom Santiago-Hudson treats with the respect they deserve. They’re flawed but decent people, driven by forces that may or may not be beyond their control."
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New York Theatre Guide
January 26th, 2022

"What Morisseau skillfully does with Skeleton Crew is create a portrait of the lower working class that isn’t bleak, hopeless, or condescending. The characters in Skeleton Crew are in a dire, unfair situation, but that situation does not define them. These are not, in the unfortunate words of New York Mayor Eric Adams, “low skill workers.” When Shanita (a warm, affable Adams) talks about why she takes pride in her job — saying, “I’m building something that you can see come to life at the end. Got a motor in it and it’s gonna take somebody somewhere” — it is moving and commands your respect. That is perhaps why Skeleton Crew hits more potently now than it did in 2016 for me. When society shut down in 2020, we all saw who the true essential workers are. They are not the CEOs or people who worked in glass high-rises. They are the people stocking grocery store shelves, delivering packages, making cars. And they are disproportionately people of color."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
January 26th, 2022

"As a storytelling engine, Skeleton Crew glides along, with complications slotting neatly into revelations and a worker’s poetry lubricating the action. “I know everything about this place,” says Faye. “The walls talk to me. The dust on the floors write me messages.” Morisseau is the modern-day bard of Detroit — her other work includes Detroit ’67 and Paradise Blue — and those two plays treat some aspect of the city’s past specifically through its music. It takes a moment to realize she has written in the same key here, but instead of imagining Motown record parties or jazz-age trumpeters, she envisions a score of metal-stamping, piston-pumping, and whistle-blowing. During transitions, Santiago-Hudson has dancer Adesola Osakalumi pop and lock, playing a lyrical impression of the factory itself, his choreographic precision echoing the way a hydraulic press slams into position. There’s perhaps too little of that kind of music in the scenes, but it’s a welcome element between them.'
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Deadline
January 26th, 2022

"Directed with vitality by Ruben Santiago-Hudson – his second victory this Broadway season following the fall’s Lackawanna Blues – and performed by an ensemble cast that matches a powerful Phylicia Rashad, Skeleton Crew is a play that feels even more pertinent now than it did when it landed in a stellar Off Broadway production back in 2016. The play was terrific then. It’s essential now."
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Variety
January 26th, 2022

"The playwright Dominique Morisseau knows what she is doing. That’s clear not only because she says it so convincingly in her Playbill note for Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of “Skeleton Crew,” but because she writes this moving drama with pristine delicacy and develops its characters with rigorous detail and tact. Under the masterful direction of Ruben Santiago-Hudson, “Skeleton Crew” presents a vibrant cast, poetic dialogue and profoundly layered storytelling that move the audience to audibly engage."
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AM New York
January 26th, 2022

"In between the superbly-acted scenes, which all take place inside a grim-looking breakroom, hip-hop music plays and a dancer (Adesola Osakalumi) performs mechanized movements intended to represent the factory’s assembly line. “Skeleton Crew” could have easily ended on a downbeat note. After all, no one is coming to save the factory, and the characters face an uncertain future. But the compassion they share for one another, the sacrifices they make for each other, and the unexpected pride they take in their work, turn “Skeleton Crew” into a most unlikely feel-good – or rather feel-hopeful – drama."
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Theatermania
January 26th, 2022

"Along with Morisseau's spot-on dialogue, the creative team captures the workers' reality in the break room with a meticulously detailed set designed by Michael Carnahan, complete with Obama-Biden sticker on the fridge. Emilio Sosa's costumes are working-class casual complemented by hard-hats worn with pride. It's that pride that Morisseau wants to pay tribute to, and in a play that might have nothing but bad awaiting its characters as the huge thumb of capitalism hovers over their heads, we're left with a little bit of hope. When you can't depend on the higher-ups to have your back, you've gotta have each other's. That's how you get through times like these."
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