Slave Play (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

81%

(397 Reviews)

Positive

87%

Mixed

12%

Negative

Members say

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

About the Show

After a hit run Off-Broadway, Jeremy O. Harris's new play comes to Broadway. This provocative work aims to rip apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality in 21st century America.

From the show:

The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation - in the breeze, in the cotton fields...and in the crack of the whip. It's an antebellum fever-dream, where fear and desire entwine in the looming shadow of the Master's House. Jim trembles as Kaneisha handles melons in the cottage, Alana perspires in time with the plucking of Phillip's fiddle in the boudoir, while Dustin cowers at the heel of Gary's big, black boot in the barn. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems.

Member Reviews (397)

Great acting, Relevant, Intelligent, Ambitious

See it if While I didn’t connect personally, I did enjoy this complex and deep piece. Not for everyone, but raw, ambitious and a thinker. Great sound.

Don't see it if Sexual play about slavery makes you uncomfortable.

Hilarious, Intense, Thought-provoking, Great acting, Ambitious

See it if want to see trendy play, see how one playwright depicts racial issues in unexpected way, learn what it means to want to be listened to

Don't see it if don't like depictions of sex & nudity, sex games that may involve domination or abuse, don't like humorous psychobabble, inner reflection

Critic Reviews (27)

"CRITIC’S PICK "Four Times as Big and Just as Searing: Jeremy O. Harris’s Off Broadway hit about race and sex in America shakes things up on Broadway."
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"Brash, smart and gleefully confrontational, this is the kind of show that starts arguments. It keeps you off balance; even afterward, you may feel staggered."
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"'Slave Play' Nearly Demands a Conversation. So We Had One."
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"A must-see hit downtown last winter, Jeremy O. Harris' audacious dissection of race, sexuality, power and the scars of historical trauma moves to Broadway."
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Grade B+ "'Slave Play' offers provocation, no easy answers in Broadway debut"
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"Jeremy O. Harris’ gleefully shocking comedy about race and sex transfers to Broadway."
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"‘Whitesplaining’ in the Bedroom After a much lauded off-Broadway run, Jeremy O. Harris’s play about sex and race moves to the Great White Way"
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"This is a young person's play: overwritten, easily distracted, a bit glib, more concerned with effects than showing a complex journey to truth."
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"Who Says Broadway Isn’t Ready For Jeremy O. Harris?"
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"‘Slave Play’ is a funny, scalding, walk along the boundary between black and white in America"
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"‘Slave Play’ on Broadway mixes race and sex and is as challenging as you’ve heard"
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2/4 Stars "Broadway’s most thoughtful mess"
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"‘Slave Play’ is a frank, challenging drama on race and sex"
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"It's a shocker alright, and provocatively compelling, many would say. And while I'm happy to see new works by young playwrights challenge the status quo, especially when performed so brilliantly as 'Slave Play' is...this one is dramatically quite a mess. Provocative? Yes. An intriguing premise? Yes. Important theatre? No, at least not yet."
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"Seeing the Oppressor in Your White Lover's Eyes in 'Slave Play': Jeremy O. Harris's explosive downtown hit comes to Broadway."
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"Jeremy O. Harris' Bold and Dynamic 'SLAVE PLAY' Moves To Broadway"
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"An altogether exceptional work, a standout among many that have addressed the racial divide in America."
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4/5 Stars "'Down on the Ol' Plantation, on 45th Street': Jeremy O. Harris hits Broadway with an explosive examination of race, sexuality and more"
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4/5 Stars "'Provocative, Poetic, and Disquieting': Jeremy O. Harris' phenomenally daring, disruptive drama is the polar opposite of theatrical comfort food"
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"Fine performances and a fleet staging can't counteract the more tedious parts of this work."
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"‘Slave Play’ questions more than it answers"
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"If you're looking for deep investigation, you won't find it in 'Slave Play.' The problem is that Harris takes what might be an interesting premise (I'm still not sold) and gives it the glib, here's-a-lot-of-jargon-aren't-I-smart treatment."
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"Jeremy O. Harris's uncompromising, graphic, sexually explicit play. . . Without singling any of the actors out, they all appear totally immersed in their roles. All perform their purposefully offensive caricatured roles with comedic brilliance. In the second act, we see them as they are, as real people, amusingly."
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"Under Robert O'Hara's exquisite and deeply sensitive direction, the entire cast share believable and authentic performances that challenge all the norms defining eroticism and the erotic, particularly in the discussion of sexuality in 'mixed' couples...Not for the hard of heart, the heard of 'hearing,' or the weak in spirit."
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"It would be unfair to sum up 'Slave Play' as soft-core S&M porn followed by pseudo psychological insights about race in American - because it's other things as well…theatricality….sharp satire…. identifying real-life undercurrents both in race relations and in couple dynamics."
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"'Slave Play' makes a kind of history of its own, boldly bringing Broadway into unfamiliar waters! Bravo!"
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"'Slave Play' is…verbose, its characters more symbols than people, its dramatic tension secondary to its theoretical pyrotechnics, and, given its content, its intermissionless two hours too damned long."
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