Sweat NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (685)
See it if You want to have a great theater experience. Great acting and important story for our times. engrossing. Terrific production all around.
Don't see it if Don't like serious drama about blue collar workers and the struggles they face with employment and getting through life
See it if you enjoy masterfully written plays full of remarkably detailed characterizations and a gut punching sense of reality.
Don't see it if you want to sit back and be dazzled by spectacle or dislike being challenged. Read more
See it if this show took my breath away! Hits hard. An amazing piece of work!
Don't see it if you can't stand a powerful play.
See it if You love theater, GREAT writing, acting by a superb ensemble. Want it's dramatic hooks sunk into you in the opening minutes and never let go
Don't see it if You have no soul, compassion for others. No opinion about what goes on in todays world. Live in a cocoon + tell yourself: Won't happen to me Read more
See it if If you like serious drama about real issues
Don't see it if You only need to see fluff! Read more
See it if you love drama that is topical and speaks to today's times. See if you care about our country. Unbelievably good acting and writing.
Don't see it if you don't like hard hitting drama. This is train ride that goes full speed once it leaves the station. Relentless and powerful.
See it if You love dramas with a that make you think... great acting...
Don't see it if You want a musical, want just to be mindlessly entertained
See it if you want an eye-opening view into what's happening in factory towns all over the U.S. Thrilling performances, stellar writing, great set.
Don't see it if If you were in the mood for "The Play That Goes Wrong," but couldn't get tickets. ;-)
Critic Reviews (87)
"Lynn Nottage’s timely, empathetic and critical-minded drama...An involving drama, calibrated to increase in intensity toward its brutal climax. Nottage explores her characters and their environment with the sensitivity of a master dramatist and the objectivity of a journalist...Kate Whoriskey’s finely textured production is a triumph of ensemble acting. Johanna Day is particularly effective in expressing her character’s shock, frustration and self-centered ego."
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“A prescient study of an American dream gone belly up…How they each interact is portrayed in finely nuanced detail not only in dialogue but through performance and Kate Whoriskey’s sensitive and solid direction. This is a well-honed ensemble…The performers, all but one, reprising their roles from the Off-Broadway production, are excellent...If it seems overly ambitious, it is nonetheless a powerful chronicle of a modern day tragedy."
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"All of the performances feel bigger, suggesting that director Kate Whoriskey has instructed her cast to play to the back row of this much larger Broadway house. Unfortunately, results vary...Even though some of the performances have gone astray, 'Sweat' is still the must-see play of the season. Nottage employs her ample intelligence and compassion in telling the story of why so many Americans feel frustrated and frightened."
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"A tense and finely acted production...Day and Wilson do excellent work playing the subtext of racial tension...While the decline of American communities when jobs are sent to other countries is a familiar subject, Nottage's even-handed treatment of multiple viewpoints, giving sympathy to all sides, makes 'Sweat' a truly realistic and moving tragedy that, sadly, has gained relevance on its way to Broadway."
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"Nottage has not done a lot of complex narrative crafting here. But what she has done is strong and smart, and addresses the many simmering tensions on which the play is constructed...Nottage does not shy from exploring, occasionally in brutal fashion, how America's ever-evolving work life changes the souls of those who are subjected to it. 'Sweat' ultimately feels real because the people in it who are sweating feel real...Whoriskey's staging is fluid, sharp, and honest."
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"The play is more relevant and timely than ever...The transfer overall is just fine with the entire team back on board (with just one new cast member)...The actors are better than ever...I still find the play's structure and conflicts too schematic and familiar to really tap into my deepest emotions until late in the second act. However, this seemed less important this time around...'Sweat' is now a worthy heir to Arthur Miller's American Dream destroying 'Death of a Salesman.'"
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“From the dead-on realism of a neighborhood bar, designed to perfection by John Lee Beatty, to the heightened and naturalistic staging of director Kate Whoriskey, everything about ‘Sweat’ is geared to pull you in to its grip with a vise-like strength, and then not let go. This is a violent and powerful drama by Lynn Nottage that has transferred from New York's Public Theater to Broadway with all of its emotionally heavy-hitting impact intact.”
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"Director Kate Whoriskey and Nottage have partnered before, and it shows. Words and actions move in lockstep. Everything seems organic. Whoriskey’s assembled a crackerjack cast, and they deliver bigtime. You never doubt these Pennsylvanians have worked together, played together, and bent many an elbow together. Touching and troubling, 'Sweat' is a powerful potion that candidly explores a piece of the American dream no longer worth dreaming."
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