The Humans NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (1,424)
See it if you like dysfunctional family dramedies. It fine, but nothing special. Not taken with the cast. Hated existential doom. Oft seen themes.
Don't see it if you can see a great work instead. Like Long Day's Journey Into Night. The letter about "dance at weddings" has been done so often.
See it if You like a show that touches on a lot of feelings and emotions and makes you think.
Don't see it if You don't like to be reminded that you're not perfect.
See it if has good acting, it has a decent story.
Don't see it if over rated, slow at times, confusing at times.
See it if you enjoy how generations of family members care for and grate on each other. Lots of talking, but who is listening?
Don't see it if you do not like the uncomfortable friction that works its way out the longer that family members are together.
See it if you have survived a difficult holiday with family. The acting and direction are excellent. A lot of events but little plot or resolution.
Don't see it if family drama disturbs you. In spite of its many funny moments the play is about sad people trying to have lives beyond their troubles.
See it if The most intelligent, humane & heartwrenching play on Broadway at this moment. Flawless staging with impeccible acting make a modern classic
Don't see it if Nothing really goes wrong despite an occassional veering into Irish sentimentality. Ambiguous , rather radical ending may put off some
See it if You're interested in hearing the voice of a new, relevant playwright.
Don't see it if You're not interested in family dramedies.
See it if you are not yet tired of the topic of family sturm und drong.
Don't see it if you mind a show that moves at a snail's pace or if you want to see something original.
Critic Reviews (75)
"The title may sound generic, but there’s nothing blurry about Mr. Karam’s scorching drama. Drawn in subtle but indelible strokes, Mr. Karam’s play might almost qualify as deep-delving reportage, so clearly does it illuminate the current, tremor-ridden landscape of contemporary America...The finest new play of the Broadway season so far."
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"'The Humans' is just as funny, just as moving and just as sneakily unsettling in its new Broadway incarnation, and retains its essential intimacy...'The Humans' is the kind of show that we must usually go Off Broadway to see: a thoughtful new play by a young American writer, with a cast of expert local actors. With no slight intended to the lions and the witches and the extravagant wardrobes: It's good to see 'The Humans' on Broadway, too."
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"It is still the most, well, human play I’ve ever seen about fear and disappointment and the attachments that transcend them...When a naturalistic play is working on so many levels (literally, in this case) an odd thing can happen: You can begin to feel that the characters are just going about their lives onstage but that you, in the audience, are acting. At any rate, you may find yourself gasping and yelping and, if you’re the type, crying."
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"Thanks to Karam’s script and the ensemble’s performances, every slight, every shared memory, and every knowing glance feels utterly lived in. The brilliant direction by Joe Mantello helps hugely with believability as well…Karam’s transcendently mundane play is a reminder that family dinner dramas can still be surprising — and they doesn’t need ghosts or things that go bump in the night to achieve that. Real life is scary enough."
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"Each and every character is enormously appealing, and Karam takes care to reveal their guarded secrets with great tenderness, just as Mantello’s directorial hand gently advances the play from comedy to tragedy. The revelations of weakness in this close-knit family are not entirely unexpected...The big question, of course, is whether the Blakes can survive after this emotional night. Karam doesn’t make it easy for them — or us."
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"'The Humans' is passably well made, or would be were it not for the way in which the author stirs up expectations of a coda on which he fails to deliver...None of the characters does anything that isn’t perfectly obvious, right down to the jokes...No doubt Mr. Karam thinks he’s given us a deeply resonant statement about the Condition of 21st-Century America, but after 95 minutes of unhappy-family chitchat, I left the theater feeling that I’d just spent two whole hours there for no good reason."
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"A smart decision was made to hold on to the exquisitely matched acting ensemble and also the play’s, well, human scale by re-mounting it in the Helen Hayes, the smallest Tony-eligible house. As a result, the play retains its remarkable power as a tale of sorrows veined with silver threads of humor...'The Humans' is tremendously exciting theater, and I remain convinced that you won’t see a better play this season."
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"In a mere 95 minutes, the playwright — bolstered by a whip-smart director, Joe Mantello, and pitch-perfect cast of six — delves into the dynamics of this clan with a gentleness that feels like compassion and a scrupulousness that borders on the forensic…'The Humans' is the sort of impeccably constructed play that should be a regular inhabitant on Broadway, not the occasional, surprising guest."
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