"Light's performance, under the assured direction of Leigh Silverman, is a model of modulated transparency. It’s an artful 'now you see her, now you don’t' presentation of character that almost makes you believe that the story being told on stage may wind up surprising you after all. It doesn’t...Ms. Light brings a vibrant, thirsty eroticism to the part...'All the Ways' feels less like classical tragedy than vintage soap opera."
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"It could accurately be described as lightweight—or, better, Light-weight: Its impact comes largely from Judith Light’s full-throttle performance...Light moves in and out of emotional intensity, building up pressure and then pulling back. It’s foreplay of a kind, but it builds to an odd anticlimax. LaBute has written very good short plays spun out of single ideas. This hour-long work seems like an attenuated version of one of those: a 20-minute play with stretch marks."
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"The gap between content and tone is so extreme that the play would get dangerously close to giggle-worthy were it not for Light’s commitment to it...She is a marvel of heightened naturalism, all her abilities in top form and wielded together toward the same ends...That said, it’s clear that Light is working too hard to make up for what’s missing in the script...I’m not sure what else the director and actress could have done...It’s admirable how much they succeed."
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"This Neil LaBute monologue dresses up the sordid tale of a horny married teacher and her affair with a very young African-American student in a lame approximation of Greek tragedy that reaches way beyond its soap-opera grasp...Mrs. Johnson is a wallowing, self-regarding narcissist...The show is effectively staged by Leigh Silverman for the adventurous MCC Theatre, and I believe we’re supposed to admire her for her 'honesty,' but I wasn’t buying any of it for a second."
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"An embarrassingly clumsy one-act...LaBute always did have a way with words. But while the language of the play makes for easy listening, not so the thinking behind it...Light is one of our most reliable stage actors...But she appears to be experiencing real discomfort getting through Mrs. Johnson’s humiliating confession, discomfort beyond the character’s own distress about the lies she’s told...There’s no context for Mrs. Johnson’s exposure of her deepest, most painful secrets."
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"Lasting less than an hour, the monologue barely justifies its existence beyond serving as a strong acting vehicle...Unobtrusively directed by Silverman, the piece feels overextended despite its brevity; the provocative premise is never fleshed out in sufficiently intriguing fashion. Its thinness is somewhat redeemed by Light's impressively intense performance...The playwright has put us in similarly uncomfortable moral positions many times before, but usually in far more interesting fashion."
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"A relatively sympathetic character portrait, in which Mrs. Johnson opens up about the weight of her anguish and regret. It’s as if LaBute is trying to confront the general perception that his writing is misogynistic in tone. Light gives a shaded and dramatically effective performance under the direction of Leigh Silverman that keeps you drawn in. That said, 'All the Ways to Say I Love You' is a pretty slight offering, running just an hour and with a single performer on a tiny set."
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"It is a disappointing misfire from an otherwise dynamite team...LaBute continues his penchant for the unexpected by eschewing all that makes him a thrilling writer, penning a play that is limp in both story and language...The story lethargically meanders as LaBute drops little breadcrumbs that encourage us to hold out hope for an exciting twist that never really comes...Director Silverman does little to solve the disconnect between text and performer."
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