Buried Child NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (104)
See it if If you like dramas with great story telling and keep you on the edge of your seat tension.
Don't see it if If you like musicals and light hearted shows.
See it if You want to see a terrifically acted and staged presentation of an American classic. Sheppard is a true original. Amy Madigan is electric.
Don't see it if You only like light entertainment. This is funny, dramatic and thought provoking.
See it if You want to see a great performance by Ed Harris in a fine revival of Sam Shepard's engrossing show.
Don't see it if You are not into quirky plays about dysfunctional families. This one is REALLY dysfunctional.
See it if You want to see a classic play being done in a classic way
Don't see it if You can't sit thru 2 hours of a show with no intermission
See it if you want to see masterful contributions from many in the cast, especially Ed Harris and Amy Madigan.
Don't see it if you've done the Sam Shepard route.
See it if you like Sam Shephard's darkness
Don't see it if you are looking for an uplifting story.
See it if you want to see a great collaboration between a talented set of actors and creative team.
Don't see it if you cringe at uncomfortable moments and want something more fast-paced.
See it if You enjoy deep thought-provoking drama about the lives and trials of a poor American family.
Don't see it if You want to see something uplifting and happy, and do not enjoy dark deep drama.
Critic Reviews (38)
"Some of its shock value has worn off, but 'Buried Child' remains a gritty, mysterious, often engrossing portrait of domestic life gone to hell, as demonstrated by Scott Elliott’s well-acted revival...The production’s intimacy, intense physicality and seamless flow keep it vivid and visceral, even when the dialogue gets slow or confounding twists pop up...Harris is especially absorbing as a father who is essentially a shadow of his former self."
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"This is a fascinating production that will haunt you for days…Director Scott Elliott is especially skilled at preserving a dreamlike tone, endowing the visual elements with a vibrancy that is a shade too vivid to be real…Ironically, Dodge comes off as the most authentically human of the bunch. Harris plays him with a fine mixture of grit and pharmaceutical loopiness."
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"With its social commentary more of museum quality in 2016, audiences today may grow impatient with the play's ambiguous plotting. But there's something to be said for a fine museum display, and director Scott Elliott's solid production for The New Group is good for some sick laughs and some mildly rebellious symbolism."
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"Before the production has passed the half-hour mark, it becomes apparent that something is critically, possibly fatally, off. If Elliott's company has a pretty firm grip on the play's humor, they are fairly hopeless at conjuring the menace, the all-devouring rage that also lurks inside Shepard's characters...This production fitfully captures the bleak humor in Shepard's dialogue, the darker notes are left mostly unstruck."
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"'Buried Child' retains the ability to shock and stun…Although he could at times sharpen up the pacing just a bit, Elliott has delivered one of his best directing jobs in years with this production. Yes, he has done a masterful job of establishing and maintaining atmosphere, which remains consistent in its innate quality even as it grows, expands, and suffocates...He has guided nearly every actor into being both an integral part of the action and unmistakable individual."
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"'Buried Child' is still a gripping gothic tale — a demanding theatrical experience since it leaves the audience to figure out its many ambiguities…Harris is a fierce, seething central presence throughout. That's not to say that the other cast members don't also contribute mightily to enriching the eerie family portrait...Though Shepard rewrote the play in 1996 to intensify its humor, he never changed its raggedy often mystifying dramaturgy."
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"Director Scott Elliott skillfully brings together this thought-provoking piece. Elliott highlights the unsettlingly relatable aspect of this family that Shepard has built. The audience goes from shock to laughter, and often both at the same time. It’s impossible not to leave the intimate theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center and wonder what exactly just happened. This production of 'Buried Child' is theatre worth thinking about for days."
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"For the most part I must applaud director Scott Elliot’s attempt to streamline this oft-produced three-act epic into a no-intermission one-act. However, where speed-of-delivery is often well handled and actually helps elevate the material, there were elements I found troubling."
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