“If the setup seems a bit reductive and possibly condescending, just wait...Means to be a truth-telling thought experiment about wealth and opportunity but never gets close to a credible argument. Worse, it seems to have caught a bad case of entitled obnoxiousness from its main character...It would be hard to overstate how unlikely this plot is...Logical holes in the plot, so gaping that they make you wonder whether ‘Dan Cody’s Yacht’ is meant as satire.”
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"The revolving wood-paneled set is an apt metaphor for the stiff and repetitive 'Dan Cody’s Yacht.' Anthony Giardina’s drama attempts to humanize the hot-button topic of economic inequality but...it is less a play than a polemic...These characters have no relation to real people; they’re mouthpieces for oft-argued political positions, pressed into a narrative filled with plot holes and blind spots."
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“Timely, fast-paced and, alas, frustrating, the new play ‘Dan Cody’s Yacht’ sails into the choppy waters of American privilege...Is see-worthy, it’s not watertight. Or always plausible...There’s a nagging leak at the center of Hughes’ fluid and well-acted production...Since Rick’s behavior is the main plot, the fuzziness effectively beaches 'Dan Cody’s Yacht.'"
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“A relevant topic worthy of exploration, but the darkly comedic drama feels like a sociological treatise in search of a play...Despite the play's provocative elements, little of its plotting rings true...Hughes provides a smooth production...Bush is highly appealing as the morally conflicted Cara, and Holmes is so charismatic as the smooth-talking Kevin that you understand why people fall sway to him. But their efforts are not enough to prevent ‘Dan Cody's Yacht’ from eventually sinking.”
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“A set of stakes that are never convincing enough to make us see his story as anything but a thought experiment in an overly controlled vacuum...Perhaps if these things were unequivocally true, we'd feel the pressure that the ‘Incorruptible Cara Russo’ feels to corrupt...Rather than a story about a moral bulwark manipulated by a flawed system, we get a story about a gullible woman manipulated by a domineering man. We've seen that story before, and I think we're ready for a new one.”
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"Director Hughes' sharply played mounting of Giardina's biting and discomforting social commentary...It's been said that privilege is the state of not being concerned about issues that don't directly affect you, and Giardina's observant, darkly comic piece debates the boundaries of such concerns, to the point where financially secure white liberals in the audience may find themselves squirming a bit."
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"One of the prime virtues of 'Yacht' is its recognition that not only the privileged are inclined to circle their wagons when faced with fundamental change...So much of the play is turned over to the endless back-and-forth between Kevin and Cara that he risks coming off as a nag and a bore...The devil should be more appealing than this; otherwise, what is the point of sinning? This is nothing against Holmes whose work here goes a long way toward giving Kevin some necessary shading."
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“So well played and well written that it surprised the audience...Heavily expository...which is why the play takes a while to jell...Giardina skillfully keeps us entertained while laying the groundwork for the Act Two payoffs...Giardina's dialogue is both heightened and natural...In a cast without a weak link, Whyland's Angela stands out...Chalk it up to Hughes, whose direction, as usual, cultivates a wealth of character detail without being showy about it.”
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