Downtown Race Riot NYC Reviews and Tickets

“The play lacks logos, pathos, and ethos and is completely devoid of catharsis. It is difficult to care about any of the characters or their hackneyed conflicts that drive drab, uninteresting plot lines...Under Elliott’s direction, the talented cast struggles to make sense of Rosenfeld’s script...Failing to address any meaningful discussion about systemic racism or any significant conversation about the 1970s race riots, ‘Downtown Race Riot’ remains a puzzling foray into the realm of the absurd.”
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"Rosenfeld chooses to dramatize this actual event indirectly...The result feels like a missed opportunity...Largely a disappointment—undercooked in the first half, then overheated at the end. Still, Rosenfeld’s script does offer some precisely observed character and period details...The seven-member cast includes several compelling performances, especially that by Chloë Sevigny...Sevigny gives a nuanced performance as a loving and neglectful mother."
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“A stumbling, hour and 40-minute, domestic drama about a morally confused Greenwich Village family… Sevigny…makes a highly credible Mary…For all its attempts at veracity, 'Downtown Race Riot' has an ersatz quality that fails to make these people and their problems real. The riot itself comes off as merely a trigger for a drama of family dysfunction; too many distractions create disunity...Dialogue that too often sounds above the pay grade of its speakers also punctures plausibility.”
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"Surprisingly there’s no real exploration of the forces that would motivate the young men to wild out in such a way. While Rosenfeld sets up a gripping dilemma for Jimmy he loosens that grip with a lot of side conversations and subplots...Elliott’s direction and McLane’s shallow set also dribble away the dramatic tension...There’s a smart and moving play lurking somewhere inside 'Downtown Race Riot' but this version feels like an early draft, with its tone and focus still unclarified."
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"Tepid despite its starry and talented cast...Nothing about this show is really action packed. Yes, we get sex; nudity, drug use and a fight that is a little scary due to the proximity of the stage and seats, but nothing that begs 'watch me'...Scott Elliott’s direction is well done for the space, but when your text is so mundane instead of biting into the subject, how much can you do?"
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"Rosenfeld spends more exposition on the negotiations for this violent confab in the park than the Allies needed to invade Normandy...It would be easy to credit Sevigny with single-handedly slapping an otherwise flaccid drama into shape. But Rosenfeld’s writing for her mother character is simply sharper than it is for the others...It’s doubtful from all his riot angst that Rosenfeld would agree, but these kids show every sign of surviving a terrible, though fascinating mother."
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"The only thing functional, apart from the acting quality, in this dull look at a dysfunctional family and equally screwed up friends is the apartment set...We don’t actually get to see the riot, which at least would enliven the play...The focus is primarily on the mostly uninteresting characters...For all of the sincere strivings of the fine cast members, the play doesn’t pack the strength needed to keep an audience in its grip. It rambles along for 90 minutes."
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"For a while it appears that Rosenfeld may be venturing into pretty daring territory—a satire on the scam artists who drain government money to the detriment of 'the deserving poor'...Soon, however, additional threads of plot are woven in...In any case, what seemed to begin as a social satire veers into melodrama. Cannily, though, Rosenfeld stops short of a grim ending...Even if it’s not wholly satisfying, there is much in Rosenfeld’s play to appreciate."
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