Dry Powder NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (127)
See it if You enjoy watching great actors deliver a well-written play about a current topic. It is both funny and dramatic at the same time.
Don't see it if You cannot pay attention to intense non-stop dialogue. If you need hearing assistance , get the device before the play begins.
See it if fans of the starry cast care to see a play version along the vein of "The Big Short"
Don't see it if finance stereotypes make your skin crawl
See it if you want to see a very timely play with a stellar cast
Don't see it if you were hoping to find very likeable and relatable characters
See it if Parallels plot of Wall Street movie-family owned company at the mercy of a big equity firm that is looking to liquidate it for $$- no mercy!
Don't see it if You're not a fan of the movie. Not for everyone-all the finance jargon could be tedious, the topic dry and morals R 4 sale. Amazing cast!
See it if you want to see masterful handling of technical material. This show presents moral crisis of finance in a well built narrative.
Don't see it if you are overly sympathetic to the finance industry. The play is missing a bit of nuance on that scale.
See it if you don't have a preset opinion about how financial firms impact society and are willing to see both sides of the story.
Don't see it if you just want to see celebrities and don't want to pay attention or think.
See it if You have thoughts on capitalism and its effect on our world.
Don't see it if Slick staging sickens.
See it if you wish to ponder whether the realm of private equity is vampiric capitalism or an unfortunate (necessary?) agent of Darwinian economics.
Don't see it if you're expecting the ratcheted-up dramatic tension or outsized egos of "Billions" or "Glengarry Glen Ross." This is more of a slow simmer.
Critic Reviews (30)
"The text, which is stuffed with insider financial terminology, can be repetitive and didactic. But in Kail’s sleek, spare, in-the-round staging, it makes for a high-powered debate on contemporary business ethics. Burgess deserves a lot of credit for tackling the subject. There ought to be more plays about big business and finance, just as there should be more plays about government and political issues. Too often, American drama is confined to exploring domestic life."
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"A sharp new play about the precarious intersection of politics and modern finance. With biting wit and shrewd insight, Burgess pulls back the veil on private equity and gets to the bottom of why it is so especially loathed…Director Thomas Kail crafts a sleek production to wrap around these thrillingly caffeinated performances…The contrivance of characters and plot is almost too tidy, inevitably stumbling over itself…Still, as agitprop, 'Dry Powder' is remarkably effective."
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"'Dry Powder' is surely a dryer exercise than its author intends...Thomas Kail's pacey production is harmed by the miscasting of one of the leads...'Dry Powder' has little in the way of energy or originality; its observations are too prefabricated and its satire is often reduced to mere finger-wagging. My advice? Consider this one a strong sell. "
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"You won't learn anything here, except what you already know…Fancy, towering dressing can't camouflage the play's inherent one-dimensionality…If this can't or won't be any more than a mind-numbing melodrama, is it too much to ask that there at least be a villain we can hiss? Burgess, Kail, and Danes can't even give us that...Just as money can't guarantee salvation, love, or success, in 'Dry Powder' it can't lead to so much as a basic good time."
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“Thomas Kail (one of the geniuses behind ‘Hamilton’) has staged the world
premiere of Sarah Burgess’ riveting ‘Dry Powder’ in as cool a fashion as Rachel
Hauck’s cobalt blue set with its cubes and rectangular modules that are
rearranged for the various scenes by stage hands dressed as stockbrokers.
This A-list cast best known for their television roles, along with talented
Sanjit de Silva as Landmark’s moral CEO, gives us indelible, full-bodied
performances.”
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"Burgess isn't exactly breaking new ground in writing about the human cost of family run businesses being taken over...Kail's slick production and Burgess's snappy, combative dialogue expertly and distinctively delivered by the cast make for a consistently entertaining pacey 95 minutes...I admit that I find plays about people affected by the likes of Ms. Burgess's characters make more compelling and longer lasting impressions than those about people responsible for their problems."
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"Sarah Burgess is a terrific writer who knows her characters and her subject matter and who, even better, does not talk down to us. She sets a quick pace from the the get-go and never slows down…All of this would work perfectly well if Ms. Danes did not seem to be in a different production all together…As to the rest, Azaria, Krasinski and De Silva give us nuanced and difficult-to-watch performances...Still they are not enough to overcome the weight of Ms. Danes lack of involvement."
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"Their banter is as amusing in its way as the repartee by the couple in a romantic comedy…except in this play, Seth and Jenny most certainly do not wind up falling in love. The playwright’s interest is elsewhere. She has something pointed and sophisticated to say about the economic engine and the people who drive it, and she does so with a couple of unexpected twists."
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