Dry Powder NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (127)
See it if You like smart, snappy, fast-moving dialog that's realistic in today's world of business, and you want to see some fine acting.
Don't see it if You have no interest in the business world because you'll be completely lost by some of the dialog.
See it if You are a Claire Daness fan and can appreciate deadpan delivery of really funny lines.
Don't see it if You have no understanding of finance or need action driven plots.
See it if you enjoy rapid fire, well delivered dialog in a sparely staged performance
Don't see it if you are looking for a happy, feel good about human nature play
See it if You want to see Claire Danes and John Krasinski live on stage in a playful, thought-provoking comedy-drama.
Don't see it if You wouldn't enjoy plays about the financial world.
See it if You enjoy good actors explaining bad behavior in hedge funds. It's thought provoking if appalling.
Don't see it if You want lots of scenic design or don't have patience for finance jargon or venture capitalists.
See it if you want to see a very incisive, very contemporary take on the relationship between money and values.
Don't see it if a bit of finance jargon will bore you.
See it if You want something new and edgy, this almost sits outside the usual genres simply because it tackles a new story.
Don't see it if You don't want to have to think and keep up with the story.
See it if you enjoy plays by a fresh new writer. I look forward to seeing Sarah Burgess's next play. Also, if you enjoy/understand finance.
Don't see it if you do not understand finance.
Critic Reviews (30)
"Sarah Burgess's tremendously entertaining, swift as lightning new play...Burgess is operating in the same biting, darkly comic key as 'The Big Short,' forcing us to alternately identify with and recoil in horror at these soulless capitalists. 'Dry Powder' is a comedy meant to make you a little sick to your stomach...This brand of morality-play-among-the-amoral isn't anything new. But Burgess has a fine ear for the clubby patois of business people...The stars don't disappoint."
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"Burgess's play is a parable, really, a story from the finance-sector's point-of-view about why money so often trumps humanity in a capitalist society. It's funny, sleek and well-told, thanks to director Thomas Kail, who whirls his four-person cast across the stage, set in the round. Claire Danes has great comic timing as Jenny, a woman who cares more about numbers than people...It may not be the world we want to live in, but 'Dry Powder' says it's the world we have."
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"Here's what I liked about 'Dry Power,' Sarah Burgess's predictable, unimaginative, and lame incitement of high finance: the women in the crew wore black cocktail dresses when they moved the (unimpressive, ugly) scenery…To call 'Dry Powder' one-dimensional would be to compliment it…That Thomas Kail directed 'Dry Powder' so badly is astonishing...A play having a particular point of view is not enough. It also needs, oh, subtlety and insight...An interesting plot wouldn't hurt either."
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"Burgess's smart, acidic take on the financial services industry indicts capitalism through a sharp portrait of the one percent....The star-studded ensemble supports this production, efficiently inhabiting Burgess's cutthroat world...This repeated ethical tangling does get repetitive...But even this feels theatrically strategic; the more we hear these traders arguing, the more we realize who's missing from the argument, who's deliberately not depicted onstage. That would be the rest of us."
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"Burgess is clever and throughout her smart, sharp play, it seems dry powder can refer to not just funds that are expendable, but people, too...Playwright Burgess skillfully draws all four characters fully, giving each of them a distinct dialect, if you will. None of them speak in exactly the same way, helping to distinguish their personalities. For all its merits, including Kail's use of Rachel Hauck's scenic design as a storytelling device, I found 'Dry Powder' to be just fine."
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"Private equity types will undoubtedly say 'Dry Powder' plays on caricatures and stereotypes more than reality. But they will probably find themselves laughing at the play’s quick-fire gallows humor...In an election year with Wall Street on the hot seat, the play is topical...It is hard to say that those working in the industry will like the conclusions playwright Sarah Burgess reaches about their chosen field and the personalities who inhabit it...That is not to say they won’t be entertained."
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