Exit Strategy NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (89)
See it if terrific actors and fun dialogue on a topic both serious and relevant.
Don't see it if cliches annoy you.
See it if you love straightforward dramas, education inequality is an issue you care about
Don't see it if you're not interested in the issue
See it if you like well acted, thought provocative plays with message. People who worked in schools in the audience were moved by this.
Don't see it if You if you view plays with messages as preachy
See it if You like intense drama with sharp dialogue.
Don't see it if You don't like issue driven theatre.
See it if you like sharply written scenes and characters, very well performed.
Don't see it if you have had enough of schoolhouse or workplace drama.
See it if looking for a thought provoking show about the public high school system in under privileged areas. Actors were amazing.
Don't see it if expecting a feel good story with a happy ending.
See it if you are a teacher. or know a teacher. this show tells the true struggle for many schools and teachers across the country.
Don't see it if you're offended by language. or offended by two guys kissing (there is a gay couple in the show). And if you are, get over it; it's 2016.
See it if you want to see a thoughtful, distressing take on the challenges facing everyone in the public education system in contemporary America.
Don't see it if you go to the theater for a fun escape.
Critic Reviews (21)
"Get a ticket as quickly as possible and go. Don’t miss this one. It hits on every level a theater lover, novice, or even someone who doesn’t really like the theater could want. Drama, got it. Comedy, check. Realism, idealism, struggle, conflict, triumph, and even romance. Ike Holter, the playwright, has written a remarkable work...There are no stereotypes. This is in no small part due to the incredible acting talent of the ensemble, each of whom gives an emotional, real performance."
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"Ike Holter’s script is richly complex with just the right number of surprises tucked away in the well-rounded characters’ Pandora’s Box of authentic conflicts. Kip Fagan’s staging is fast-paced, energetic, deeply engaging, and unravels each of the playwright’s episodic emotion-laden salvos with subtle seduction."
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"It’s difficult to sympathize with the dire problems these teachers are confronting during the circus-clowns-emerging-from-a-tiny-car routines they frequently deliver. It’s as if they’re participating in an on-steroids 'Welcome Back, Kotter' sitcom retread…A teacher-student plot twist does fly in the face of astonished credulity, and it’s not the only script turn that does...Holter manages intermittently to fight the good fight.”
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"This emotional drama is well acted, well directed and well thought out…The performers are all well cast, with Ms. Madigan dominating the stage with her energetic and layered character. Kip Fagan’s direction is well done with each scene almost seeming like it is its own play...Mr. Holter has a lot to say about the American public school system. He is reaching a subject that needs to be addressed and leaves us with plenty of food for thought."
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"'Exit Strategy' could have done with some old-fashioned discipline. For the characters spend too much of the 90-minute performance shouting at each other. This is at once wearying and implausible...The play’s relentless, vaguely comic vituperation also makes for an unbalanced portrayal of school life...Holter is right to eschew the inane boosterism of 'Dangerous Minds', but his own play lacks nuance too."
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“Ike Holter’s crackling off-Broadway play...Ryan Spahn is just great as the unwittingly spunky assistant principal, Deirdre Madigan is perfect as a seething teacher, and everyone else gets to effectively strut, snap and make waves, with never a dull moment. See 'Exit Strategy'—it’s a real schooling, with hot things on its mind.”
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"Holter's impassioned drama is in many ways about the inspiration people find in each other when the world outside offers none...He explores the community's sticky, conflicted attachment to the school itself...Such emotional force is also where, theatrically, 'Exit Strategy' occasionally falters. Holter works hard to soften this disquieting tale with humor, sometimes to a fault...It's to his credit that...he withholds a happy ending, reminding us that systemic failures are rarely reversible."
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"It's a rare play that can entertain you and outrage you simultaneously, but that's just what 'Exit Strategy' does...The entire cast is topnotch, flirting with stereotypes, but passionate and skilled enough to step back from that edge. Holter's characters are sufficiently complex so as to avoid easy consolations as he forces us to keep reevaluating everyone. Kip Fagan directs with electric speed and lots of driving music during scene breaks."
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