Exit Strategy NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (89)
See it if a well-acted show about the effects of the closing of a school on faculty and students.Entertaining, some laughs.
Don't see it if The topic doesn't interest you.
See it if Turbulent teachers' break room in a poor Chicago high school. The adults are a gaggle of losers being saved by a charismatic senior.
Don't see it if you're turned off like me by yet another play -- like "The Humans" -- with an extraneous supernatural element that just doesn't work
See it if like urban dramas, diversity, under-class
Don't see it if offensive language
See it if you want to see something original
Don't see it if don't like a lot of cursing
See it if You want a play about race relations with a gay subplot shoehorned in for no reason. Or you enjoy cliched plots that feel like a bad sitcom.
Don't see it if You're going to have a heart attack from loud noises. Or you are looking for an intelligent take on culturally relevant topics.
See it if it doesn't bother you to have a great, brilliant opening scene and then have a really good idea dwindle away. Four strong performances.
Don't see it if inconsistent acting bothers you. A couple of the actors are completely unbelievable, doing bad musical performances. A couple are brilliant.
See it if you like screaming and profanity used for laughs.
Don't see it if you want to be drawn into the play. I never really cared about the characters.
See it if you like one person plays
Don't see it if you are looking for an intelligent play.
Critic Reviews (21)
"Though Holter’s playwrighting voice is distinctively his, there’s a bit of Aaron Sorkin in the thrust-and-parry word play, with every character achieving implausibly virtuosic feats of articulation...'Exit Strategy' is immensely enjoyable for all those same, Sorkin-esque reasons. There’s a wide range of tone here — from raw desolation to high comedy, and Holter manages it masterfully. He’s especially skillful at orchestrating large conversations. Director Kip Fagan’s production is terrific."
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"A depressing, brutally honest but also scathingly funny portrait of a floundering inner-city school...The ensemble shines as layers are probed and secrets revealed; no one is as good or bad as he or she seems. Instead, they’re all richly human, friends one day and enemies the next, crushed by despair one moment, then suddenly bolstered by renewed hope...A smart, lean production."
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"While there are moments when these teachers slide into broad illustrations of themselves, overall each packs a powerful punch and a dynamic chemistry that contributes to a knockout ensemble cast...This production feels beautifully dangerous, deeply felt in each shocking discovery...The few truly didactic moments are balanced by a searing treatment of how we view failure, and then how we try to 'correct' it...'Exit Strategy' challenges and inspires."
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"By dramatizing an issue that’s often discussed in the media but rarely humanized on stage, Holter’s play makes a valuable and original contribution. Philadelphia Theatre Company performs its customary job of providing a first-rate production for a new script that’s still a bit rough and frenetic around the edges. Unfortunately, Holter chooses to view the issue of inner-city education almost entirely through the eyes of the faculty...Apparently, the students remain the forgotten actors."
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"Black, Latino, and low-income families know that they will go to sleep angry, and wake up angry the next damn day, and watching plays like 'Exit Strategy' gives many of these people — including this writer — a good reason to be as angry as hell...He effectively conveys the frustration of massive school closings, which have had a damaging effect on inner-city school systems — and on those who rely on them — since then."
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