Pipeline NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (174)
See it if You like edgy, relevant drama; great writing, directing and acting
Don't see it if You are looking for a light, breezy entertainment
See it if you like good drama. Great acting. Great ensemble. Lots of food for thought. Still thinking about this play long after I've seen it.
Don't see it if you don't like good drama.
See it if If you like relevant powerful drama
Don't see it if Contemporary gritty drama is upsetting to you
See it if like intelligent, powerful dramas lyrically told and portrayed by some of the best acting I've seen in quite some time.
Don't see it if four letter words offend you.
See it if you want to see a show that brings together the personal & the political in a uniquely powerful show with humor, guts and heart.
Don't see it if You don't want to be challenged, or you simply love romantic comedies.
See it if you enjoy well written pieces that explore current racial and social themes.
Don't see it if you don't like being challenged
See it if Excellent acting,compelling story
Don't see it if Don't see it if strong language offends you or if you have no interest in the current state of affairs in the issues of a minori
See it if you participate in American democracy; you’re interested in theater that offers more than frivolity and illusionism
Don't see it if you won’t engage w/ these characters as both people & archetypes. Play's good @ the literal level, but more powerful @ the metaphorical Read more
Critic Reviews (29)
“Sharply written, vividly acted, but somewhat uneven…The pipeline issues, while certainly real, don't seem that well connected to the family drama…And one wonders why the otherwise verbally adept Omari - with his well-educated parents communicating in excellent English - speaks in ungrammatical homeboy locutions…Blain-Cruz keeps the pace brisk and the energy fierce as her actors engage in a series of high-temperature confrontations, often abandoning naturalism for poetic realism.”
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"Ninety minutes is just not enough time and space for all the pain, trauma, and injustice that Morisseau loads into her new play...In the play’s most harrowing scene—and there are a few—Laurie returns to do battle in the classroom...The scenes with Jasmine are the weakest in 'Pipeline.' Morisseau has the two teenage characters say things that sound like something an adult wishes she had said in her youth...Blain-Cruz’s direction puts the drama of 'Pipeline' on a grand stage."
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"The play addresses a severe social problem—the conditions which contribute to high rates of violence among young black men—in a fresh and smart manner. Part of what makes 'Pipeline' impactful is Morisseau’s storytelling...From the start, we are engaged with Morisseau’s characters...The glue of the play is Pittman, who is marvelous...Director Lileana Blain-Cruz once again does an impressive job...'Pipeline' showcases an American playwright in full blaze."
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"The acting is uniformly strong...The characters are vividly drawn...The elevated, rather poetic style of speech the playwright occasionally turns to has the effect of making the characters sound more alike than they should. There are individual scenes that are wonderful, but they don’t cohere into as satisfying a whole as I would have wished...The direction by Lileana Blain-Cruz is unfussy and assured. Although I have some reservations, I found the play well worth seeing."
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"Though playwright Dominique Morisseau’s people are confused and greatly impotent, they’re also articulate, facilitating empathy...The firebrand piece is as angry and frustrated as its protagonists. Without an answer, Morisseau leaves both them and us in the lurch, hoping for understanding. Writing is tight and vivid. The company is terrific, each and every actor delivering from the gut. Time passes quickly with nothing less than riveted attention."
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“Morisseau...bites off more than she can comfortably chew in 90 minutes…But the main fault in this production is less with the text than with the direction. Morisseau's work cries out for the kind of vibrant naturalism that Ruben Santiago-Hudson gave ‘Skeleton Crew.’ But 'Pipeline' has been staged by Lileana Blain-Cruz who tends to favor a more stripped-down expressionism…'Pipeline' is seriously under-pruned. And the casting is also a bit off."
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“An up-to-the-minute, honest, and hard-hitting look at race, class, and the education system in the United States…Intensely intelligent and powerful…Morisseau…and Obie-winning director Lileana Blain-Cruz never allow the play to become overly preachy or pedantic…The relationships between the characters are fully believable as Morisseau steers clear of genre clichés…‘Pipeline’ is a poetic indictment of institutionalized societal constraints, a lesson we all need to learn.”
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"Morisseau and director Lileana Blain-Cruz opt for an over-heated, melodramatic approach that repeatedly lapses into cliché...Smallwood, an actor in his thirties, also struggles to play a convincing teenager. Karen Pittman is more plausible as his mother Nya...But their hectoring exchanges tend to sound scripted...As with Morisseau’s allusions to 'The Wire' and 'Native Son,' the weaknesses of her own play here become all the more glaring in comparison."
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