The Wolves NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (314)
See it if If you love interesting story telling and fresh staging.
Don't see it if If you only like conventional plays. Read more
See it if you want to see the work of an exciting new voice, with an ensemble of exciting young actors, in an original, nuanced, captivating play.
Don't see it if you have no interest in the lives of teenage girls (tho this play avoids the usual stereotypes, conventions and pitfalls you might expect).
See it if you like ensemble pieces, good acting & direction.
Don't see it if you don't want a closer look at a group of middle-class American teenage girls.
See it if you like sports and are interested in teenage lives. You will enjoy the complexity of the characters and watch them grow.
Don't see it if you don't care about teenagers and their problems. If you think that teenage problems are not as important as your problems.
See it if The longer I sit thinking about it, the more I love it. A slice of life play about people, not plot that resonates deeply.
Don't see it if You're looking for a definitive plot.
See it if touching story of teens (females) who you see working out in preparation for soccer games, where their characters & stories develop slowly
Don't see it if would be annoyed by 2 or more conversations going on simultaneously; don't want stories about teen girls no matter how creative or touching Read more
See it if you feel empowered by theatre by women for women - the storytelling of the lives of teenage girls feels so real
Don't see it if you can't handle overlapping dialogue or theatre in the round - or something that ends on a light note
See it if Great ensemble piece where you feel like you’re eavesdropping on teenage girls with their smart takes on life and individual personalities
Don't see it if You can’t handle overlapping dialogue though it’s realistic. Nice to see the teamwork of the actors and the athletes they portray.
Critic Reviews (40)
"Sarah DeLappe’s extremely skillful debut...DeLappe's exquisitely orchestrated cross talk and overlapping banter, dense with profanity and jokes, is quite musical...The characters are drawn quickly but precisely and are acted by a dynamic young ensemble...Their fraught, heightened lives are revealed in blurry glimpses, as the restless, roving narrative darts across a curving swath of AstroTurf as green as youth."
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"Neugebauer has calibrated the volume and the emphasis so you’ll never be totally lost. But you’ll nevertheless be lost, in the most realistic and powerful way...The firecracker dialogue, even half garbled in the rush of it, has the unmistakable ping of reality. It is both hilarious and perfectly expressive of each character who speaks it...Girlhood, obviously, is the general subject, but not in any saccharine sense...With luck, this extraordinary new work will become a popular one, too."
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"An exhilarating play…Directed with naturalistic virtuosity by Lila Neugebauer…DeLappe’s brilliance is that she reveals her players as they gossip, taunt, comfort and conspire not as archetypes, but as young women on the cusp of becoming their own self-defined characters, with the possibility to change, challenge and grow…In this heady rush of adolescent energy, ideas and emotion, the ensemble work is astonishing."
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"DeLappe's dialogue adeptly mines the profundity out of these trivial exchanges...Equally impressive is how DeLappe gets us well-acquainted with all nine of the girls on the team, played by a roster of excellent actresses...It's a picture of female camaraderie in its most authentic form...Most heartening of all is that DeLappe has created an ensemble of distinct female characters without leaning on romantic partners or traditional feminine tropes to define them."
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"In just a few highly economical pages of dialogue, DeLappe establishes her subjects as smart, sassy, and wised-up, yet also more than a little naïve about the wider world...The director, Lila Neugebauer, has a way with large casts and 'The Wolves' can easily be enjoyed for the seamless interaction of nine actresses...DeLappe renders the team members perceptively and with sympathy."
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"Pleasant, formulaic and ultimately not that involving...Ms. DeLappe has created a highly theatrical and very well structured work that lovingly captures the sense of contemporary adolescence...It’s all technically impressive but thematically routine. Fitfully entertaining, by its strategically dramatic conclusion there really isn’t much impact...Ms. Neugebauer’s superior staging is extremely visual and also achieves emotional intensity due to her excellent results obtained from the cast."
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"The nine young women haven't been given names. But their distinct and credibly realized personalities are given keen dramatic shape by playwright Sarah Delappe in her slight but enjoyable play....To the playwright's credit is that each girl is sketched with both bold and subtle strokes that make them appear real...The quality of the acting is top-notch...The play courageously eschews a strong central character but it could gain substance with a more compelling dramatic device than what we get."
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"A hilarious and emotional portrait of teenage girls discovering who they are, on and off the soccer field…Neugebauer has expertly crafted the social cues and the natural pauses lending to the feeling that we’re really in the room with this team…Everything that comes out of their mouths feels real and unrehearsed…‘The Wolves’ is one of the strongest new plays I’ve seen Off Broadway in recent memory...DeLappe’s voice is strong, refreshing, and certainly one to watch."
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