Trick or Treat NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (113)
See it if ... you want to see how a family deals with a very serious issue by confronting it head-on, while injecting moments of humor.
Don't see it if There is no reason why anyone wouldn’t want to see this show.
See it if you want to see a brilliantly acted play about very serious family issues like Alzheimer's Disease. Gordon Clapp is sensational as Johnny!!
Don't see it if you don't want to think about Alzheimer's Disease or any other family issues during your free time in a theatre. This play has quite a few! Read more
See it if You enjoy seeing humor around dark topics.
Don't see it if Can't think of a reason not to see it.
See it if Excellent ensemble acting and directing. The play develops slowly as a mystery novel that will keep you gripped until the last page when
Don't see it if You do not like psychological tales. Read more
See it if A dark family drama filled with surprises, twists and turns and some bad language. Great humor and emotional.
Don't see it if Family drama about Alzheimer's disease upsets you. The family dynamics can be depressing.....
See it if You like a funny show with a twisted story line.
Don't see it if You don't like plays with drama and twisted story lines.
See it if you like family drama w/ a touch of comedy,mystery & surprising plot twist. Great theater experience in great venue, great set & great cast.
Don't see it if you prefer feel good musicals as this is a play that will put you on an emotional roller coaster.... but in a good way... if you dare.
See it if a play that gives you a moral dilemma and you find yourself thinking that what you’re seeing on is right at times but then very wrong
Don't see it if You will be offended that they took a very dramatic subject and made it sort of into a black comedy Read more
Critic Reviews (18)
“Absorbing...The show features the finest direction by Dunne and an excellent cast. While the play portrays some serious family issues, it has just the right shades of humor...As the story unfolds, there are unpredictable twists and turns...This four-person ensemble portrays Neary’s captivating tale with all the humor, spirit, and drama it demands...There are some tense, surprising and even absurd moments...Yet, audiences will be able to relate...It is a must-see production.”
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“There are more tricks than treats in this ungainly hybrid of a thriller, domestic comedy, and dysfunctional family slugfest...’Trick or Treat’ is an unpleasant, uninvolving evening...Exploiting sensitive subjects like illness and violence against women without providing a single compelling character...It makes occasional passes at being a probing family drama but is fatally undermined by its relentlessly carpentered, often barely plausible, plot."
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"Rather than producing catharsis, the multiple secrets laid bare and lies exposed amount to something more like unintended parody...I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that any number of patrons were stifling laughter in deference to the actors. That quintet plays the drama—all right, the melodrama—according to the frenzy the script increasingly demands, and director Carol Dunne guides them accordingly...In the final analysis, 'Trick or Treat' may be trick, but it’s definitely not treat."
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"Superior first act...The second act, which tosses out too many curve balls and tonal shifts for the play’s own good. Neary earns credit for pulling us in and keeping us guessing for a while...Under the direction of Carol Dunne, performances are credible even when the story loses its grip... In the end, all of the plot pieces fit, but when it comes to a satisfying evening, the play is more trick than treat."
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"Michael Ganio's costumes are as natural as one would expect, and Tyler M. Perry's lighting design is always on target, illuminating a play that has been designed in every particular, begging the question, where exactly are the surprises. It's well written, but ultimately far too pat to be convincing."
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"This pitch-black comedy manages to find humor in the unearthing of buried family secrets...The first half of the play is suspenseful drama mixed with dark comedy...Under the direction of Carole Dunne, each cast member convincingly navigates the play's twists, turns and changes in tone, challenges that might have easily sabotaged the show in lesser hands...'Trick or Treat' straddles the line between genres."
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"Playwright Neary negotiates the action among the family members with humor, sensitivity and pathos...As the second act continues, Neary shifts the tenor and action in another plot twist and the family relationships clarify...Neary pings every theme about the fault lines of the human condition...This is a profound work with smashing performances by the cast, who raise the stakes at every moment and engage us to the end."
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"If only the right attitude were found,…'Trick or Treat'…might have qualified as a chillingly humorous exercise, something in the vein of…'The Trouble with Harry.' But the play veers from comedy and even farce to melodramatic pathos, struggling to maintain a fundamental sense of believability…Although each of the characters challenges credibility, the actors at least make them colorful. Clapp's Johnny is convincingly petulant, narrow-minded, and thickheaded."
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