The Gravedigger's Lullaby
Closed 1h 30m
The Gravedigger's Lullaby
78

The Gravedigger's Lullaby NYC Reviews and Tickets

78%
(58 Ratings)
Positive
88%
Mixed
10%
Negative
2%
Members say
Great acting, Absorbing, Intense, Thought-provoking, Relevant

About the Show

TACT presents a new drama about the life of an honest, hard-working gravedigger who sweats and bleeds to support his small family.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (58)

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439 Reviews | 79 Followers
91
Absorbing, Great acting, Great staging, Intense, Thought-provoking

See it if You like serious tough thoughtful plays. A gravedigger stuck in his life. Sad, touching, powerful. Super set. The lead actor is terrific.

Don't see it if You want laughs humor or light play. This is not that. There is a sex scene that goes on too long. Read more

don
506 Reviews | 1005 Followers
90
Great acting, Great staging, Intelligent, Resonant

See it if great acting esp by Ted Koch.Lighting and Sound match to perfection. 90 minutes. Be ready for some woe"Not now, before" as the author says

Don't see it if You want a fun musical It is as somber as it can get. Some lives are tough to see. 90 minutes Tense action re: relationships among pals kin

80 Reviews | 39 Followers
88
Absorbing, Great acting, Great writing, Intense, Relevant

See it if You like plays that are powerful and show how characters struggling, barely making it in this world hold on. Great ending.

Don't see it if You like cheerful musicals and don't really care for intense drama

254 Reviews | 86 Followers
86
Grave, gritty and grim

See it if Plot free first half is acceptable. Scenes effortlessly held interest.

Don't see it if Playwright creates misdirection in final minutes, playing audience for cheap emotional impact. Wife cast against type. Too upscale for role. Read more

535 Reviews | 155 Followers
86
Absorbing, Great acting, Great writing, Intelligent, Relevant

See it if You want to see a brilliant contemporary drama that will keep you riveted from first word to last ! Realism is on stage.

Don't see it if You can't tolerate physical fighting and raw language and dialogue sometimes incredibly loud. No intermission in intensity in this drama !

247 Reviews | 41 Followers
85
Absorbing, Great acting, Great writing, Intense, Thought-provoking

See it if you like great acting in an interesting piece

Don't see it if you are looking for a light hearted evening in the theatre

665 Reviews | 125 Followers
84
Great acting, Masterful, Must see

See it if today because there are only two more shows left both on april 1st

Don't see it if you are in the mood to see something light Read more

502 Reviews | 67 Followers
83
Great acting, Relevant, Thought-provoking, Emotionally powerful, Absorbing

See it if plays about class/financial struggles engage you and you can handle gut wrenching situations.

Don't see it if you want to leave the theater with a song on your lips and a smile on your face.

Critic Reviews (12)

The New York Times
March 14th, 2017

“There’s a core of honest emotion at the center of Jeff Talbott’s ‘The Gravedigger’s Lullaby.’ That isn’t enough to redeem this new play’s problems, but it fuels a few poignant scenes in this fablelike story…The cast members handle the script with deftness…That script could stand to trim some self-conscious poeticism and to smooth a few uneven plot points…Some parts of ‘The Gravedigger’s Lullaby’ are often skewed. But its heart is always in the right place.”
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New York Theatre Guide
March 24th, 2017

"A timeless tale…Two parts ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and one part Tennessee Williams…Koch inhabits this character with a gruffly sad gravitas that is part teddy bear, part dangerous, and quite honest. His scenes with coworker and fellow gravedigger Gizzer are perhaps the most captivating…These moments felt effortless…If you have an opportunity to see ‘The Gravedigger’s Lullaby,’ I highly recommend you do. It has highly relatable moments, some of joy and deep desperation.”
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Lighting & Sound America
March 20th, 2017

"The bones of great drama are there, but the execution is stolid and sluggish, a problem sometimes exacerbated by Thompson's direction...The playwright has avoided any details that would ground the action in a specific reality. Similarly, the characters are lacking in shading...Whenever the actors get an opportunity, they seize it with gusto...Gripping scene-by-scene yet a little dull in its overall effect, an unsatisfying, yet startlingly different, work from a still-developing playwright."
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TheaterScene.net
March 13th, 2017

"Emotionally involving due to its engaging performances, but ultimately unsatisfying because of its oddly, strategic lack of specificity, 'The Gravedigger’s Lullaby' is a grim, kitchen-sink drama...Playwright Jeff Talbott offers an overall well-written and plotted social drama that detours into a strident political battle over capitalism...The flawed script is energized by the impeccable production elements...Director Jenn Thompson’s staging is accomplished."
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CurtainUp
March 12th, 2017

"With both script and production design sidestepping temporal specificity, the play has a sense of universality that works quite well...Thompson's exquisite collaboration with her actors ensures that what's in the interstices of the dialogue and the silent sequences of the production is poetic, theatrical, and powerful...The well-calibrated pace of what the actors do when they're not talking brings a sense of real life, with its ups and downs, yet keeps things from becoming wearisome."
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Theater Pizzazz
March 28th, 2017

"There are believable, deep, layered human stories revealed by playwright and four stalwart performers, honed with subtlety and deliberate pacing under Jenn Thompson’s firm directorial hand...The world, in this production of this splendid play, is specific, charming, fearsome, intimate and haunting...Class divisions are tested by human tragedy but rigidly reassert themselves. Sex and physical risk and fear and redemption all combust and resolve, in under two hours. A marvelous creation."
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Theatre's Leiter Side
March 13th, 2017

"The conflict between the barely surviving gravediggers and the privileged Charles...reminds us of that between what we now call the 1% and the 99%. This, though, doesn't seem Talbott's purpose, which appears to be the revelation of how, even in the direst circumstances, love...can survive and even flourish...'The Gravedigger's Lullaby' is a minor genre piece that generally achieves what it sets out to do. If only that red herring didn't swim into view toward the end."
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Times Square Chronicles
March 31st, 2017

"Mr. Koch makes you feel for Baylen....Mr. Lawson brings the pain of never having escaped loss, combined with humor. I have long loved Mr. Beck’s work and, here again, he allows you to see a human side of someone who has more than everyone else...Jenn Thompson’s direction holds this piece together. She allows the pacing and the character study is fleshed out...Talbott’s script has some elements that need a little more subtlety, but there are easy ways to fix that."
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