The Skin of Our Teeth NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (89)
See it if you enjoy Thornton Wilder, social commentary and interesting staging.
Don't see it if you want an easily classifiable show, dislike direct address or want a short play.
See it if You enjoy contemporary interpretations of classic theater.
Don't see it if You are looking for a straightforward narrative.
See it if The human condition, over the entire course of history... sublime, suffering, and ridiculous. Unique material, creatively staged.
Don't see it if The person sitting behind me said to her friend at intermission, "What the hell was that?"
See it if you enjoy Wilder's writing, particularly Our Town.
Don't see it if you don't like absurdist work.
See it if See it if u like different plays. Thought provoking and interesting set.
Don't see it if Don't see it if you do not like long plays that are thought provoking.
See it if you enjoy plays that display themselves through an almost carnivalesque whimsy, that are intelligent, warning, and funny.
Don't see it if you want something thoroughly dramatic or serious, you dislike anything but traditional sets, you are opposed to eccentric characters. Read more
See it if an unusual depiction of human survival over the millennia from Ice Age (set in a suburban NJ house) thru Great Flood in Atlantic City & War
Don't see it if a nonlinear 1942 (avant-garde then) play where the actors get out of character to address the audience; surreal & often loud Read more
See it if You're open to deeply unusual works that blend absurdism with philosophy, and tragedy with comedy. It's surprising how fresh the play feels
Don't see it if You're not willing to run with anything that could be thrown at you--a mammoth playing drums, a timeline that spans eons, 4000 year old kids Read more
Critic Reviews (21)
“A sprawling, ambitious piece of work…It is also a piece of meta-theatrical genius…This blending of period, location, and persona captures a wide range of American history in turn comical and poignant…Arin Arbus’ production is notable for its inventiveness and its nimble negotiation of the play’s spiraling tone…Even three quarters of a century later, it feels daring and brave. 'The Skin of Our Teeth' is an intelligent play and an intelligent, and immensely enjoyable, production."
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"Wildly inventive, if occasional unwieldy...Directed by the brave and creative Arin Arbus, 'Skin of Our Teeth' is clearly not for the faint of heart or the accidental tourist...It is difficult not to appreciate the effort and the obvious talent. Theatre for a New Audience has become a perfect neighbor for BAM, pushing the envelope even more so in its choices. A worthy and admirable addition...Will it make you laugh in these times? Not so much. And maybe that’s the point."
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"Wilder's drama couldn't ask for a better production. It may not make you like or understand Wilder's determinedly anachronistic work any better, but Arbus and her ample crew...definitely know theatrical CPR...Wilder's play, sliding from philosophical profundity one moment to comic archness the next, gets a high-energy performance, with rousingly intelligent performances by each leading actor and most supporting ones."
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“As wacky as Wilder intended it to be…Director Arin Arbus commits totally to the play's deliberate absurdities and adds a few innovations of her own…In short, there's a lot going on. Some of it overwhelms the story line. But, like its characters, Wilder's play is resilient and its belief that humanity has survived all kinds of challenges in the past and so will be able to get through bad times again manages to shine through."
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"I was kind of besotted by the vision of director Arin Arbus, even as I thought perhaps here and there a transition or change in style might have been done better...Anyone who hasn’t seen this show yet–and it’s rarely done–should not waste a moment to see it done with verve and determination...Like any great play, 'Skin' now seems very timely—with its whiff of dishonest politicians and the world spinning out of control, you’d swear it was written last week...Inevitably flawed but fascinating."
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"To her credit, director Arin Arbus saw that the current era of turmoil made 'The Skin of Our Teeth' ripe for revisiting. Unfortunately, her production adds much more wood to the trees...The production starts unpromisingly...From this tepid beginning things just trundle along...Wilder’s playwriting tricks are given distracting 'help' under Arbus’s direction...Rather than guffaws, the result adds layers of puzzlement that undermine the genuine humor."
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"In fact, 'The Skin of Our Teeth' may be more a play for times of calm, times when we are more likely to forget our origin stories...coupled with a long view of history, one that is cyclical rather than progressive, it does seem to indicate that we have been through all of this before and made it out the other side."
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“A striking revival…Both the playwright and director Arin Arbus make clear that if the audience starts to feel too comfortable with the story, then they are not doing their jobs. Arbus deserves credit for taking the script, which, in the wrong hands could easily become a lengthy farce or an endless diatribe, and turning it into a compelling story of one family’s survival and, through them, the survival of humanity...A fascinating look at what human beings are capable of."
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