"To the seven young performers who tell the stories of their lives in 'Generation NYZ,' New York means subways and pizza and opportunity, but also cops and catcalling and homelessness...They tell, in other words, the story of New York, and of America...As they tell us about growing up, their lives deepen and differentiate. The normal struggles are filtered through their specific circumstances. Their challenges can include overcoming poverty and bigotry and violence."
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"Generating empathy, defying small-mindedness, this is an inherently political show that arrives at a time of fervently uncivil discourse...Some of the performers have stage experience, but they are playing themselves, and all are unvarnished enough that their charm comes from their everydayness...Skates right up to the line where eat-your-spinach theater begins. This expertly constructed show manages never to cross that divide."
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"Would make you think more sharply about the actual effects of the Orange Narcissist’s prejudices — and the actual people on whom those effects are visited...Zatz and Traber have cunningly structured the piece to be both formally organized and easy-going — just kids on the first day at a new school, going around the room....It holds the enchantment that hearing about any individual’s life can hold. By the end, I loved and admired them all."
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