"Colman Domingo’s thoroughly entertaining comedy-drama…While conventional in form, it’s uproariously funny, if naturally streaked with sadness (and at times, a pinch or two of sentimentality). Mr. Domingo draws a complex portrait of a family in crisis…Ms. Stroman’s streamlined direction keeps the play from tilting too far toward the soap operatic, or for that matter the sitcomic…The cast is terrific...As the play progresses, Dotty’s gradual acceptance of her illness becomes deeply moving."
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"The production’s bigger-broader-louder approach does not cast the most flattering possible light on Domingo’s already overstuffed dramedy…There are likable characters and comedic bits worth savoring but they don’t have room to breathe; the show’s affectionate embrace of black and gay stereotypes becomes too tight a grip, and the heart gets squeezed out. Though amusing, 'Dot' comes off as a sitcom that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be."
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"The many characters in 'Dot' seem like people [the playwright] might have known while growing up in West Philly, which is both good news and bad. It’s a colorful bunch to be sure, but the play wanders, and often resorts to sit-com level interactions to move itself along. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it is rarely as well plotted."
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“Playwright Colman Domingo sees the absurdity and the human comedy in the messy, volatile, all-too-real family dynamic. Though the show occasionally veers to the maudlin, there’s much authentic emotion and comfort in this loss-of-memory tale. Problem is, the playwright stuffs his overlong play with enough plotting, themes and mid-life crises for multiple works…Only when the production takes a breather from the fraught storylines does the play find its focus, and its heart.”
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"Playwright Domingo sacrifices the play's emotional impact in favor of broad humor, much to its detriment. Even potentially powerful scenes are rendered kitschy. Encompassing themes of sexuality, family, and race the play is too wildly uneven to have much of an impact...The performers frequently get laughs, to be sure, but it's only Johnson, quietly dignified and restrained, who comes across as vitally real. Her mentally-impaired Dot seems the sanest person in the room."
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"'Dot' is drawn in such broad strokes. Under Susan Stroman’s direction, the cast piles it on even further by dialing everything to 11. The usually reliable Sharon Washington is especially guilty, and when she finally tones it down toward the end, it makes you long for what could have been."
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"In his third and most ambitious play to date, Domingo tackles a frightening issue with a fearless mix of bone-dry humor and warp-speed emotional shifts…Give Domingo credit for using his approachable, unique voice to call attention to an often-underrepresented issue."
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"Colman Domingo tackles the subject with intelligence, heart, and humor in his magnificent new play…This is very much an actor's play, full of plum roles and juicy dialogue, some of which causes the forward thrust of the plot to meander off-course…We can forgive Domingo's verbosity: When the design is this perfect, the acting this good, and the one-liners this witty, we have no desire to hastily vacate the theater. Full of laughter and heartbreak, 'Dot' is an evening well-spent."
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