"Critic's Pick!...Nottage’s delightful new play, “Clyde’s,” which opened at the Helen Hayes Theater on Tuesday, dares to flip the paradigm. Though it’s still about dark things, including prison, drugs, homelessness and poverty, it somehow turns them into bright comedy."
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"Yet the morality play at the core of Clyde’s doesn’t feel preachy—not just because Monty’s saintliness and Clyde’s viciousness are presented with overt winks of theatricality, but also because the performances burst with warm humanity. The special sauce of Whoriskey’s production is its excellent cast."
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"Directed by Kate Whoriskey, the author’s go-to collaborator, the production cooks on all burners. Orange Is the New Black Emmy winner Aduba slyly brings out Clyde’s devilish streak. Young is thrilling as the take-no-b.s. Tish. The physical production is also deft thanks to Jennifer Moeller’s character-defining costumes, Takeshi Kata’s realistic working kitchen, and Christopher Akerlind’s moody, shifting lighting. A final rebellious communal act of creativity turns out to be liberating for the kitchen crew. You can take the ending literally or poetically — either way it works, and it satisfies. Chalk that up to Nottage’s theatrical 'wichcraft."
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"The quest to create the perfect sandwich takes on existential tones in Clyde’s, the tasty if occasionally and slightly undercooked new dramedy from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage. Though it lacks the heft of the playwright’s great Sweat, Clyde’s makes for an intriguing companion piece."
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"The beaten-down, formerly incarcerated staffers, all of whom have had major struggles in life, are forever in fear of the manager, the kind of toxic personality who will get right up in your face on a daily basis and, on occasion, will bruise both your psyche and your physical body. And yet, “Clyde’s” is a dark Broadway comedy, replete with a terrifyingly funny performance from Uzo Aduba (”Orange is the New Black”) as the titular boss from hell. And, to my mind, this is a very clever, multi-layered and deliciously self-aware allegory from the writer Lynn Nottage that deftly shrouds its true intent between two pieces of bread."
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"Director Kate Whoriskey amps up the energy to 11...“Clyde’s” might also be considered a subversion of familiar genres, including drawing room comedy and workplace drama, and the value judgments conventionally inherent to them. By nature of her composition, Nottage also questions which sorts of rooms and people have previously been considered worthy of sustained attention."
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"Director Kate Whoriskey (who regularly collaborates with Nottage) may have overemphasized the play’s broad humor, to the point where it often starts to resemble a sitcom version of “Top Chef.” But at its best, “Clyde’s” is a relatable, rambunctious, feel-good work that optimistically preaches a path to self-redemption."
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Clyde's may not go down as one of her major works, but it certainly doesn't lack for audacity. Startlingly, Nottage takes a situation and characters that other playwrights might have treated as stark drama, playing them for laughs. The play is a slightly fantastic fable spun out of the grimmest circumstance and I can't say it totally works. But it's a bold gamble that, despite a certain structural problem, pays off handsomely in trash talk, crackling tension, and scathing hilarity.
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