"Somehow Nwandu gives us the recognition of horror that has informed drama since the Greeks while also providing the relief of joy — however irrational — that calls to mind the ecstasies of gospel, splatter flicks and classic musicals, all of which are sampled."
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'There are stretches that drag—in fairness, I feel the same way about Waiting for Godot—and others whose knowing deployment of clichés about Black and white Americans threatens to fall into them...But if this urgent and provocative work is sometimes on-the-nose, a firm whack on the nose might be what the current Broadway moment demands."
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"It’s an invisible force that traps them there, freezes their limbs, and pulls them back. Call it white supremacy. Call it institutionalized racism. Call it police brutality. Smartly, the play never mentions any of those words, but it doesn’t need to."
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"Nwandu was raised in (and left) the Evangelical church, and a sermonizing energy is certainly at work inside the play. It exhorts and exposits; it kindles the faithful...Nwandu’s superimposition of our own world on Beckett’s helps us see the tragedy: Young Black men in America are just as exhausted and catastrophically resigned as old men worn out by life."
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"There are also plenty of vaudevillian pratfalls in director Danya Taymor’s dynamic staging, along with sendups of racial stereotypes and juicy exchanges of street talk that reach new depths of humor. By the time the plot veers into ambiguity at the end, you’ve probably had enough thought-rich fun not to care."
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"The play instead comes across as the embodiment of an escalating frustration over how to make Black lives matter...The magnetic Hill and Smallwood infuse Moses and Kitch with exuberant physicality; though they create distinct characters, the ineffable, mutual dependence they conjure is their chief accomplishment."
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"Pass Over is a compelling, if flawed, way to start things off in Times Square...more modern than Sam’s tramps, but just as immobile."
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"The extraordinary thing about this production is that, despite the threat of violence that hangs over its two main characters, Taymor and her cast have dug into the play's abundant comedy this time around. Nwandu's language bubbles over with joy and humor throughout many of the scenes."
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