"Critic's Pick! What begins as a backstage satire of white cluelessness and Black ingratiation gradually broadens and darkens into something far more mysterious: a peculiarly American tale of lost opportunity."
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"“I hate the kind of play that bangs you over the head with the message,” says Wiletta’s blustery white costar Bill (Don Stephenson). What keeps Trouble in Mind from being such a play is the texture that Childress provides: astute points about financial realities, funny observations about backstage power dynamics."
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"Trouble in Mind may have come to Broadway 66 years too late, but in a time when the American public is currently leaning towards comfort and wanting to hide America’s racist past from the classroom, the play is holding up a mirror to society, especially the sector that considers itself progressive. Sixty-six years ago, society chose to look away. Perhaps the play’s premiere on Broadway is a sign we are finally ready to truly look at ourselves."
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"As for LaChanze, she is extraordinarily fine, and while it is easy to see why Wiletta is tired of working in musicals, her singing in “Trouble in Mind” is as thrilling as her acting. Mr. Zegen, lately of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” is unafraid to be totally unsympathetic, and the six supporting cast members are all very good. Charles Randolph-Wright, the director, has worked mainly in musicals until now, and he weaves speaking and singing together with sure-footed skill."
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"Sixty-four years late and right on time, Alice Childress’ wise and stirring backstage comedy-drama Trouble in Mind is making its long-in-coming Broadway debut tonight, and to describe the play as prescient would be an understatement. Uncanny rings truer. With a star turn by LaChanze that takes a strong place in a theatrical season already formidable in its roster of performances, Trouble in Mind takes a behind-the-curtain look at the racism, coded prejudice, self-flattery, sexism and built-in bigotry that Broadway has always professed to eschew."
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"It seems unbelievable this play from the 1950s fits so neatly into the 2021 Broadway puzzle...What helps smooth this show’s slow race to the crux is the stellar acting from a cast led by Tony winner LaChanze, under the marvelous direction of Charles Randolph-Wright."
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"Alice Childress’ searing play “Trouble in Mind” has finally made it to Broadway and the only frustrating thing about the show is that it has taken this long. The two-act play takes place — appropriately enough — on a Broadway stage and is an uncomfortable exploration of the racial divide in the 1950s. So it works perfectly in the 2020s."
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"Director Charles Randolph-Wright doesn’t successfully balance the play’s comic and dramatic elements, with the result that the evening sometimes feels like a backstage comedy and other times like a polemic on race relations. The performances, too, vary in effectiveness, with the most memorable work coming from the luminous LaChanze, the veteran Cooper, and Dukes, who makes the most of the sardonic Millie. From a historical perspective, Trouble in Mind is an important, groundbreaking work. It’s just a shame that it feels so dated now upon its long belated Broadway premiere."
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