Never
$39.00 - $147.00
A middle-class family seems to be spiraling toward perilous entropy in “The Humans,” the blisteringly funny, bruisingly sad and altogether wonderful play by Stephen Karam in a superlative Roundabout Theater Company production. Written with a fresh-feeling blend of documentarylike naturalism and theatrical daring, and directed with consummate skill by Joe Mantello, Mr. Karam’s comedy-drama depicts the way we live now with a precision and compassion unmatched by any play I’ve seen in recent years. By “we” I mean us non-one-percenters, most of whom are peering around anxiously at the uncertain future and the unsteady world, even as we fight through each day trying to keep optimism afloat in our hearts.
-----New York Times
A few years ago, The Humans would probably have been slapped with the reductive tag of "post-9/11 drama." That overused descriptor still fits in some ways, not least because two of the characters were in Manhattan's Financial District on that fateful day. But Stephen Karam's beautiful, funny-sad and ultimately wrenching portrait of a troubled lower-middle-class Pennsylvania family is so much more than that. Under Joe Mantello's impeccable direction, and in the hands of an exemplary six-member ensemble, the play builds on the ample promise of Karam's earlier works, confirming him as a uniquely probing investigator of the contemporary American psyche.
-----The Hollywood Reporter
The play is rackingly funny even as it pummels the heart and scares the bejesus out of you. If I highlight the work of two of the six actors in producing that effect, it is not to diminish the work of the four others. Sarah Steele as Brigid, Cassie Beck as Aimee, Arian Moayed as Richard, and Lauren Klein as Momo are also excellent. Perhaps Reed Birney as Erik and Jayne Houdyshell as Deirdre stand out for me because they are the ones in the middle (and closest to my own age).
------Vulture (New York Magazine)
A middle-class family seems to be spiraling toward perilous entropy in “The Humans,” the blisteringly funny, bruisingly sad and altogether wonderful play by Stephen Karam in a superlative Roundabout Theater Company production. Written with a fresh-feeling blend of documentarylike naturalism and theatrical daring, and directed with consummate skill by Joe Mantello, Mr. Karam’s comedy-drama depicts the way we live now with a precision and compassion unmatched by any play I’ve seen in recent years. By “we” I mean us non-one-percenters, most of whom are peering around anxiously at the uncertain future and the unsteady world, even as we fight through each day trying to keep optimism afloat in our hearts.
-----New York Times
