Airline Highway at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

The New York Times - Recommended

"...Ms. D'Amour's dark comedy, which opened on Thursday at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in a bright-blazing production directed by Joe Mantello, draws a compassionate but unvarnished collective portrait of the underclass of New Orleans, a city where millions of tourists converge to party, little noticing that among the bottles and beads littering the streets are plenty of people who refuse to let the party end, and often pay a hard price for it."

Hollywood Reporter - Somewhat Recommended

"...In her terrific 2010 play, Detroit, Lisa D'Amour showed gimlet-eyed observation, a spiky sense of humor and a vivid feel for a place and people being left behind by the American Dream. In Airline Highway, she turns to a larger pocket of luckless folks much lower down the economic ladder, this time on the outskirts of post-Katrina New Orleans. But despite being given a dynamic production with a highly capable cast, this rambling character-driven piece lacks the earlier work's drive and clarity of purpose. While it's a vividly populated canvas, the playwright doesn't do anything much of interest with it."

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"..."Airline Highway" does not go for the jugular nor rage with the anger that some in New Orleans legitimately feel. Although there is much color and sensuality, you could argue that any real-life Hummingbird would be far dirtier than the place created by the designer Scott Pask and by this cast. "Airline Highway" feels very much like the work of a hometown writer, whose first impulse is affection and surely not cold-eyed analysis."

NBC New York - Recommended

"...A loose-limbed character study by Lisa D'Amour-her last piece, the anxiety-laden "Detroit," mined similarly despairing territory-"Airline Highway" arrives via Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and is directed by Joe Mantello. It's just opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre."

Time Out New York - Recommended

"...Although the characters are familiar in many ways, director Joe Mantello and his accomplished cast of 16 breathe spirit into most of them, and the big, boozy party scene has jazzy vigor. (Freeman and White are standouts.) But D'Amour's dialogue is short on the kind of poetry that might elevate her gallery of beautiful-loser types, and she can't sustain the wide focus she initiates; Airline Highway's multiple plot threads are pulled out (or forgotten) in a rushed, unsatisfying denouement that resorts to summarizing its message to the audience in the form of a (literal) high-school class presentation. Like the cinder-block-mounted car on the side of Scott Pask's seedy multilevel set, the play has color and beat-up charm, but doesn't go anywhere."