By The Water at New York City Center

The New York Times - Recommended

"...Ms. Rothstein's affecting play, which opened on Tuesday night at City Center in a Manhattan Theater Club production in association with Ars Nova, traces the impact of that devastating natural disaster on a middle-class couple who were already trudging uphill in the face of financial setbacks. Drawn with acute sympathy and in gritty detail, the play dramatizes the kind of story that filled newspapers in the months after the hurricane swept onto the Eastern Seaboard in 2012."

Variety - Highly Recommended

"...What you get in helmer Hal Brooks' perfectly cast production is a group of wonderful character actors playing wonderful characters. The imposingly built Vyto Ruginis is a commanding figure as Marty Murphy, a recognizable blue-collar guy in his early 60s who has lived his entire life in the house his father built (and set designer Wilson Chin has pretty much leveled), and who feels a deep connection to his neighbors and the community. "This is where we belong, this is where everyone knows us," he explains to the son who is urging him to take the government buyout and get out of Dodge before the next hurricane hits. "We have history here.""

Entertainment Weekly - Somewhat Recommended

"...The cast is similarly uneven, with some members giving rather formalized performances while others are in a far more naturalistic mode, though Circle Mirror Transformation's Deirdre O'Connell-bless her-is positively incapable of inauthenticity and, per usual, steals the show. But the level of Arthur Miller-like anguish that befalls the Murphys is never dramatically satisfying. Instead, you get something much closer in tone to a Very Special Episode of Everybody Loves Raymond."

TheaterMania - Recommended

"...At a recent performance of By the Water, the notoriously hard to please Sunday-matinee audience gave the production a spontaneous standing ovation and couldn't stop talking about it on their way out. Warts and all, this new drama strikes a chord - and says something about the way human beings survive in the face of unspeakable tragedy - in a way that many other plays currently running in Manhattan do not."

Theatre Is Easy - Recommended

"...By The Water proves to be a promising debut in the unique partnership between MTC and Ars Nova and an impressive premiere of a relevant contemporary play. Though particularly timely, the play is a complex family drama with heart and power that is only enhanced by its uniquely current setting."