The New York Times - Highly Recommended
Conversation sings and swings, bends and bounces and hits heaven smack in the clouds, in the glorious new production of August Wilson's 'Jitney'...Acted by an impeccably tuned ensemble...There's no way a theatergoer can watch 'Jitney' without feeling the pulsing, defiant aliveness of every character onstage...Conversation becomes performance art, and part of the pleasure of watching this peerless cast is the delight its characters take in listening to the others riffing."
NY Daily News - Recommended
"August Wilson's 'Jitney' delivers a gripping ride...These conversations pack poetry and punch — along with humor and truth — so we get to know the characters and feel for them...Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the atmospheric production and fine-tuned ensemble...'Jitney' is the last of Wilson's 10-play series about black life in America to reach Broadway. It still gives a lift in the age of Uber."
Hollywood Reporter - Highly Recommended
"Actor-turned-director Ruben Santiago-Hudson's natural feel for the plays of August Wilson yields a superb production...It takes considerable skill to conduct the musical movements of Wilson's dialogue with the fluidity achieved here...There's not an actor on the stage who doesn't thoroughly inhabit his or her flavorful character, from their singular speech patterns to their own particular walk or physicality. All of them deserve the highest praise...The result here feels just as revelatory."
Vulture - Somewhat Recommended
"The skills Wilson always possessed are jammed up against those he acquired with experience and distance. Santiago-Hudson's staging tries to honor both, but is limited by the patchwork text...These feints at a kind of plot-by-collage keep devolving into sitcomery; the speeches that later in Wilson's career would achieve a kind of oracular magnificence too often feel like filler...If in 'Jitney' we see the marks of Wilson's ambition but not yet the payoff, that only makes it more valuable."
NY1 - Highly Recommended
"As portrayed by an excellent ensemble, the characters come to vivid life...As performed by the phenomenal John Douglas Thompson and Brandon J. Dirden, the first act finale ranks among the most memorably riveting scenes I've ever witnessed in a theatre...And how fortunate to have Ruben Santiago-Hudson in the director's chair, a frequent collaborator who recognizes, more than almost anyone else, the universal themes in Wilson's plays that sing to us all."
Variety - Recommended
"One of Wilson's best plays...As one of his most realistic plays, 'Jitney' is filled with sharply observed characters who don't immediately reveal themselves to the naked eye...His heartfelt feelings for his characters made Wilson a master of the ensemble play structure, which lives and dies on the human comedy of its characters...Under Santiago-Hudson's sure hand, you can't help but relish the performances."
Entertainment Weekly - Highly Recommended
"By turns hilarious and devastating, this is an emotionally bruising gem of a play...Wilson's dialogue captures the cadences of the day in a manner both timely and timeless...The talented cast soars under the confident direction of Tony-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson...From the stellar performances to the sharp script, 'Jitney' is a substantial piece, and a breath of fresh air to boot."
Newsday - Highly Recommended
"It's especially wonderful that we have director Ruben Santiago-Hudson's authoritative 'Jitney' production of this less-known part of a masterwork...This is a meticulously cast, lovingly observed play...Many of the actors are veterans of Wilson's storytelling style, experts in the unspooling ways he defines character and plot through grand handfuls of luscious and gritty street poetry...The delights and tragedies in this rich, chatty, eerily mature work remain exquisitely intimate."
amNY - Highly Recommended
"A focused and penetrating production directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and featuring an outstanding ensemble cast...Thompson's physically ailing and earnest Becker contrasts nicely with Dirden's well-groomed and unapologetic Booster. Great performances are also provided by Michael Potts as the combative Turnbo, Anthony Chisholm as the inebriated Fielding and Keith Randolph Smith as the comparatively tranquil Doub."
NorthJersey - Somewhat Recommended
"Bears the imprint of a young playwright who hadn't fully found his voice. There are moments of melodrama and sentimentality that seem borrowed from a common dramatic shelf. However, the play also has qualities found later in Wilson's best work, especially a vibrant awareness of the community he was writing about: its residents, their relationships and the flavorful stories they tell...'Jitney' is not a great work, but it's a vivid signpost to the more significant plays that followed."
Washington Post - Recommended
"Wilson's play is so disciplined, so full of distinctive voices with their own pungent passions and fears, and so meticulously brought to life by a taut ensemble feelingly directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson that we fully accept this world as it is given to us in this production...By great good fortune it is also possible to see the same thing happen right now in Denzel Washington's filmed version of 'Fences.' Neither should be missed."
Time Out New York - Recommended
"A soul-sustaining, symphonic piece by a late, great master, about fathers and sons, workers and their dreams—deliverance for audiences hungry for soaring language and tough truths. Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson steers a powerhouse cast through the dense alleyways and along the majestic avenues of Wilson's language...It's not driven by plot so much as the impulses and chemistry of the characters. And they have been incarnated to perfection by a great group."
The Wrap - Recommended
"A powerful, if uneven, new staging...Thompson's remarkable performance makes us feel every ounce of his burden...Dirden is more the returning college professor than a trapped man just released...Ruben Santiago-Hudson's direction doesn't completely conceal the play's flaws. He does, however, expose its brilliance, with a good ear for Wilson's sly, deprecating humor...He keeps 'Jitney' running on all cylinders despite a few bumps in writing and performance."
The Guardian - Highly Recommended
"Much of the acting is extraordinary, particularly the lacerating father and son confrontation that closes the first act...One of Wilson's great gifts has been locating the poetic and the performative in what strikes the ear as ordinary speech, to lift casual conversation into something more striking and more resonant. Santiago-Hudson, a longtime Wilson adherent as performer and director, has a fine ear for the play's musicality."
Deadline - Highly Recommended
"A superb production under the direction of Ruben Santiago-Hudson, a strong Wilson hand...It's the work of a young playwright not yet fully in command of his prodigious gifts, yet already confident in voice and in the creation of characters who are as specific to their place and time as they are universal in their flaws, hopes and dreams."
CurtainUp - Highly Recommended
"'Jitney' may lack the more fully developed structural sophistication of later plays...Fortunately, director Ruben Santiago-Hudson and his A+ ensemble have found a way to make us see past the flaws that tend to creep into even a master craftsman's early works...Thanks to Mr. Santiago-Hudson's well-paced, sensitive direction and the top to bottom excellence of this ensemble, 'Jitney' works as a moving and entertaining collage."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"The story and the relationships do not rivet because of their facts...There's a faint but detectable maudlin streak that becomes more manipulative than Wilson dared get in his later works...Little of this matters because the men won't let even a flimsy structure crumble. Together they form a magnetic bond you can feel emanating from the stage, and, under the capable direction of Ruben Santiago-Hudson, have the properly melodic way with Wilson's epically musical downscale dialogue."
TheaterMania - Recommended
"Thoughtful and heartrending production...A deeply satisfying drama that leaves us grappling with these issues as they pertain to the present day...Unfortunately, Dirden is miscast, appearing entirely too comfortable and hale for a man who has just been released from two decades behind bars...Luckily, great performances outnumber mediocre ones in this stellar revival, which has been directed with loving attention to detail by Ruben Santiago-Hudson."
theatrelife.com - Highly Recommended
"A dynamic revival...Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson brings out more humor than Marion McClinton did in his 2000 staging...The more serious moments are equally intense...John Douglas Thompson, one of our best actors in classical roles, turns in his usual stellar work as Becker, skillfully displaying the man's strength and his heartbreak. Brandon J. Dirden is a worthy opposite as his struggling son Booster."
Theatre Is Easy - Highly Recommended
"A historic, deeply relevant, and beautifully presented production…'Jitney' is a must-see for its artistic merit as well as the production's significance…MTC couldn't have picked a better company to round out Wilson's Broadway legacy. Tony-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson's direction is seamless, and his staging is authentically rooted in Wilson's casual, yet heightened and highly poetic world.…MTC's 'Jitney' is a beautiful celebration of Wilson's legacy."
Huffington Post - Recommended
"Santiago-Hudson has become one of the surest practitioners of Wilson's art. Perhaps due in part to his acting life, Santiago-Hudson helps his cast—each and every one—bring out the richness in the characters...An excellent production of an intriguing play, overflowing with that incomparable language of the master. But the script itself, as rich as it is in performance, is not quite an American classic and not quite up to the other nine plays."
Theater Pizzazz - Highly Recommended
"A sterling revival...Wilson's characters are remarkably vibrant…Hudson is also to be applauded for the remarkable ensemble cast he has assembled and guided. No one stands out because they're all outstanding...Their banter is organic, laced with laughs and tinged with the struggle of getting through everyday life...Until now, 'Jitney' was the only play in the Century Cycle not to have found its way to the Broadway stage. This splendid production gives it the wholehearted welcome it deserves."
WNBC - Recommended
"An artful and melodic staging directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson...The marvelous Thompson is dignified, but not unyielding...Michael Potts is a firecracker as Turnbo...Stage vets Harvy Blanks, Anthony Chisholm and Ray Anthony Thomas provide strong support...Wilson's vehicle is a group of men driving second-class cars, but tired of being treated like second-class citizens. The MTC's ensemble does a glorious job bringing home that message."
Phindie - Highly Recommended
"It was rewritten several times before his death in 2005, and it's now close to perfect. And as directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, this is a magnificent production, one of the best shows to be staged this year. The ensemble conveys authenticity and a sparkling vibrancy...The drivers in 'Jitney' have a deep respect for one another and we have a deep respect for them. To generate this kind of empathy is art's highest purpose."
WNYC - Highly Recommended
"It was rewritten several times before his death in 2005, and it's now close to perfect. And as directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, this is a magnificent production, one of the best shows to be staged this year. The ensemble conveys authenticity and a sparkling vibrancy...The drivers in 'Jitney' have a deep respect for one another and we have a deep respect for them. To generate this kind of empathy is art's highest purpose."
Theatres Leiter Side - Recommended
"The plotline has the familiar scent of socially oriented melodrama: the city plans to board up the place and build something else, thus depriving the struggling drivers of their livelihoods. The righteous boss, Becker (John Douglas Thompson), has a plan to fight back, thus giving the play a structural framework, but the real interest is in the intensely vivid characters, their electric, richly accented language, replete with aria-like speeches, and their emotionally fraught relationships."
NJ.com - Highly Recommended
"Directed with nuance by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and featuring a stellar ensemble...'Jitney' is full of rich, flawed human characters whom Wilson treats with compassion and empathy...The highlight of 'Jitney' is the tense reunion between Becker and Booster that here becomes powerful and explosive in the hands of two superb actors...Santiago-Hudson has proven himself perhaps the foremost expert at present in capturing Wilson's aesthetic."
The Stage - Somewhat Recommended
"Ruben Santiago-Hudson's at times over-bright production saunters to a jazz score with the voices of colourful characters who reminisce, gossip, and argue...The production drifts into slack sitcom broadness at times (still a pleasure with Wilson's delightful characters) and a few melodramatic tableaux moments. But when the storytelling gets personal the production sharpens and offers a platform for moving, memorable performances."
Broadway World - Recommended
"A superb production filled with funk, grit, humor and some positively thrilling acting…It's the final moments of the first act that display the thrilling dramatic fireworks…Wilson's dialogue displays a keen ear for the evolving musicality of language in the district…While ‘Jitney's' impact may not reach the magnitude of Wilson's zenith, ‘Fences,' or outstanding work like ‘Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' this compelling production is continually engaging and thick with humor and emotion."
