John Proctor is the Villain Reviews
The New York Times- Highly Recommended
"...Taymor's production is entirely sympathetic - to the characters and to the text. Though thrilling in its refusal to tamp down the show's sometimes anarchic spirit, it does not ignore the dangers of abandon. Sink's Shelby is beautifully positioned just at the spot where you can't tell the difference between impulse and illness. The other girls stratify at in-between altitudes, from Scott's firmly grounded Nell to Strazza's high-pitched Beth."
New York Theater- Recommended
"...The play by Kimberly Belflower, who is making her Broadway debut, is an intriguing feminist critique of Arthur Miller's 1953 play, which is about the Salem witch hunts of the 17th century. The female students point to several aspects of the protagonist John Proctor that make them reject their teacher's (and standard critical) claim of his heroism - how he had sex with his young servant Abigail, for example, yet she's the one being blamed for their affair; he even calls her a whore (A debate on the arguments about "The Crucible" in Belflower's play would make a great student paper - which I'll leave to a student.) Despite the play's title, the focus is not on the students' analysis so much as on the (perhaps too pat) parallels that the students are living through. Written in 2019 and set in 2018, the peak of the #MeToo movement, the play depicts the wave of accusations and revelations of sexual assault that has hit their small town in Georgia - and hits even closer to home."
New York Post- Somewhat Recommended
"...The promising play set in a turbulent school plateaus about halfway through after an early dropped bomb, and then falls into old classroom cliches: Girls fighting over a guy and then turning on him, a sweet boy revealing his sensitive side to audience "awww"s and a final presentation day like we're at "Crucible Akimbo.""
Washington Post- Recommended
"...The most bracing and truthful moments in "John Proctor Is the Villain" achieve the full-throated vehemence of the best pop music. Exploring what has and hasn't changed about coming of age since 1692, playwright Kimberly Belflower filters "The Crucible" through the lens of #MeToo by putting Arthur Miller's drama into the hands of rural Georgia high-schoolers in 2018. The result, which has become one of the most produced plays in the country since its premiere at Studio Theatre three years ago, arrives on Broadway with a dynamite cast - led by "Stranger Things" star Sadie Sink - leading a guts-deep excavation of the messiness of late adolescence."
Chicago Tribune- Recommended
"...Miller intended Proctor as a flawed hero, maybe a man not unlike himself. But the lively, moralistic new show starring Sadie Sink ("Stranger Things") on Broadway undermines Miller's 1953 view of the world by applying contemporary, anti-patriarchal thinking. The point of the mostly melodramatic play, set in a contemporary high school classroom in a small Georgia town, is right there in the title: "John Proctor is the Villain.""
The Observer- Highly Recommended
"...John Proctor is the Villain-not much subtlety in the title or the first line: "Sex." It's spoken by a charming English lit teacher guiding students through a sex-ed primer; later they'll dive (gladly) into Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Here's a play about male authority and the exploitation of children and right off, Kimberly Belflower shoves her themes in our face. On the nose much? Well, good. Sometimes it takes a cuff on the schnoz to wake up and learn. Belflower has written the most energizing and emotionally wrecking drama this season, an unsentimental education for teens screaming to stay sane in a fucked society."