The Humans

91/100

Photo by Joan Marcus
By Stephen Karam. Directed by Joe Mantello. At the Helen Hayes Theatre.

What's it About? "After a sleepless night, Erik Blake has brought his family from Pennsylvania to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s new apartment. As darkness falls outside the crumbling pre-war duplex, mysterious things start to go bump in the night and family tensions reach a boiling point."

Consensus: Yeah, they like it. Citing basically every single possible element as outstanding, critics are absolutely over the moon for this play, which has just opened on Broadway after a successful run off-Broadway last year. Particular praise is given to the cast, who most critics agree mesh absolutely perfectly to create a devastatingly funny and truly horrifying theatrical event. Several critics have cited this as the best thing on Broadway (yes, Hamilton, better than even you). The singular true criticism of any critic (Matt Windman of am New York) was that the plays oppressively dark tone was difficult to stomach, though that was offset by another critic (Alexis Soloski of The Guardian) who was careful to point out the positive thematic elements of the work. Regardless, this seems to be a can't-miss play for fans of high quality drama.

Edit: Terry Teachout weighed in and, big surprise, didn't care for it (he's rather notorious for striking down new works), saying that, while acceptable, it doesn't break the mold enough to be worth seeing, though he loves the cast.


The New York Times 100/100
(Charles Isherwood) "'The Humans' is a major discovery, a play as empathetic as it is clear-minded, as entertaining as it is honest. For all the darkness at its core — a darkness made literal in its ghostly conclusion — a bright light shines forth from it, the blazing luminescence of collective artistic achievement."

NBC New York 100/100
(Robert Kahn) "Karam paints such a dynamic portrait of real life that I could only sit and absorb the insecurities and frailties batted around on stage. “The Humans” is monumentally affecting, and something for which theatergoers should be oh-so-very thankful."

The Washington Post 100/100
(Peter Marks) "'The Humans' is the sort of impeccably constructed play that should be a regular inhabitant on Broadway, not the occasional, surprising guest. You’ll be glad you’ve been invited into the company of the Blakes, who themselves may fall short of glamorous but nevertheless help class up the whole darn neighborhood."

The Chicago Tribune 100/100
(Chris Jones) "while this extraordinarily talented young writer has an innate sense of dramatic tension and theatricality, he also has a rare understanding that you do not need to pop pills or hit the liquor cabinet for tragedy to bang persistently on your door."

Vulture 100/100
(Jesse Green) "you may find yourself gasping and yelping and, if you’re the type, crying. This can be an uncomfortable feeling, and I’ve heard some people complain about the genre effects by which Karam and Mantello get you there. For me, though, that’s why we go to the theater. At its best, as in The Humans, the genre is life."

Time Out New York 100/100
(Adam Feldman) "The Humans is the kind of show that we must usually go Off Broadway to see: a thoughtful new play by a young American writer, with a cast of expert local actors. With no slight intended to the lions and the witches and the extravagant wardrobes: It's good to see The Humans on Broadway, too."

ABC News 100/100
(Mark Kennedy) "The dark comedy opened Thursday at the Helen Hayes Theatre with a terrific cast and an unsentimental look at the way we live today — anxiety-ridden, having little control over our environment or bodies, forever stretched and always a step from the abyss. It is an absolute triumph."

Newsday 97/100
(Linda Winer) "There is so much love, dread, tenderness and brutality in “The Humans” that it is hard to believe just 90 minutes pass through Stephen Karam’s deeply-felt family tragicomedy thriller."

Variety 95/100
(Marilyn Stasio) Instead of erupting in bitter hatred, Karam’s characters respond to these revelations with deep love.  That alone should keep this lovely play, an Off Broadway transfer, running in its inviting new Broadway house until kingdom come.  

Entertainment Weekly 92/100
(Stephan Lee) "Karam’s transcendently mundane play is a reminder that family dinner dramas can still be surprising — and they doesn’t need ghosts or things that go bump in the night to achieve that. Real life is scary enough."

Deadline 90/100
(Jeremy Gerard) "I can only reiterate what I wrote earlier, that The Humans is tremendously exciting theater, and I remain convinced that you won’t see a better play this season."

NY Daily News 90/100
(Joe Dziemianowicz) "Who can’t relate to one or more of the Blakes? And that’s the point. Reflecting the times we’re in, the problems we experience and the futures we can’t control, the play isn’t just a family portrait. “The Humans” is a mirror."

USA Today 88/100
(Elysa Gardner) "Humans addresses these questions with great compassion but offers no easy answers, casting a spell that's unsettling but also strangely reassuring."

The Guardian 80/100
(Alexis Soloski) "The Humans, like Annie Baker’s recent John, attempts to infuse some of the action with the sense of the surreal and uncanny. These tonal gestures aren’t always effective, particularly as the play suggests that ordinary life offers sufficient horrors without any recourse to the supernatural. But it has, Karam insists, its comforts too."

am New York 75/100
(Matt Windman) "Stephen Karam’s family drama “The Humans,” which just transferred to Broadway immediately following a short run at the Roundabout’s off-Broadway space, is unapologetically depressing and lacking in narrative. Its pretentious and generic title is also a turnoff. Nevertheless, it makes for a compelling and often terrifying character portrait."

The Wall Street Journal 50/100
(Terry Teachout) "To be sure, “The Humans” is passably well made, or would be were it not for the way in which the author stirs up expectations of a spookily melodramatic coda on which he fails to deliver, but none of the characters says or does anything that isn’t perfectly obvious, right down to the sitcommy jokes"