AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Updates for March 24, 2009:

New York Post

Cindy Adams: Thank 'God' for a delicious new play

Time Out New York

Review: God of Carnage
All-star cast rips into Yasmina Reza's comedy

Hartford Courant

'God Of Carnage' Is Gripping, Intensely Acted

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - God of Carnage
Adults Behaving Badly

New York Times

Rumble in the Living Room
“God of Carnage” definitely delivers the cathartic release of watching other people’s marriages go boom.

New York Daily News

Oh, 'God of Carnage,' that's whacky theater
James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano himself, is one of four first-class actors at the top of their game in the combustible comedy “God of Carnage,” which opened Sunday night and could be called “Grownups Gone Wild!”

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of God of Carnage
It was supposed to be so calm and civil. Michael and Veronica had arranged to meet with Alan and Annette to discuss the playground brawl that broke out between their 11-year-old sons that resulted in two broken teeth. The middle aged couples tried to negotiate a settlement where they would formally apologize. Sounds pretty reasonable, right..

Newsday

Theater review: 'God of Carnage'
It's a jungle up there. What fun. The two middle-aged couples in the artsy-stark Brooklyn town house only appear to be civilized parents discussing a playground fight between their 11-year-old boys. Pay attention to the opening music. Those tribal drums are hardly incidental.

New York Post

Upper middle-class clowns
'We're not living in Kin hasa!" cries the well- heeled Veronica. "What goes on in Cobble Hill Park re flects the values of Western society!" Based on what precedes that outburst, said values include selfishness, amorality, neuroticism, arrogance and cruelty perfect ingredients for a comedy. After making you laugh...

ny1

NY1 Theater Review: "God Of Carnage"

The New Yorker

John Lahr: “West Side Story” and “God of Carnage” on Broadway.

Bergen Record

The unhappy marriage was never more of a pleasure
Evenings in the theater don't get any funnier than "God of Carnage," Yasmina Reza's romp through the weed-filled garden of modern marriage.

Associated Press

'God of Carnage' Hilariously Trashes Civility
Calling Miss Manners.

Bloomberg.com

Gandolfini, Daniels Turn Playground Brawl Into Class Warfare: John Simon
Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” with Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, proves superior entertainment at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. What a pleasant surprise to share a walloping good time with the audience at this comedy, whose ferocious title paradoxically reinforces the subtly furibund fun.

USA Today

'God of Carnage,' 'Blithe Spirit' lifting spirits on Broadway

Variety

Review: God of Carnage
Examining how the straitjacket of civilized society can barely contain the primitive beast within,"God of Carnage" picks an easy target in the complacent bourgeoisie. But the savagery of its dissection of interpersonal politics is played to perfection by a scorching cast in Matthew Warchus' pungent production.

Hollywood Reporter

Theater Review: God of Carnage
Bottom Line: It might not be "Art," but Yasmina Reza's hilarious boulevard comedy should be a raving Broadway success.

Back Stage

God of Carnage reviewed by David Sheward [critic's pick]
Two sets of upper-middle-class parents amicably meet to settle a schoolyard dispute between their young sons. With generous helpings of alcohol, the adults become as irrational and bad-tempered as their kids.

TheaterMania

Review: God of Carnage
Yasmina Reza's entertaining and soigne comedy about warring parents is well directed and beautifully performed.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: God of Carnage
How often is the worst day of your life also the funniest? To the four characters in Yasmina Reza’s blisteringly outrageous new play God of Carnage, which just opened at the Jacobs, it occurs with alarming regularity. ...

nytheatre.com

Review: God of Carnage

Chicago Tribune

James Gandolfini stars in 'God of Carnage'
"God of Carnage," the savvy and deliciously caustic new comedy of urban ill-manners from the French writer Yasmina Reza now at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre, shoots its entire clip of sardonic bullets in just 90 minutes.

Los Angeles Times Culture Monster Blog

Review of "God of Carnage" on Broadway
Reporting from New York—Civilization’s thin veneer gets mercilessly stripped in “God of Carnage,” French playwright Yasmina Reza’s savage comedy about two urban couples attempting to maturely resolve an altercation that occurred between their 11-year-old sons in a neighborhood park. This quartet fits the demographic that European writers and filmmakers love to defile—affluent, well-educated and liberal (sort of like their audience). In other words, don’t count on the characters setting a sterling example for the kids.