BECKY SHAW Reviews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 7:35pm

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:11pm

Adam Feldman gives it 5/5: "highly entertaining: a laugh-a-minute"

Variety is very positive - "Alden Ehrenreich Steals the Show in Ferociously Funny Blind-Date Comedy"

 

Updated On: 4/6/26 at 10:11 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:29pm

NYT Critic's Pick from Collins-Hughes

‘Becky Shaw’ Review: Funny vs. Likable? Funny Wins.

Alden Ehrenreich makes a show-stealing Broadway debut in Gina Gionfriddo’s comedy about two old friends, one disastrous blind date and the dicey aftermath.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/theater/becky-shaw-review-alden-ehrenreich.html

"The play has aged fittingly for where we find ourselves, amid a resurgence of the retro male-female gender dynamics that Gionfriddo’s plays hold up to the light. There are reasons that “Becky Shaw” feels alive right now."

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:31pm

Seems like this one got unanimously positive reviews, or did I skim too quickly? 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:33pm

Holdren in Vulture

You Might Cut Yourself on Becky Shaw

Led by a superb Alden Ehrenreich, Gina Gionfriddo’s deliciously barbed games of money, sex, and power return to the stage.

https://www.vulture.com/article/becky-shaw-broadway-play-review.html

"While Becky is the catalyst for the play’s chain reaction — and Brewer nimbly inhabits the charged space between exploited and exploiter — it’s the seemingly impenetrable Max who is at last cracked open. Ehrenreich is superb in the role, as unafraid to be horrid as he eventually is to be broken. In a quintet of fine performances, his stands out in this moment so removed from when Becky Shaw debuted (2008 was not bursting at the seams with essays on our crisis of masculinity). “You are a rich man who puts his family in a two-star hotel,” Susan snaps at Max. “That’s what you are.” That may be part of what he is, but Ehrenreich makes clear that the miserable truth of Max is that he’s not really a man at all. He’s a boy who’s been taught that power will save him."

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:35pm

I am SO thrilled this production is getting the raves I expected it too, "BECKY SHAW dark horse for Best Revival" has entered the chat!

Updated On: 4/6/26 at 10:35 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:36pm

Deadline

‘Becky Shaw’ Broadway Review: A Blind Date Goes Crazy Bad In Enthralling Dark Comedy With Alden Ehrenreich & Patrick Ball

https://deadline.com/2026/04/becky-shaw-broadway-review-1236780120/

"Seventeen years after being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, Gina Gionfriddo’s dark, sometimes giddy comedy Becky Shaw finally arrives on Broadway, and noting that it was worth the wait is an understatement none of its brutally honest anti-heroes would make. And if the nearly two-decades-in-the-making arrival meant we had to wait for this excellent cast to come together, all the better."

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:39pm

I was saving this line for CATS tomorrow but…10s. ACROSS. THE. BOARD!!!!

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:39pm

NY Daily News

BROADWAY REVIEW: ‘Becky Shaw’ eviscerates needy people and the people who need them

https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/04/06/becky-shaw-broadway-review/

"It’s a measure of the quality of Ehrenreich’s superb performance in what is generally an admirably straightforward production that he never tries to make his character more likable than Gionfriddo writes him, yet he lays all these bon mots with a palpable vulnerability. He understands that Max is operating on two tracks at once, spitting out the tough lessons partly as his philosophy of life but also as a way of avoiding the intensity of his own feelings. Gionfriddo intends him to grow on the audience as the play progresses, and so he does."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:41pm

Three stars from the Guardian

Becky Shaw review – Alden Ehrenreich shines in dysfunctional dating comedy

Hayes Theater, New York
Ehrenreich is electric alongside The Pitt’s Patrick Ball in this very 2008 send-up of fallout from one disastrous blind date

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/apr/06/becky-shaw-broadway-review

"That the show can’t sustain this charge through its erratic second act is more a book issue than performance. The aftermath of Becky and Max’s (unseen) date are downstream conversations between characters that reveal the lopsidedness of their constitutions. Ironically, the play’s namesake, played by Brewer with shades of wild desperation, feels the least grounded: a plot device dressed up as a confection whose big reveal – let’s say a complicated history with Black men – feels both dated and contrived, the bite of Halloween teeth where there could be fangs. Max, the most transparently slimy one of the group, is also the most convincing. Ehrenreich is so good at playing this type of obviously overcompensating, moneyed cad (please see Chloe Domont’s 2023 film Fair Play), so good at contemptuously delivering the line “that woman” in a way that sends chills down your spine, that I missed anytime he was offstage.'

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 10:42pm

A- from Entertainment Weekly

Becky Shaw review: Alden Ehrenreich steals the show in biting comedy about a blind date gone wrong

Two halves of a rocky marriage host a blind date, and everyone's life spirals in the aftermath.

https://ew.com/becky-shaw-review-broadway-alden-ehrenreich-steals-the-show-11943173

"When the laughter fades and you've wiped your hands of these utterly unlikable characters, all the upsetting questions they pondered remain. Becky Shaw touches something tender and doesn't stop there. Like its namesake's devious smile, it lingers. Grade: A–"

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 11:07pm

DTLI Consensus: A blind date spirals off the rails in this entertaining and exhilarating Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize finalist. 

12 positive (including the NYT), 2 mixed.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/becky-shaw/

Updated On: 4/6/26 at 11:07 PM

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 4/6/26 at 11:25pm

BroadwayGirl107 said: "Seems like this one got unanimously positive reviews, or did I skim too quickly?"

I think you’re right and, having seen it, they are well deserved. These are the kind of reviews that should at the very least extend their run. Hopefully Patrick Ball won’t have to rush back to the set of The Pitt.

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 12:23am

Or even more so, Alden - who has upcoming movies, per usual.

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 1:39am

CoffeeBreak said: "Or even more so, Alden - who has upcoming movies, per usual."

Yes,even more so. Good as they all are, Alden is the straw that stirs the drink here.

 

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 7:17am

Broadway Scorecard: 83 (Critical Gold)

”Critics praise this dark comedy's scabrously funny dialogue and excellent cast, particularly Ehrenreich's Broadway debut. Gionfriddo's sharp, provocative writing about toxic relationships and family dysfunction earns acclaim for its refusal to soften its edges.”

https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/becky-shaw

[MezzA101]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 7:46am

‘Becky Shaw’ Review: Funny vs. Likable? Funny Wins.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/theater/becky-shaw-review-alden-ehrenreich.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZFA.2j_l.LJsbNnG-zmvb&smid=nytcore-android-share

[Falsettolands]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 8:45am

I think Patten does a really good job playing a very unlikable person. I think it’s very interesting hearing some of the criticism of her performance on this board in relation to Alden’s. He plays a very unlikable, smarmy person and is universally praised for it. Patten plays a leech, incredibly self-centered drag. And she does so perfectly, but is criticized. I’ll defend her work in this to the death. The bravery in her performance is she’s okay with being an open wound the entire show no matter how desperate and difficult she’s being perceived. What a perfect ensemble.

if you can get yourself to this, go go go.

Updated On: 4/7/26 at 08:45 AM

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 10:07am

Seems like Ehrenreich is the one to beat for Featured Actor at this point. Universal ecstatic acclaim for your stage debut (not just Broadway) doesn't happen everyday.

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 10:32am

AC126748 said: "Seems like Ehrenreich is the one to beat for Featured Actor at this point. Universal ecstatic acclaim for your stage debut (not just Broadway) doesn't happen everyday."

Is he definitely categorized as Featured?  I can see them categorizing him as Lead and Ball as Featured. They are both listed below the title, but the Tonys are notoriously inconsistent regarding their "rules."

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 1:02pm

If he's indeed in featured, I think he takes it. Who could beat him? Joshua Boone? Chris Abott? This level of praise is too good to beat.

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 1:08pm

TheOtherOne2 said: "AC126748 said: "Seems like Ehrenreich is the one to beat for Featured Actor at this point. Universal ecstatic acclaim for your stage debut (not just Broadway) doesn't happen everyday."

Is he definitely categorized as Featured? I can see them categorizing him as Lead and Ball as Featured. They are both listed below the title, but the Tonys are notoriously inconsistent regardingtheir "rules.""

He will almost certainly be considered in the Featured category. To use the show that immediately preceded BECKY SHAW at the Hayes as an example: the entire cast of MARJORIE PRIME were considered featured performers -- even June Squibb, who had the title role and basically never left the stage. The late David Wilson Barnes was nominated in featured categories for the original production.

The committee couldn't care less about what a production might want in terms of maximizing nominations. But Ehrenreich seems a shoo-in to win Featured Actor at this point, whereas he'd face stiffer competition in the Leading category (Lithgow, Lane, Brody, Strong Radcliffe, etc). 

Updated On: 4/7/26 at 01:08 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 1:41pm

In Featured, his likeliest competition is going to be Burstein and Levy, with Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Christopher Abbott as the likeliest to fill out

[JSquared2]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 2:20pm

quizking101 said: "In Featured, his likeliest competition is going to be Burstein and Levy, with Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Christopher Abbott as the likeliest to fill out"

 

Assuming you mean Elliot Levey (not Levy) who won the Olivier?  Besides him there are quite a few other names who will likely be in the mix, including Ben Ahlers (DOAS), Christopher Fitzgerald (Fallen Angel), Joshua Boon (JTCAG), Don Cheadle and Jin Ha (if they keep Cheadle's role in Featured as the original production did), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (if they put him in Featured), Michael Patrick Thornton (GODOT), maybe someone from The Balusters (Richard Thomas?)  It's going to be a very competitive category.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 4/7/26 at 4:13pm

Most of these performances are barely getting noticed tho, the amount of buzz and praise that Alden is having is hard to beat.