#26
Posted: 11/12/25 at 5:53pm
Kara Young makes any production a must see for me. She most certainly is 'a name'. I'd pay to watch her butter toast.
Nicholas Braun & Kara Young in GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES — Page 2
#27
Posted: 11/12/25 at 6:07pm
Ensemble1698878795 said: "Sutton Ross said: "Kara Young is Broadway royalty to me, but she is certainly not a name. As for Cousin Greg, do they honestly think hecould sell $350 tickets?"
And name to who and in what sense? Aren't we talking about theater here? She's a historic 2 time Tony winner."
Theater famous is not enough to be a name. A name is someone who people recognize and want to spend over $100 to see. If talent= name value then Audra would be the biggest star in the world.
#28
Posted: 11/12/25 at 6:07pm
So odd I'm getting push back on something so obvious, that Kara Young is not a household name, but ok :)
#29
Posted: 11/12/25 at 6:30pm
To compare "names"...
Nicholas Braun is currently #2,535 on IMDBPro currently
Kara Young (who I love!)? She is #14,633
By today's standards she is not a name. Sorry. That's the objective truth.
And frankly, Nicholas Braun isn't a strong name either. I know him for Succession and his local antics down at the bars by NYU
I'm just here so I don't get fined
#30
Posted: 11/12/25 at 6:34pm
Yea, kind of a creepy boozehound around those parts......
Kara Young should be a huge name in the world given her enormous talent, but she simply is not.
This play itself is fantastic though, regardless of the cast. And thank you Steve for the correction, my friend sent me to a third party website for tickets by mistake.
#31
Posted: 11/12/25 at 10:27pm
must be chilly down in hell because im once again compelled to agree with SuttonRoss-- its no dig to Kara Young to say she isnt a "name" that can pack a theater, no slight against her talent. Its just an obvious fact. Assuming every single theater person who knows her name bought a ticket, it would STILL not make her a "name" beyond the tiny bubble of these message boards.
now has anyone SEEN the show? Curious.
#32
Posted: 11/14/25 at 2:23am
So sad I won't be in NYC during this show's run. Huge fan of Rajiv Joseph and of the 5 plays of his I've seen, I thought this one was easily his best and that's a pretty high bar. Funny, touching, intimate, quirky and heartbreaking all rolled up into a neat little 85-90 minute package.
I love Kara. Seen both of her Tony winning performances and ironically think her best performance was in Cost of Living. Absolutely devastating. Enormously talented with a great future but no, not a "name". It takes more than 3 or 4 years of successful supporting roles in limited run plays to become a true Broadway name. But she's certainly got potential.
#33
Posted: 11/20/25 at 4:18pm
With this opening today, I figured I share my opinion after seeing last night's performance; first time seeing it, as well, having vague memories of hearing about it when it premiered in 2007 or so.
I found it to be a charming little play with a bittersweet undertone and a morbid sense of humor (in other words, my favorite kind of humor). In addition to great direction, Braun and Young are both wonderful and their chemistry is just terrific. It might not be for everyone - especially for anyone easily grossed out and/or squeamish. All in all, it's a surprisingly pleasant (or at least entertaining) way to spend an hour and 40 minutes.
#34
Posted: 11/20/25 at 6:02pm
Y'all surely spent a lot of time talking about two people who aren't names. One might say they're enough of names to illicit a full blown conversation about them not being names. It's theater, people. No one is really a name until Hollywood recognizes them.
GottaGetAGimmick420 said: "To compare "names"...
Nicholas Braun is currently #2,535 on IMDBPro currently
Kara Young (who I love!)? She is #14,633
By today's standards she is not a name. Sorry. That's the objective truth.
And frankly, Nicholas Braun isn't a strong name either. I know him for Succession and his local antics down at the bars by NYU"
#35
Posted: 11/23/25 at 4:58pm
Kara Young Is Bloody Great in ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’
https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-kara-young-nicholas-braun-rajiv-joseph-gruesome-playground-injuries.html
#36
Posted: 11/23/25 at 9:02pm
Mixed to negative from the NY Times (gift link):
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/theater/gruesome-playground-injuries-review.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3k8.16WE.7hv9wThMv39Z&smid=nytcore-ios-share
‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ Review: Does It Hurt?
Kara Young and Nicholas Braun star in the Off Broadway revival of Rajiv Joseph’s two-hander about best friends on parallel paths to self-destruction.
(not a critic’s pick)
Updated On: 11/23/25 at 09:02 PM
#37
Posted: 12/3/25 at 8:44am
Sale for this are fairly gruesome and cheap seats abound if you have any interest.
Just got row H for $50 for this Saturday night on TodayTix.
#38
Posted: 12/3/25 at 9:12am
Did they move the closing date? It’s now showing 12/28 instead of January.
#39
Posted: 12/7/25 at 10:35pm
i think this always scheduled to close on 12/28, and it was pretty fully tonight. TDF put us on the extreme sides of Row E but you dont miss much except the two leads changing in and out of their clothes.
i LOVE Rajiv Josephs work-- Bengal Tiger was sublime, and Describe the Night worked for me, too. There is much to like here, but at only 95 minutes, i found myself distracted and with a wandering mind once the novelty of the different time period scenes wore off. if there was an overarching point, it came too late. neither character really made alot of sense as adults.
but kudos to both Young and Braun. I am not as enamored with Kara Young as everyone else is--a sublime talent, but her performances are very similar to one another and that doesn't always work for me. Here, it works. Shes particularly incredible as a teenager, and she plays off Braun's aw-shucks weirdo like shes known him forever. He is perfectly cast, too-- and he does a nice job showing us the skill behind playing the doofus. Both are doing great work and worth seeing, even if the play is weaker than their performances.
#40
Posted: 12/7/25 at 10:56pm
It was always an eight week engagement scheduled to end 12/28, reinforced by the fact another new show is coming in on 1/9/26. It’s also important to know that this production was put up with a ridiculously quick turnaround of about one month when the space was going to become free due to Dylan Mulvaney’s show tanking (their run was cut in half before opening) and Kara being fresh off “Purpose”. (I think my friend working creative on the show said they went into pre-production right after Labor Day.)
This play is a lot of “show” over “tell”, and it’s very dark, so I can imagine that many audiences probably aren’t thinking about the deeper themes of the codependency and connection through grief, trauma and pain, self-inflicted or otherwise, once they walk out the door. The fact that it’s told out of sequence speaks to deeper themes of stagnated or arrested emotional development and that cycle of ongoing codependency they cannot shake.
I’ve seen it twice now and I’m actually happy it’s not a massive sellout hit because it allows me to enjoy a pretty good play with interesting themes, starring an actress who, to borrow a phrase, I would pay to watch butter toast, at a reasonable price.
Check out my eBay page for sales on Playbills!!
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#41
Posted: 12/22/25 at 5:37pm
The 12/28 closing performance appears to be cancelled now for unknown reasons (TT just refunded me), though this might explain why TT is having a special “fan performance” as a matinee tomorrow
12/27 evening is now the final performance.
Check out my eBay page for sales on Playbills!!
www.ebay.com/usr/missvirginiahamm
Updated On: 12/22/25 at 05:37 PM
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