PURPOSE Reviews

NY Stage Review

PURPOSE: TOUGH NEW BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS TRAGICOMEDY LOSES SIGHT OF PURPOSE

By David Finkle

★★★☆☆ Phylicia Rashad keenly directs a first-rate six member-cast featuring LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Kara Young

https://nystagereview.com/2025/03/17/purpose-tough-new-branden-jacobs-jenkins-tragicomedy-loses-sight-of-purpose/

PURPOSE: THE PAINFUL LEGACY OF DREAMS DEFERRED

By Bob Verini

★★★★☆ Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins explores a prominent family's ethical drifts in the muscular Steppenwolf Theater tradition

https://nystagereview.com/2025/03/17/purpose-the-painful-legacy-of-dreams-deferred/

Theatermania

Review: Purpose, An Explosive New Family Drama on Broadway

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony Award winner for last year’s Appropriate, returns to the Helen Hayes Theater.

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-purpose-an-explosive-new-family-drama-on-broadway_1767756/

WSJ

‘Purpose’ Review: Dramatic Overdrive on Broadway

Directed by Phylicia Rashad, the new play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins heaps various resentments and revelations onto the stage as it observes a fractious family gathering.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/purpose-review-dramatic-overdrive-on-broadway-41ba9476

"Although it runs an hour and a quarter, the first act of “Purpose” flies by, aloft on Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins’s sharp wit and astute delineation of the barely hidden conflicts among the characters, even if some of the revelations that pop up like unwanted birthday gifts are predictable."

...

"“Purpose” doesn’t sustain the same level of excitement in its longer second act, as the humor declines in reverse proportion to an ever-mounting series of dark revelations: ...

These are meant to lend the play greater meaning, as are long ruminations about the importance of having faith and finding purpose in life. But Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins risks dramatic overkill. After the savory meal of the play’s first half, many are likely to leave feeling more overstuffed than satiated.

NY Daily News/Chicago Tribune

BROADWAY REVIEW: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ blistering drama ‘Purpose’ eviscerates a powerful Black family

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/03/17/broadway-review-branden-jacobs-jenkins-purpose-eviscerates-powerful-black-family/

"In the end, “Purpose” is a major new American play about what it’s like to be trapped by powerful parents whose public personas their children can easily see through, even as they are condemned to try and live up to their import. A thumping blend of tragic-proximate horror and schadenfreude, it’s riveting to watch. "

"The play deftly balances comedy and tragedy and Jacobs-Jenkins even manages to show empathy for his deeply flawed characters."

https://www.facebook.com/michael.musto.96

Updated On: 3/17/25 at 11:08 PM

Theatrely

An American Family Finding Its PURPOSE — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/an-american-family-finding-its-purpose-review

"After setting the dramatic world ablaze last season with Appropriate, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins returns to Broadway with another lacerating look at familial heritage. Purpose, a handsome Steppenwolf production sharply directed by Phylicia Rashad, follows a fraught reunion at the Chicago home of a Black civil rights hero. Each performance is exquisitely tuned, and though its second act spends too long on the reverberations of its perfect first, this is drama at its finest."

Vulture

A Storied Black Family Faces Itself in Purpose

A household very much like Jesse Jackson’s has a brutal, if overdetermined, birthday celebration.

https://www.vulture.com/article/purpose-branden-jacobs-jenkins-theater-review.html

"in all that speechifying, these people aren’t much further from their public personas. They’re still performing. That they are doing so, even at home, is both a solid critique of the Jaspers’ self-importance and something that makes it harder to know them as people — to surprise, delight, or horrify us with idiosyncrasy. Purpose has so much ambition and forward momentum, but its little vagueries increasingly rankle. The levers and pulleys of Jacobs-Jenkins’s whole construct are too often visible. Young’s a recurring highlight in any production, and here she’s as ace as usual, but she may simply read as too intelligent for the obliviousness Jacobs-Jenkins asks of Aziza to keep his premise on its rails."

DTLI Consensus: Back on Broadway with Purpose and authority, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins delivers once more with another invigorating family drama.

15 positive, 3 mixed (including the NYT).

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/purpose/

Updated On: 3/19/25 at 11:49 PM

Ms. Rashad should be proud of her directorial work here.


I hope she returns to gift us with some more. Wonderfully executed.



Kudos also to all involved.

I really liked this. The cast was uniformly excellent. I even think I liked this more than Appropriate.

Loved almost every minute of this. Not sure I completely bought Junior's arc in the second act, but that is a minor quibble. Also, must have Jon Michael Hill's sweater.

Mezzanine had cold air blasting much of the show and everyone around me had their coats, scarves, and even gloves on throughout.

Updated On: 4/12/25 at 10:26 PM

Saw this tonight, I thought it was brilliant! I think the family drama is starting to become a bit oversaturated as a genre, but I love Jacob-Jenkins as a playwright, and even if act one dragged on act two felt much more dense and enjoyable! Kara Young really does brilliant work,always. Hopefully she snags a nom!