The production has officially opened in New York following runs in London and California.
Deadline: “Make no mistake, though: Eureka Day ultimately displays compassion for its characters, but not for the misguided, horse-blinder opinions some express. It’s unlikely RFK Jr. will be waiting in the ticket line anytime soon, but even the characters who might cheer his rise five years down the line (remember, the play is set in 2019) are afforded some grace. Of course, they don’t know what we know.”
The New York Times: “Whether you can take seriously the good intentions of characters so hung up on what they say regardless of what they do is another matter. I couldn’t quite get there, not when they are painted so broadly to ensure the laughs. To avoid its “extremely problematic portrayal of Native Peoples” and a “host of Colonialist Issues,” the school’s production of “Peter Pan,” was reset in outer space. Reasonable ideas, ridiculous outcomes.”
Variety: “We’ve been ushered, gradually and completely, into a world where every voice matters, of course, but some — those of an establishment class who want to make sure everyone is really welcomed — matter more than ours.”
The Guardian: **** “It’s a tricky balance to show and not condemn. You can probably guess where my sympathies lie, in terms of the vaccination “debates”, but Spector smartly avoids easy dunks as Eureka Day’s fault lines become canyons, though nobody on the board wants to admit as much. No one is a villain here; if anything comes off poorly, it’s reverence for conflict avoidance in the name of community.”
New York Theatre Guide: “Overlapping dialogue among the board members and increasingly cruel comments, projected onto the set, from parents on both sides of the debate make for a chaotic mess that’s also one of the funniest moments on Broadway right now.”
The Wrap.com: “Here, the playwright has the enormous help of Hecht, who delivers one of this year’s most riveting performances. It takes place when Suzanne and Carina have their showdown. Whatever your views on childhood vaccines may be, Hecht forces you to reconsider those ideas right or wrong.”
Theatrely.com: “The jokes at their expense start off strong but lose steam quickly, despite strong performances from a cast including Jessica Hecht and Thomas Middleditch.”
Talkin’ Broadway: ” Director Anna D. Shapiro, who knows her way around the mixture of satire and seriousness (she helmed such gems as Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County and The Minutes), does nicely with the difficult task of keeping things in balance between the comic and the sobering.”
Time Out: **** “Eureka Day is often very funny, but it also contributes valuably to that discourse. Even as it needles the left, it offers an invigorating shot in the arm.”
New York Theater.me: “And this is what made me uncomfortable. Let’s put aside whether the playwright’s easy mockery of progressives’ linguistic excesses is dated, especially at a time when the ascendant far right has stigmatized “woke” to help in their active effort to peel back hard-won rights. I mean, I laughed, so I guess I’m dated too.”
Theater Mania.com: “Director Anna D. Shapiro does a fine job presenting the illusion of balance when, in fact, Spector has his thumb on the scale the entire time — at least when it comes to the vaccine issue. But that’s not really the most interesting aspect of Eureka Day, a dark comedy shining a light on the side doors to power and the cathartic allure of invective.”
Eureka Day continues to play until the 19th January.