Review Roundup: What Did Critics Think of INDIA PALE ALE?

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of India Pale Ale, written by Jaclyn Backhaus and directed by Will Davis, celebrated opening night yesterday evening. The new play began performances on Tuesday, October 2.

India Pale Ale is the 2018 winner of the Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play

India Pale Ale stars Purva Bedi (MTC's East is East), Angel Desai (An Ordinary Muslim), Sophia Mahmud ("The Blacklist"), Nate Miller (MTC's Ripcord), Shazi Raja("High Maintenance"), Nik Sadhnani (The Invisible Hand), Lipica Shah(Bunty Berman Presents... ), Sathya Sridharan (An Ordinary Muslim) and Alok Tewari (The Band's Visit).

The design team includes Neil Patel (Scenic Design), Arnulfo Maldonado(Costume Design), Ben Stanton (Lighting Design), Elisheba Ittoop (Original Music & Sound Design), Dave Bova (Hair & Makeup Design) and Will Davis (Choreography).

In a small Wisconsin town, a tight-knit Punjabi community gathers to celebrate the wedding of a traditional family's only son, just as their strong-willed daughter announces her plans to move away and open a bar. As they come together for feasts filled with singing and dancing, one generation's cherished customs clash with another's modern-day aspirations, and ghosts and pirates from the family's past linger in everyone's thoughts - until one sudden event changes everything. This poignant and smartly funny new play about legacy, life and longing comes from the fresh voice of Jaclyn Backhaus, who again teams up with her Men on Boats director, Will Davis.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: That's a fair, if only partial, description of Ms. Backhaus's new play, which opened on Tuesday night in a Manhattan Theater Clubproduction. "India Pale Ale," directed with studious effervescence by Will Davis, is a cheerfully instructive work, created with the aim of bridging one of the many cultural gaps in these dangerously divided United States.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: The relentless quirkiness and didactic speechifying reveal a playwright trying much too hard, and neither director Will Davis' amateurish staging nor the ensemble's uneven performances help matters. India Pale Ale concludes with a lovely (and delicious) offering to the audience, or at least a lucky few of them, but it's not enough to compensate for the otherwise empty feeling this "promising" work leaves.

Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast: This Manhattan Theatre Club production comes to us less in anger than understanding; this uneven and unfocused play, directed by Will Davis, wants to reach out.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus