Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
Opening Night: September 27, 2023
Theater: Music Box Theatre
Website: purlievictorious.com
Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch is the rousing, laugh-filled comedy by Kennedy Center honoree Ossie Davis that tells the story of a Black preacher’s machinations to reclaim his inheritance and win back his church.
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September 27, 2023
The “Purlie Victorious” that opened on Wednesday at the Music Box — unaccountably its first Broadway revival — is every bit as scathingly funny as the 1961 reviews said it was.
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September 28, 2023
Leon is doing exceptional work here, corralling Davis’ penchant for long-winded metaphor and fast-paced metre, while also extracting hilarious performances from the entire ensemble, particularly Kara Young and Billy Eugene Jones. It’s a feat to be seen, felt, and enthralled by.
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September 27, 2023
Directed knowingly by Kenny Leon, the show’s new Broadway production is a joyous affair, broad in comedy and in spirit.
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September 27, 2023
Starring a magnificent Leslie Odom, Jr., in the title role, and featuring equally fine performances by an enchanting Kara Young, Billy Eugene Jones, Vanessa Bell Calloway and more, Purlie Victorious – full title (and one of the few signifiers of its 1961-era creation): Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch – has been given an urgent – and, oh yes, very, very funny – revival by Leon and his top-notch creative team.
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September 27, 2023
Directed by Kenny Leon, the beauty of the Black vernacular is embedded in the “Purlie Victorious” script. Specificities of Black American life are infused within the jokes as Odom and the cast deftly switch from comedy to drama on a dime.
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September 27, 2023
Fast, fierce, and big-hearted, the show crackles with the verve of its central performances, and the play, at 62 years old, feels wittier, braver, less careful, and more caring than much contemporary writing. Both unflinching and generous, it’s just about as sharp as satire gets.
READ THE REVIEWSeptember 27, 2023
Kenny Leon’s supremely well-toned revival of Ossie Davis’ “Purlie Victorious, A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch,” the new arrival at Broadway’s Music Box Theater, is a knockout show, as hilarious as it is cutting and as emotionally warmhearted as it is politically potent.
READ THE REVIEWSeptember 27, 2023
Flat-out hilarious and stacked with topflight performances led by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Kara Young, Purlie Victorious is also a triumph when it comes to timing. Suffice it to say the play speaks directly to today’s racial tumult.
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September 27, 2023
Back on Broadway for the first time since its historic 1961 premiere, Davis’ play has lost little of its bite. But under an ill-suited Kenny Leon’s direction, it has received an unevenly paced and tonally confused production that never finds the same delightful boldness as Young’s performance.
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September 27, 2023
But there’s nothing at all musty or reverential about this production. Instead, it makes a convincing case for Davis’s satirical play as a living, breathing work of art, one that, for all its dated elements, still has much to offer to contemporary audiences.
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September 27, 2023
Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious (A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch) is both uproarious satire and cultural gut punch—with the biggest clue in its lead character’s name and the play’s title.
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September 27, 2023
“Purlie Victorious” is the funniest show now performing on Broadway, and that includes “The Book of Mormon.”
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