In reviewing the Los Angeles production, Charles Isherwood in The New York Times wrote that the Tiger "isn't given any silly costuming, thank heavens, but simply wears tattered clothes" and saying that the show is "boldly imagined" and a "worthy finalist for the recent Pulitzer Prize".[5]
The Broadway production received mixed to positive reviews. The Los Angeles Times called Bengal Tiger "the most original drama written about the Iraq War", but said, "Without an actor of Williams' marquee draw, 'Bengal Tiger' would likely not have made it to Broadway. Frankly, I'm a little surprised that it has . . . But I'm glad that it has found a home in the commercial theater district not only because the work will challenge mainstream theatergoers but because I think it will leave the more sensitive among them profoundly moved."[30]
The Chicago Tribune praised the piece itself, but mentioned that Williams' performance "seems to miss much of the amoral ferocity of the beast (a tiger can be depressed or antic, but he is still a tiger). And a bigger problem yet is that Williams' Tiger is, as things go, not so much the protagonist as a sardonic observer of Baghdad ironies."[31]
"Set in the chaotic first days of the American invasion of Iraq, this boldly imagined, harrowing and surprisingly funny drama considers the long afterlife of violent acts, as well as the impenetrable mysteries of the afterlife itself." - The New York Times[3]
"Joseph's metaphoric inventiveness is magnificently displayed throughout, and the kaleidoscope of figures and images bespeaks a purely theatrical imagination." - Los Angeles Times[3]
"Tragic yet darkly comic and highly. imaginative . . . Joseph has created a theatrical landscape that is totally different from the harrowing war reports to which the nightly news has accustomed us." - CurtainUp[3]
"The bottom line: Dark and disturbing but also corrosively funny, Rajiv Joseph's play set during the early days of the Iraq War is an exotic original." -The Hollywood Reporter[3]
