Disgraced Ayad Akhtar

Critical reviews

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times, who saw the 2012 Off-Broadway production, said it was "a continuously engaging, vitally engaged play" that "bristles with wit and intelligence" and "puts contemporary attitudes toward religion under a microscope, revealing how tenuous self-image can be for people born into one way of being who have embraced another."[6] Isherwood selected the play as one of his year-end Ten Best Plays of 2012.[10] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter also selected it as among his Ten Best in New York Theater 2012, writing that Akhtar "staked a claim as one of the boldest voices to appear on the playwriting scene in recent years with this stinging swipe at the fallacy of the post-racial nation."[42]

Of the Chicago production at American Theater company, Chicago Tribune theatre critic Chris Jones praised the show as "intensely arresting."[1] Time Out Chicago's Kris Vire called the play "a compact, stunning gut punch addressing the cultural affinities some of us are allowed to escape and those we aren't."[43] However, Chicago Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss noted that the play's five characters were all "identity-warped", and the show was a "minefield... that feels all too deliberately booby-trapped by the playwright."[44] The play won the Jeff Award—honoring excellence in Chicago Theater—for Best New Play in Chicago 2012.[45]

Entertainment Weekly critic Thom Geier suggested that the ending was underdeveloped, but that the play was well-executed: "Akhtar packs a lot into his scenes, in terms of both coincidence-heavy personal drama and talky disquisitions on religion and politics, but he usually manages to pull back from the edge of too-muchness. There is an admirable restraint to director Kimberly Senior's well-paced scenes. Mandvi, best known for his comedy, has a surprisingly commanding stage presence and captures the full range of his character's internal conflicts."[9]

Awards and nominations

The Chicago production received four Joseph Jefferson Awards nominations for the August 1, 2011, and July 31, 2012, theatrical productions season on August 21.[46] Disgraced was recognized as the Best New Work – Play or Musical on October 15, 2012.[47][48]

In its description of the play, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama committee described it as "a moving play that depicts a successful corporate lawyer painfully forced to consider why he has for so long camouflaged his Pakistani Muslim heritage."[2] The Pulitzer jury was headed by The Washington Post's theater critic Peter Marks. Playwright Donald Margulies, Princeton University professor Jill Dolan, critic John Fleming and critic Alexis Soloski were also on the jury.[49]

On April 3, Aasif Mandvi earned a 2013 Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor.[50][51] On April 22 Ayad Akhtar received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for the John Gassner Award.[52] Akhtar won a 2013 Obie Award for Playwriting on May 20.[53][54] On May 8, the production was nominated for a 2013 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play.[55] It lost to Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike on May 21.[56]

On April 28, 2015, the Broadway production was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play at the 69th Tony Awards.[4]

Chicago production

Off-Broadway production

Disgraced's Off-Broadway premiere competed in the 2012-13 season for Off-Broadway awards such as Drama Desk, leaving only new actors and technical staff eligible in the Broadway transfer in 2015.[57]

Broadway production