Topdog/Underdog Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"...I deeply admired Kenny Leon’s Broadway staging of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” in 2022 because the veteran director emphasized the humor and humanity in what is indisputably among the very best American plays of the last 25 years. It’s a symbolically weighty drama that often finds itself squelched by overly academic productions; Leon, working with the producer David Stone and the actors Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins, cut away all pretentiousness, foregrounded its bravura acting roles, pumped up its showbiz bona fides and made it pulse with life. Agonizingly so."

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...Leon's production here falls squarely on the side of psychological naturalism. The most theatricalized flourishes are isolated to stylized moments at the end of the scenes and to the heavy gold curtains that drape over and, at the start, cover the playing space, a symbol both of the country's wealth (the outside curtain has an American flag on it) and of the fact that what we're watching is a show about people who never stop putting on a show for an audience or each other."

Daily Herald - Highly Recommended

"...“Topdog/Underdog” examines race and identity, power and poverty. Named for the Great Emancipator, Lincoln endures humiliation and discrimination at work, where he wears whiteface and earns less than his white counterparts."

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...It's not hard to understand the play's appeal for producers aside from its award-winnning pedigree: A play with just two actors is economically attractive. But getting the right actors is an absolute necessity for Parks's complex yet visceral story of brotherly bonds. And happily, Kenny Leon's new production at Steppenwolf features two of the biggest talents in the ensemble-Glenn Davis and Namir Smallwood-as two Black brothers sharing a shabby rented room in an unnamed U.S. city. (Leon also directed a 2022 Broadway revival of the play starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins.)"

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...This is a stellar rendition of this complicated tale. As we move into darkness seasonally and politically, this tragic tale is a must experience moment. This is not an entertainment, but a fable for our time."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Try to imagine growing up in what is considered a “loveless home”, with two parents who truly only care about themselves. The two brothers who are the main characters in Suzan-Lori Parks “Topdog/Underdog”, now onstage at Steppenwolf Theatre’s “Downstairs” stage, grew up with each other . One might say that all they truly had was each other. Their parents gave them names that might be considered a joke: Lincoln (played to perfection by Glenn Davis) and Booth (deftly handled by Namir Smallwood)."

Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended

"...After being given the names Lincoln and Booth, as a cruel joke by their parents, two adult African American brothers survive together, as best as they can. Always returning to their familiarity and expertise with a street game grift, called three-card monte, the years of hustle and grind only result in disappointment. For these young men, pursuing the American Dream ends in a bleak existence. Exquisitely guided and staged by Broadway director, Kenny Leon, and featuring a stellar cast that includes Glenn Davis and Namir Smallwood, Suzan Lori-Parks Pulitzer Prize-winning drama explodes to life on the Steppenwolf stage…as sibling rivalry and resentment come to a head."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...Suzan?Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog has always been a parable about the American dream. You know the one: glossy, irresistible, and sold to men who are told they can win a game designed to beat them. Parks, who won the Pulitzer for this play in 2002, built it as a fable wearing the clothes of realism — naturalistic on the surface, ritualistic underneath. In Kenny Leon’s taut and quietly devastating Steppenwolf revival, that con?game metaphor lands with fresh force. The production is intimate and uncommonly clear about what Parks is saying: for many Black men in America, the promise of upward mobility is a hustle, and the cost of believing in it can be fatal.'

Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended

"...What makes a play a classic? That's a question that struck me as I was watching the new revival of Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Although the play is now 25 years old, it offers at least one answer to that question: A classic play is one that continues to stay vital no matter its age."

PicksInSix - Highly Recommended

"...There is a great deal to admire about the fast-moving production of “Topdog/Underdog” at Steppenwolf, now running through November 1 in their Downstairs Theater. Originally done here in a lauded 2003 production, this sterling version of the remarkable Suzan-Lori Parks play lives up to every bit of expectation a theatregoer might conjure. The writer won a Pulitzer, after all. And it's steered by one of America's great, innovative directors in Kenny Leon, whose previous experience with this piece would seem to offer an expert's path to its fruition."

Curtain Call Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Suzan-Lori Parks’ has written a Pulitzer Prize winning script that is very funny, intimate and increasingly frightening as the walls close in around two brothers who have inherited far too much history and too few ways out. Steppenwolf Theatre’s riveting production directed by the incomparable Kenny Leon, understands that the play’s power lies not in its striking story of poverty, masculinity and sibling rivalry, but in the underlying love that lives beneath all the sibling’s games, betrayals and egos."

Chicago Culture Authority - Highly Recommended

"...If you need a reminder of how lucky we are to live in one of the great theater cities, catch the exquisite, enthralling, earth-shattering Topdog/Underdog now onstage at Steppenwolf under the crackerjack direction of Kenny Leon, who also helmed the recent Broadway production."

Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended

"...Parks’ work is centered, according to the playwright, on a dramatic technique known as “black surrogacy”, in which white literary/historical figures are replaced with Black characters. In this way, a lens is crafted to scrutinize issues of identity configuration, gender, notions of family, stereotypes, and stereotype reinforcement. In this captivating performance, in which both stars gave their all, the concepts of brotherhood, loyalty, and keeping secrets also played a large part. Get thee to the theater and see this play! It’s a funny, intellectual and gut-wrenching experience that should not be missed."

Allie and the After Party - Recommended

"...Topdog/Underdog explores two brothers’ relationship as they struggle with social and economical pressures and their family past that got them here. Davis and Smallwood paint us a picture of this relationship that’s tinged with regular sibling rivalry, but feels like there’s something more bubbling underneath the surface."

Werner's Theatre Reviews - Highly Recommended

"...Steppenwolf Theatre's 51st Anniversary Season opens with Suzan-Lori Park's Topdog/Underdog, thirteen years after the company produced the play's Chicago premiere. Harnessed by a Tony-winning director and two critically acclaimed actors, the production is perfectly mixed with dark humor and high tension which will have the audience at the edge of their seats."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Draped in a velvet, sepia-toned American flag, the stage is set for a deeply American story. It’s one we are often not prepared to face. One that remains true even twenty-five years after it first premiered. It is a story of racism, classism and, well, American history and society. Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “Topdog/Underdog” is an onion of a play. Its layers, peeled back slowly, reveal more fragrant pieces until we are left with the bulb—the most odiferous piece of all. The root of our motivations, for better or worse."