The reviews are in for 2:22 – A Ghost Story, Danny Robins’s supernatural thriller, which opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Thursday, November 5, after runs in the West End and Los Angeles. Jasmine Cephas Jones plays Jenny, a new mother convinced that something walks through her baby’s room at 2:22 every morning, with Finn Jones as her scornful, rationalist husband and Anna Camp and Martin Marquez as the dinner guests who stay up to find out; Matthew Dunster and Gabriel Vega Weissman direct. The critics largely agree on the machinery: a clever final twist, and a sound design so loud, its screaming foxes above all, that more than one of them recommends earplugs. They disagree on whether any of it frightens. Mashable found it more chilling than Paranormal Activity; 1 Minute Critic, Talkin’ Broadway and New York Stage Review found little dread beneath the noise.
The verdict: nine reviews in, three of them scored: 3 out of 5 from New York Stage Review and Culture Sauce, and 2 out of 5 from 1 Minute Critic. Kristy Puchko at Mashable is the one unreserved fan. Most of the others credit Robins’s twist and complain about the jump scares, though they do not agree on the cast: TheaterMania thinks Anna Camp steals the show, New York Stage Review, Culture Sauce and Mashable think she plays it too broadly, and several single out Martin Marquez as the most grounded of the four. The Wall Street Journal reviewed it alongside The Unbelievers, behind its paywall.
What are critics saying about 2:22 – A Ghost Story?
The New York Sun
"Not Quite a Screaming Good Time"
Reviewer: Elysa Gardner
Gardner gives Robins full credit for an ending she did not see coming.
"…it’s only fair to note that “2:22” ends with a twist that’s genuinely surprising and unsettling."
Everything before it she finds unconvincing and full of clichés, from the shock-heavy sound design to an American character she thinks is written as a caricature, and the staging so loud that she wonders how the baby upstairs ever sleeps.
Mashable
"‘2:22 A Ghost Story’ is scarier than ‘Paranormal Activity’"
Reviewer: Kristy Puchko
Puchko arrived wary, having been underwhelmed by Paranormal Activity on Broadway, and left pleasantly surprised, praising Robins’s idea of setting a haunting inside a tense dinner party.
"…bolstered by a small and staunch cast, it's a terrifically chilling theatrical experience."
She finds Jasmine Cephas Jones riveting, Finn Jones deliciously easy to loathe and Marquez the play’s anchor, thinks Camp plays it a little broadly, and calls the climax terrific.
TheaterMania
"A Boozy Dinner Party Becomes a Late-Night Vigil"
Reviewer: Zachary Stewart
Stewart ranks it behind Paranormal Activity for stagecraft, but ahead of the season’s other British ghost imports for staying power.
"…Danny Robins’s script is the likeliest to haunt your thoughts, both for its memorable performances and head-scratching dramaturgical liberties."
He thinks Camp steals the show as a hard-drinking therapist and admires both Joneses and Anna Fleischle’s patched-together set, but finds the direction uneven, the exposition rushed and the jolts of light and sound predictable after the first few.
New York Stage Review
"2:22—A Ghost Story: Who’s Afraid of the Spectral Woolf"
Reviewer: Frank Scheck · 3 out of 5
Scheck suggests the seats should come with seat belts, not because the play is frightening but because its jump scares arrive at ear-splitting volume.
"It’s a necessary device, since Danny Robins’ play, a U.K. chiller making its New York City debut, proves otherwise ho-hum."
He finds the dinner-party sparring banal and the twist clever but derivative and rushed, calls the staging slick, and singles out Jasmine Cephas Jones while finding Camp strained.
Culture Sauce
"‘2:22 A Ghost Story’ is a clockwork exercise in onstage horror"
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 3 out of 5
Geier reads the play as a parable about gentrification, and admires how Fleischle’s set and Lucy Carter’s lighting make a haunted house both sleek and grubby.
"There is craft here, particularly in the just-before-the-final-curtain twist that forces you to reassess much of what came before."
He calls the overamplified fox screams a cheap gimmick, thinks Robins writes the women less convincingly than the men, and feels the production cares more about its mechanics than its people.
1 Minute Critic
"The loudest thing haunting ‘2:22 A Ghost Story’ has four legs and a tail"
Reviewer: Jerry Portwood · 2 out of 5
Portwood finds every ingredient of a scary night in place, but says the production reaches for the volume knob instead of building dread.
"For a play about listening for ghosts, 2:22 A Ghost Story never trusts silence long enough for anything to haunt you."
He expects horror fans to see the twist coming, finds the cast doing its best with thin material, and thinks Paranormal Activity the more unsettling show.
Talkin’ Broadway
Reviewer: Howard Miller
Miller tells jump-scare fans they have come to the right place, and everyone else to look after their eardrums.
"There is precious little that is eerie, mysterious, or dread-inducing about the haunted house play 2:22 A Ghost Story"
He finds most of the characters irritating as they argue round and round about ghosts, and says whether the ending justifies the two-hour wait depends on how many ghost stories you already know.
New York Theatre Guide
"a dinner party goes frightfully wrong"
Reviewer: Gillian Russo
Russo admits the play rarely frightened her, apart from the fox screams, which made her jump every time.
"…The only thing scarier than a phantom haunting is a very real, very condescending know-it-all."
She finds the acting pushed close to soap opera, enjoys Camp’s loose, unpredictable physicality and Marquez as the most grounded of the four, and calls it a comedy of terrors more than a horror show.
Also reviewed by: The Wall Street Journal (Charles Isherwood, “‘The Unbelievers’ and ‘2:22—A Ghost Story’ Review: Off-Broadway Stages Turn Unsettling”), a joint review of both plays whose verdict sits behind a paywall.
Production photographs by Evan Zimmerman.
We published the first production photos from the Lucille Lortel before opening night. For the other play the Journal reviewed alongside it, read our roundup for The Unbelievers at New York City Center.
2:22 – A Ghost Story runs at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street, through Sunday, January 17, 2027.
