The reviews are in for Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets’s 1935 agitprop drama about New York cabdrivers debating a strike, which opened on Monday, November 2, at Classic Stage Company. Actor Steven Pasquale makes his directing debut with a ten-strong company that includes Greg Hildreth, Tala Ashe, Raffi Barsoumian, Adam Kantor and Henry Stram, and he threads protest songs and new music by the folk duo Yeller Tooth (Sahar Milani and Cameron Scoggins) between Odets’s vignettes. The critics agree the music is lovely; they split over whether it frees the play or smothers it.
The verdict: ten reviews in from nine outlets, and only three carry a score: Culture Sauce gives the revival 4 out of 5, while New York Stage Review’s two critics give it 3 and 2. Almost everyone admires the music of the folk duo Yeller Tooth and the singing of the ensemble. What divides them is Steven Pasquale’s decision to stretch Odets’s 40-odd-minute one-act with songs and Susan Misner’s choreography: Vulture, Culture Sauce, Stage and Cinema and Theater Pizzazz think it gives the play poetry and pulse, while TheaterMania, amNewYork, New York Theatre Guide and New York Stage Review find it padding that softens Odets’s sting.
What are critics saying about Waiting for Lefty?
The New York Times
"Protest Songs in the Key of Life"
Reviewer: Tim Teeman
Teeman finds Odets’s 1935 play dated, with a thicket of old language and airless interludes, and is unconvinced by the decision to bring the absent Lefty onstage in Susan Misner’s movement sequences.
"A more inspired, glorious addition to the production are the music and arrangements of Yeller Tooth…"
For him the married folk duo of Sahar Milani and Cameron Scoggins give the revival its heart.
Vulture
"a kind of workers’ dream ballet"
Reviewer: Sara Holdren
Holdren thinks the evening takes time to find its rhythm, and calls the opening episode between the cabdriver Joe and his wife Edna the production’s weakest scene.
"…the rest of the production’s brief yet weighty 75 minutes is often very beautiful."
She singles out “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”, an a cappella “Bread and Roses” and “The Diggers’ Song”, and the Young Hack scene with Scoggins and Milani as a high point.
TheaterMania
"Waiting for Lefty in the Museum of Agitprop"
Reviewer: Zachary Stewart
Stewart argues that the songs and dance smother a still-dangerous script in polished formalism, turning a call to strike into something closer to a concert.
"Sadly, the tepid revival at Classic Stage Company is unlikely to prompt a general strike."
He admires Raffi Barsoumian as a true Odets antihero but finds Tala Ashe out of place, and is unsure about casting Zach McNally as the title figure.
amNewYork
"Two working-class classics, two very different endings"
Reviewer: Matt Windman
Windman reviews the revival alongside the Irish Repertory Theatre’s The Hairy Ape, and finds O’Neill’s play the more persuasive of the two.
"…much of the added song and dance feels like filler. The vignettes remain biting and compelling."
He says he would have preferred Odets’s play without the added songs, ideally as half of a double bill.
Culture Sauce
"Protest Songs Fuel a Union Drama"
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 4 out of 5
Geier thinks turning the play into a song cycle of 1930s protest standards is the right call, with simple, stylized choreography between Odets’s vignettes.
"…it adds a layer of poetry and rhythm to Odets’ scenes that lean heavily into blunt agitprop."
He grants there is little subtlety, but says the outrages still land 90 years on, and that the cast sounds terrific.
New York Stage Review
"The Play Has Aged, the Injustice Has Not"
Reviewer: Roma Torre · 3 out of 5
Torre calls Steven Pasquale’s first outing as a director mixed, and finds plenty of present-day parallels in the play’s Depression-era hardships.
"…he recruited songwriting duo Yeller Tooth (Sahar Milani and Cameron Scoggins) to compose original music and they deliver quite beautifully."
Her objection is to the interpretive movement, which she feels clashes with Odets’s literal portrait of the working poor and softens it.
New York Stage Review
"No, No, Odets!"
Reviewer: Michael Sommers · 2 out of 5
Sommers, the outlet’s second critic, objects that a 45-minute drama has been stretched to nearly twice its length, with country-western songs that suit the coal fields better than the Bronx.
"Dressing up Odets’ work with songs and dances takes a drama that should appear spontaneous and makes it instead look terribly studied."
He credits Greg Hildreth’s sweating union boss and Henry Stram’s authority figures.
New York Theatre Guide
"a rallying cry for workers' rights"
Reviewer: Gillian Russo
Russo calls Classic Stage Company’s three-sided room the perfect union hall, but finds the expansion to 70 minutes bloats rather than deepens the play.
"It's a rare example of the whole not being greater than the sum of its parts."
Every song and scene is solid on its own, she writes, and Misner’s choreography finally clicks in a late sequence built around Zach McNally.
Stage and Cinema
"A stirring ensemble and inventive staging give this 1935 union drama a contemporary pulse"
Reviewer: Alex Simmons
Simmons likes Scott Adam Davis’s spare union-hall set and Mextly Couzin’s decision to keep the house lights up, which makes the audience part of the meeting.
"The 10-member cast works together splendidly, sharing attention when standing together like a union…"
He thinks the folk band and movement pieces give Odets’s vignettes a more emotional dimension.
Theater Pizzazz
"Finally: Waiting for Lefty Has Arrived"
Reviewer: Ron Fassler
Fassler, the warmest of the critics, says Pasquale does a superb job and has assembled a ten-person ensemble without a weak link.
"Choreographer Susan Misner’s exquisite, interpretive movement is perhaps the show’s secret weapon."
Adam Kantor’s rendition of “If I Had You” stayed with him long after the performance.
Production photographs by Marc J. Franklin.
We published the first look at Waiting for Lefty in previews and photos from opening night. For more of what the New York critics have been saying, read our roundup for The Heart at the Laura Pels Theatre.
Waiting for Lefty runs at Classic Stage Company’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater, 136 East 13th Street, through Sunday, November 29, 2026.
