Los Angeles Times - Not Recommended
"...Overall, there's a tentative quality to "Race" that stems from Mamet's determination to maintain the ambiguity of the situation he contrives (and contrived it often is). Not only is Charles' guilt an open question, but the motivations of all the characters are inscrutable to a degree. This approach might be intellectually commendable, but it makes for wan drama."
LA Weekly - Not Recommended
"...Yet Race feels oddly stale, seemingly content to argue about yesterday's news rather than delving into today's variations on it. It's as if nothing has changed in Mamet's world since O.J. Simpson roamed Brentwood. It's a missed opportunity."
Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended
"...Race is David Mamet's best play since Oleanna, but, that being said, it's still a fairly minor addition to the canon. It doesn't have anything new or interesting to say about current racial relations, but it works as a mild dig at our legal system. The new production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre benefits from a terrific lead performance by Chris Bauer, but otherwise is only necessary viewing for Mamet fans."
Stage and Cinema - Not Recommended
"...Still, this fluffy but intelligent and persuasive script intrigues. Unfortunately, Race's Los Angeles premiere arrives almost five years since its Broadway opening with all the excitement of a table read. It's as if director Scott Zigler, a Mamet regular, instructed his cast to just say the lines. Instead of a crisply paced, riveting experience, the occasionally dazzling dialogue in this worthy debate is devoid of life. There's no snap, crackle, or pop in this bowl of Race Krispies."
The Hollywood Reporter - Somewhat Recommended
"...Then, in a confounding miscalculation, barely a half-hour in, the show breaks for a premature intermission, blunting the forward energy. The play is comprised of only three scenes in a single location, and between the second and third, a time lapse is more than adequately covered by a brief dimming of the lights. So the choice not to conform to the current fashion of 90 minutes straight through seems almost ornery, particularly since both suspense and credibility sag progressively from the start of that not-quite-second act. The observations and development of ideas devolve into the merely clever, before forfeiting even that saving grace."
ArtsBeatLA - Recommended
"...Race may have its flaws, but it nevertheless is an entertaining and riveting play."
ArtsInLA - Somewhat Recommended
"...Under Scott Zigler's crisply slick direction, the production features a dynamic cast and design team that would be hard to better. And even though Mamet has created Susan as far more three-dimensional and instrumental to the plot than are any of his past female characters, something is missing here, especially in the play's highly predictable ending. The language and themes-not to mention the title-are just as provocative as in those exciting old Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo days, but somehow the writing doesn't pack the wallop one would expect from one of our time's most courageous-and most feted-wordsmiths."
Neon Tommy - Somewhat Recommended
"...Despite the fact that this play is indeed well-acted, and the stakes are very high, it rarely reaches moments of real dramatic tension, in part because it feels that Mamet is using his characters merely as vessels to divulge a social commentary on the bigger picture of race. And while the social commentary is certainly an interesting one, "Race" is just too transparent in its intentions, leaving the audience feeling very detached from the characters on stage."
TheatreTimes.org - Recommended
"...David Mamet is firing on all cylinders in Race, his 2009 play now receiving its Los Angeles premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (through September 28). Race relations may be the third rail of American politics, but it has energized Mamet, who jumps into the track bed and dances along that rail to power this sizzling polemic. While the effect is more adversarial than articulate, it is the most exciting and successful effort by him that I have seen in years."
TheatreMania - Recommended
"...From its opening words - a brisk invitation from an attorney to a potential client for a "sit-down" - to its fist-to-the-gut of blackout line 100 minutes later, Race shuttles its audience on a giddy roller-coaster ride through personal and professional ethics, legal maneuvers, back-stabbings, and lessons on the cultural landscape. In the Scott Zigler-directed L.A. premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the play is a bullet laced with battery acid."
Showmag - Somewhat Recommended
"...As much as one hopes for vintage Mamet–Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow–this falls short, even though it has elements that could elevate it given more dramatic charisma."
