The Boston Globe
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Award-winning scenic designer Cristina Todesco employs a scrim to delineate the realistic apartment from Ernestine’s movie fantasies, but the choice is not effective, too often distracting from the storytelling rather than adding to it. This early play of Nottage’s is filled with language that is often lyrical, but also includes symbolism that brings us back down to earth with a thump. (Note the moment when the cookies Godfrey brings home from the bakery where he works are crushed when he is attacked by racists). While clearly defining sympathetic and believable characters, “Crumbs From the Table of Joy” struggles to anchor them in a consistently coherent journey."
WBUR
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Ultimately, Ernestine delivers a monologue that ties up loose ends and tells the audience what’s to come for the Crump family. Even with that resolve, the Crump’s story quickly slips through my fingers once the house lights appear."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...From Intimate Apparel and Sweat to Clyde's, playwright Lynn Nottage is known for her ability to illuminate the lives of ordinary and working-class people, Black and white. Crumbs from the Table of Joy is one of her early plays, first produced in 1995. Under the direction of Tasia A. Jones, the Lyric Stage production brings us into the fascinating world of a specific family touched by the social conditions and movements in New York City in the early 1950s. This is a play well worth seeing, if only for a glimpse into the work of an important American playwright who has continued to produce ground-breaking work."
The Arts Fuse
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The script appears three decades after it was first produced off-Broadway. A Brown University graduate who studied with playwright Paula Vogel, Nottage has since been awarded two Pulitzer Prizes in Drama (for Ruined and Sweat) and, at age 60, she continues to write operas, musicals, and scripts for stage, television, and the movies. Crumbs - the title comes from Langston Hughes' poem "Luck" - turns out to be less compelling than her other works. At its best, the drama presents an opportunity for audiences to cast a backward glance at the first stirrings of Nottage's prolific canon."
The Sleepless Critic
- Highly Recommended
"...Crumbs from the Table of Joy boasts a fascinating cast as each character's motivation unravels over time and explores some hot button issues prevalent yesterday and today. Madison Margaret Clark as impressionable and determined Ernestine recalls a pivotal time in her life close to graduating high school in the 1950s having moved from the South to Brooklyn with Dominic Carter as her strict, born again and traditional recently widowed father Godfrey and her candid sister Ermina, portrayed with sharp comic wit by Catia."
New England Theater Mirror
- Highly Recommended
"...Crumbs From The Table Of Joy starts slowly but is ultimately a delight from start to finish. Sadly, hope is a scarce commodity at the moment, but this story reminds us of the power of hope and how even a little can go a long way."
The New England Theatre Geek
- Highly Recommended
"...The syncopated groove of Ms. Lauryn Hill’s “Everything is Everything” sweeps over the audience, settling like gossamer smoke over the sepia toned Victorian archway of a Brooklyn apartment. A young Black girl in a simple yellow dress and worn saddle shoes stands at the center of this accommodation, guiding us through the memories of her time there. In this way, the Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s production of Crumbs from the Table of Joy intertwines grief, divinity, expectations, and family, unfolding like a silver screen storyboard that leaves us feeling changed."
METR Mag
- Recommended
"...As we watch this family as it exists during the turbulent 1950s, heightening the overall conflict for the characters in "CRUMBS" is how playwright Lynn Nottage looks at racism, Communism, inter-racial marriage, religious doctrine, parenthood, celibacy, sibling rivalry and the family dynamic itself."
Broadway World
- Highly Recommended
"...Played with depth, intelligence, and quiet presence by the gifted Madison Margaret Clark, Ernestine Crump not only provides a great measure of the play's heart, she also narrates it. Much of the story, set in the 1950s, unfolds through her eyes, and when we meet her, she has already seen a lot in her young life, including the death of her mother and the impact of that sad event on her father, Godfrey Crump (a powerfully moving Dominic Carter), and her younger sister Ermina Crump (a wonderfully expressive Catia)."
