Washington Post - Highly Recommended
"...Thanks, though, to some perceptive casting and, as it turns out, the durability of these hard-luck characters, "American Buffalo" remains a gleefully flinty slice of burnt-out life: taut, funny and, in the end, surprisingly touching. It will occur to you that Mamet's caper comedy is also the affecting story of the yearning of men for sons, and of sons for fathers."
Washington Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...
One of the most remarkable features of "American Buffalo" is its ability to suggest a desire for brotherhood hovering right beneath the surface aggression, coarseness and steeliness of these characters. Ultimately it's a play about three emotionally isolated men who are uneasy with their armor but unsure how to shed it. Zinoman does a beautiful job of illuminating that insecurity and desire for companionship, without once dipping into sentimentality."
MetroWeekly - Highly Recommended
"...The lives of the three men rattling around Don's Resale Shop seem as though they might carry on even after the curtain has closed on American Buffalo. That's the beauty of a Mamet play."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...Allas ably embodies Teach with his wiry physicality, creepy mustache, rapidly shifting eyes, and oily hair (costume designer Helen Q. Huang has given him the perfect clothes, including beltless pants and a gold neck chain). Gero, on the other hand, exudes the world-weariness that comes from struggling and feeling as if the game is stacked against him, trying to share his life lessons with apathetic druggie Bobby. Davis has a smaller role, but he's appropriately petulant and frustrated with a world that refuses to pay attention to him."
Washington City Paper - Highly Recommended
"...Zinoman’s pitch-perfect production, caged in Russell Metheny’s fantastically grimy junk-shop set, leaves you feeling like an invisible fourth member of this hapless hardscrabble dog-pack, watching the others circle and sniff and snarl, knowing the first lunge and the first bite are coming any second. It’s gruesome and profane, raucously funny and wrenchingly sad, and it’s one of the finest acts of theater you’re likely to see this year."
Washington Life - Highly Recommended
"...If you see only one play this spring, see American Buffalo. Considered David Mamet’s greatest work, it is one of the most powerful and gripping dramas currently on stage in Washington, D.C. Directed by Joy Zinoman and starring Edward Gero, Peter Allas and Jimmy Davis, American Buffalo has been extended through June 20 at the Studio Theatre."
Washingtonian - Highly Recommended
"...Studio Theatre founder and artistic director Joy Zinoman chose American Buffalo as her final directing effort before her retirement—and she’s going out with a career-topping triumph. She has assembled a terrific cast—Edward Gero is the sweet center of the play as Donny, Peter Allas practically vibrates as the highly wound Teach, and Jimmy Davis is the perfect foil as the kid Bobby. Zinoman allows the play to move along by fits and starts, letting the disjointed rhythm of the characters’ existence set the pace."
Washington Diplomat - Highly Recommended
"...“Plays are not about nice things happening to nice people,” playwright David Mamet once told a TV interviewer. “Plays are about conflict.” After witnessing Mamet’s infamous “American Buffalo” at the Studio Theater, you’ll likely consider this to be an understatement. The production is one big conflict you won’t want to miss."
BrightestYoungThings - Highly Recommended
"...With David Mamet, what happens is never quite important as how it happens. This is certainly true of American Buffalo, for it manages to involve audience despite its pervasive inaction. The secret is the peculiar vernacular set in a cadence that piques interest before it engrosses. Terse shorthand functions like code, and since many phrases end in prepositions, Mamet demonstrates these characters exist in a world where nouns are ancillary, or too revealing. By slicing languages to its barest meaning, Mamet invites audiences to think about subtle ironies, or just how much these guys trust each other. Unlike many modern playwrights, Mamet’s style relies on meter just as much as subtext."
Washington Blade - Highly Recommended
"...In the process, bonds of friendship including feelings born from an ersatz father-son relationship will be tested and possibly found wanting. See this play if you care about male bonding, for it offers a window into the soul of American men, sometimes at their worst, possibly even at their best."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Mamet wrote a hugely entertaining play, with plenty of suspense and jaw-dropping wit. Studio has mined this play for its insight, and you will leave it not only entertained but engaged and reflective as well.
