Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway debut of WIT opened on Thursday, January 26 to glorious reviews. New York critics acclaimed Margaret Edson’s play as “a masterpiece” (NY1), director Lynne Meadow’s “unerringly focused staging” (The Hollywood Reporter) and Cynthia Nixon delivering a performance that is the “pinnacle of her long and rich stage career” (The Bergen Record).

Below is a sampling about what critics have said about the production now in performances at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47^th Street):

“AN IMMACULATELY STAGED 100-MINUTE JOURNEY. Cynthia Nixon is illuminating. Her performance is large, lucid and delicate at the same time. Directed with a persuasive combination of showmanship and sensitivity by Lynne Meadow, this production magnifies the innate theatricality of Margaret Edson’s inescapably moving play without compromising the firm emotional truth at its center.”

-        Ben Brantley, The New York Times (CRITIC’S PICK)

“A GREAT THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE. Nixon’s performance is a triumph: brilliant, funny, and shattering. Edson’s Wit, which against all expectations, is very funny under Meadow’s pitch perfect direction. The production features a fine supporting cast, especially Suzanne Bertish, Carra Patterson, Michael Countryman and Greg Keller.”

-        Robert Feldberg, The Record

“GRADE A. Fearless doesn’t even begin to describe Nixon’s performance. She never fails to captivate. Her blue eyes flicker wildly with intelligence and rage. She is, in short, a force in Meadow’s elegant revival which is both heartbreaking and heartening to watch. Edson’s play is about so much more than one woman’s disease. It’s about knowledge, ignorance, humanity, love, life and death.”

-        Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly

“FOUR STARS: TAUT AND ENGAGING. Nixon gives a commanding performance in Meadow’s skillfully guided production.

-        Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News

“POWERFULLY LIFE-AFFIRMING. Wit is a work of such unflinching honesty and intelligence, there’s no denying it’s a masterpiece. Nixon turns Vivian’s journey into stunning theatre.”

-        Roma Torre, NY1

“FunnY, compassionate AND ultimately devastating. Edson’s Wit is a work of delicately calibrated opposites. In Meadow’s unerringly focused staging for Manhattan Theatre Club, and above all in Nixon’s shattering performance, that balancing act is rendered with piercing accuracy in an uncommonly stirring piece of theatre. Meadow’s tight direction is attuned as much to what’s unsaid as to what’s being spoken. Her fluid scene-to-scene and past-to-present transitions are aided immeasurably by Santo Loquasto’s set and Peter Kaczorowski’s lighting.”

-        David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“A DRAMA THAT TOUCHES THE SOUL. Nixon gives a ferocious portrayal, while Meadow lets the final quiet moments and incandescent images play out with the grace and sensitivity that have accompanied each of the previous 100 minutes.”

-        Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg