Did Critics Welcome Family Secrets Back to the New York Stage?

Sherry Glaser made a splash back in 1993 when she first performed her one-woman show Family Secrets in Gotham. It had a healthy run in New York and has since been seen all over the country. Now she's back off-Broadway in an eight-week run of the piece that opened at 37 Arts on March 8. Did critics think everyone should cherish this Family?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Ron Lasko in his Broadway.com Review: "[The] first two pieces are quite wonderful. Mort and Bev have been carefully crafted with tons of wit and charm. Their problems aren't out of the ordinary, but the ways in which they handle them certainly are… Unfortunately, Family Secrets takes a bit of a downward turn beginning with the third monologue… As an actress, Glaser is quite versatile. She effortlessly inhabits each character… In the final analysis, Family Secrets is good old-fashioned solo show. It might not win any awards, but it certainly is a crowd pleaser. It's just the kind of show you can take the whole family to see."

Jason Zinoman of The New York Times: "The musty material isn't dated because the borscht belt jokes seemed ancient to begin with. What's a dentist's favorite song? 'Fillings, nothing more than fillings.' The reason to see Ms. Glaser is not novelty. It's the pleasure of watching a skilled performer doing something with the meticulousness that only a lifetime of observation and years of work can produce."

Mark Blankenship of Variety: "It may be revisiting off-Broadway after a lengthy run in the early '90s, but Family Secrets doesn't feel like a revival. This one-woman show about a cheerily dysfunctional Jewish family has the freshness and surprise of the latest downtown discovery. Much of the credit goes to Sherry Glaser, who performs all five members of the Fisher clan and, along with Greg Howells, has written a script that shows no sign of its age. The writing remains sturdy because the characters are crafted with enough detail to place them in a unique world."