Between Riverside And Crazy
by Stephen Adly Guirgis

Name: Between Riverside And Crazy
Brand: Stephen Adly Guirgis
SKU: 9780822233404
Rating: 4.5 (749 reviews)

BroadwayOff-Broadway

Between Riverside And Crazy Book Cover — Between Riverside And Crazy Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

120 minsPresent DayStrong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle)Interior SetContemporary Costumes/Street ClothesAmerican Comedy

Awards & Recognition

Drama Critics CircleDrama Desk AwardLucille Lortel AwardOuter Critics CirclePulitzer PrizeTony Award

Winner! 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winner! 2015 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play Winner! Three 2015 Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play Winner! 2015 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play Nominee: Three 2015 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play Nominee: Two 2023 Tony Awards, including Best Play

What readers are saying

Readers are largely impressed by the depth and humor of the play, praising Stephen Adly Guirgis for his exceptional writing. Many note the themes of race, class, and personal struggle are skillfully woven throughout, making it a thought-provoking experience. Some feel that while the play is deserving of its acclaim, certain aspects could have been more developed or clearer.

Deep and thought-provoking themesHilarious and moving momentsExceptional character developmentSome found it slightly confusingA few wished for more clarity

Synopsis

"Guirgis, like other storytellers who explore the sacred and profane, is most interested in how grace transforms us."—

The New Yorker

Written with humor, tenderness, grit, and wonderment by acclaimed playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, Between Riverside and Crazy is an extraordinary new play: a dark comedy about a man trying to maintain control as the world unravels around him.

City Hall is demanding more than his signature, the Landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed, and the Church won't leave him alone.

As ex-cop and recent widower Walter "Pops" Washington struggles to hold on to one of the last great rent-stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive, he must also contend with old wounds, new houseguests, and a final ultimatum.

It seems the old days are dead and gone — after a lifetime living between Riverside and Crazy.

Stephen Adly Guirgis

' other plays include The Motherfucker with the Hat

, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train

, Our Lady of 121st Street

, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings

, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

, The Little Flower of East Orange

, Den of Thieves

, Race Religion Politics

, and Dominica: The Fat Ugly Ho

His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015.

He is a former co-artistic director of LABryinth Theater Company.

He received the Yale Wyndham-Campbell Prize, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Whiting Award and a fellowship from TCG in 2004.

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Press Reviews

"Somewhere south of cozy and north of dangerous, west of sitcom and due east of tragedy… a dizzying and exciting place to be… Blurring lines between the sacred and profane has always been a specialty of Mr. Guirgis."
— The New York Times

"[A] love/hate song to this impossible town and its outlandish citizenry… everyone’s bound to be captivated by Guirgis’s loudmouthed locals…[and] warm, rich dialect that comes right off the city streets."
— Variety