The production received considerable acclaim from critics such as
Ben Brantley of the
New York Times and
Michael Feingold of
The Village Voice. However, Pamela Renner reviewed the premiere unfavorably in
Variety, with most praise reserved for Ron Cephas Jones. Renner criticized the characters of Hanraham and Valdez as heavy-handed, and also considered the play to contain "awkward exposition. It is freighted by an overload of pseudo-profundity; characters upbraiding each other about the Ultimate Questions can make for rather dreary stagecraft." In a review of one of Guirgis's later works,
Hilton Als described ''Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train
as "hysterical and irreverent", "an outstanding 2000 piece about imprisonment and moral responsibility." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed a 2017 revival favorably, praising the "incisive characterizations and riveting dialogue". The critic wrote that there are "overwritten passages and reliance on expository monologues. But it also displays incendiary passion and insight into its troubled characters". In 2018, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train
was ranked by The New York Times'' writers as the 14th best American play of the previous 25 years. Michael Billington of
The Guardian, who had given the play three out of five stars in 2002, gave the same rating after a 2019 performance and said that "for all the vividness of the dialogue, the play still strikes me as baffling in its exploration of guilt, faith and redemption." Billington quipped that Angel's final sacrificial gesture "smacks more of romantic fiction than spiritual redemption [...] I enjoyed the production without fully believing in Guirgis's vision of crime and punishment." J. Kelly Nestruck of
The Globe and Mail awarded it three and a half out of four stars in 2020, calling it "skillfully structured so that the audience’s sympathies see-saw back and forth between" Lucius and Valdez. ==References==