The Elephant Man initially opened Off-Broadway in January 1979. In one of the first reviews, Jack Kroll contended that the play suffered from Pomerance's "hard and heavy" morality, but "this is a minor fault, and in any case the entire Victorian does seem like an extravagant morality play on the stage of history." Kroll concluded by saying that the "New York theatre is lucky to have The Elephant Man."

Edwin Wilson's review in The Wall Street Journal lauded the actors and direction, which he felt made up for the play's faults. Among the problems, Wilson asserted

In the last few scenes of the play Pomerance abandons the hard-edged logic of the first part and chases philosophical phantoms, but through most of the evening his astute treatment of this unlikely subject makes The Elephant Man one of the best new plays of the season.

A similar sentiment is...