When The Great God Brown premiered on January 23, 1926, at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York, the opening night reviews were mixed. Many critics praised O'Neill's daring experimentalism and psychological themes in the play. Others, though, found fault with those same qualities. Public response was strong enough to run the play for 283 performances. Since then, assessments of the play have remained mixed.

On opening night, E. W. Osborn in his review for New York World praised the play's bold innovations, commenting that "the unexpected is again introduced and spells wonderful." In his New York Times opening night review, Brooks Atkinson ignores claims that the play was at times confusing but applauds O'Neill's experimentalism. A few years after the play debuted, Barrett H. Clark in Drama argues that The Great God Brown is the "highest development of O'Neill's genius we have seen. Like all poets, he writes...