From the play's first productions in Chicago and New York City, most critics either found much to praise in A Life in the Theatre or dismissed it entirely. Mel Gussow of the New York Times wrote of the Chicago production, "It is slight, but it does not lack consequence. It has bite and it also has a heart." His opinion of the play improved when A Life in the Theatre was produced off-Broadway. He wrote, "Though the work has serious undertones, it is, first of all, a comedy—and Mr. Mamet's language glistens. His writing is a cross between the elegant and the vernacular, an ironic combination that is uniquely his own." Many critics who liked A Life in the Theatre praised the content of the playlets. T. E. Kalem of Time wrote, "With marvelous mimicry, Mamet conjures up parodistic echoes of past play-writing titans...