August Wilson's The Piano Lesson won a Pulitzer Prize before opening on Broadway, an honor that is indicative of the almost unanimous praise critics showered upon the play. Yet the drama still attracted its fair share of negative criticism, some of which came from privileged onlookers who had witnessed its transformation over three years of extensive workshopping. Wth the exception of these few hostile voices, however, most critics greeted the play with strong applause.

William A. Henry III, writing for Time, stated that the play was Wilson's "richest yet," a sentiment echoed by many other critics, including the New York Post's Clive Barnes, who called it "the fourth, best, and most immediate in the series of plays exploring the Afro-American experience during this century." However, one or two critics failed to join this chorus of approval. Robert Brustein, a prominent director and reviewer for the New...