Most of the critics who reviewed Three Tall Women when it appeared in Off-Broadway in 1994 were enthusiastic about the play. Moreover, they seemed relieved that he had finally produced another play that had wide popular and critical appeal. As a writer for the Economist declared, "after a long dry spell for American drama, relieved by successful imports from London, New York has a good, homemade play at last."

Several reviewers, including the New Republic's Robert Brustein, noted Albee's personal stake in the play." Three Tall Women is a mature piece of writing," Brustein judged, "clearly autobiographical, in which Albee seems to be coming to terms not only with a socialite foster parent he once satirized in past plays, but with his own advancing age."

William A. Henry III concurred. In a review in Time, "Albee is exorcising his own demons in having the dowager deny her...