REVIEWS
“Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Primary Trust is the play we need to restore our souls… Adams conducts Primary Trust as if it were a score, treating the play as a composition rather than as a standard work of stage realism — the right choice for a piece that beautifully deploys repetition and zestfully embraces its storytelling freedom.”
Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times – PRIMARY TRUST (L.A.)
“95 minutes of sublimity. In the role of Kenneth, actor Petey McGee delivers a performance that is as throat lump-inducing as it is uplifting.”
Evan Henerson, Broadway World – PRIMARY TRUST (L.A.)
“Adams’ production creates a cinematic penumbra through the projections of Ruey Horng Sun, a soundscape by Sinan Refik Zafar that lyrically underscores the actions and the emotionally attuned lighting of Reza Behjat. The effect heightens the romanticism of characters who are no longer lost to us in translation.”
Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times – ENGLISH (L.A.)
[Critic’s Pick] “A brainy new comedy by Ro Reddick that’s infused with choral music and spiked with espionage. Directed by Knud Adams, and featuring a jewel-studded cast, the play finishes this year’s edition of Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks festival on a high.”
Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times – COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE
[The 10 Most Mind-Altering Theater Moments of 2026] “I had always believed that Clubbed Thumb productions needed a tiny Off Off Broadway incubator space to work. This deliriously comic moment in Adams’s luxe MCC transfer changed my mind. We should give these shows — and powerhouses like Mitchell and Finn — the biggest stages we’ve got.”
Helen Shaw, The New York Times – COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE
”Knud Adams has picked up the torch of David Lynch like no other stage director before him. With the same deadpan creepiness lurking just under the wood-panel normalcy of life in America, Adams brings Ro Reddick’s exhilarating “Cold War Choir Practice” to perverse life.”
Robert Hofler, The Wrap – COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE
[Critic’s Pick] “Directed with exceptional sensitivity by Knud Adams… Adams’s staging and his work with the faultless actors pull off the trick of making what English doesn’t say out loud so moving.”
Jesse Green, The New York Times – ENGLISH (Broadway)
[★★★★★] “Director Knud Adams and his original cast of five re-create the magic of the original production without a stammer, stumble or waver.”
Adam Feldman, Time Out New York – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“The exquisite Broadway production from director Knud Adams is the first must-see play of the season... Adams’s staging for Roundabout Theatre Company, beautifully scaled up from its co-production with Atlantic Theater Company, has a graceful and haunted quality.”
Naveen Kumar, The Washington Post – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“Hands down a masterpiece of theater. Undeniably one of the best plays of the decade, it is both thought-provoking and deeply affecting.”
Christian Lewis, Variety – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“The technique is one of Toossi’s many triumphs in craft, alongside sublime direction from Knud Adams.”
Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“In such a climate, there’s something extra-bracing about seeing Toossi’s play—sensitive, funny, and intimate, powered by its own craft and its excellent ensemble rather than by a shiny name on the marquee—flex its muscles uptown.”
Sara Holdren, Vulture – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“Knud Adams translates his impeccable production to a Broadway venue without losing any of the original intimacy or fine-grained naturalism… Between this intensely focused and sensitive staging and his no-less powerful handling of Primary Trust, Adams must be on top of every young playwright’s vision board. Whatever dialect he’s speaking, it’s welcome on the ear.”
David Cote, Observer – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“Crucial to the play’s appeal is the way the relationships between the characters, amiable but distant at first, evolve under the astutely detailed direction of Knud Adams.”
Charles Isherwood, The Wall Street Journal – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“Toossi and her director Knud Adams issue a plea that couldn’t be more timely… English is a wonder.”
Greg Evans, Deadline – ENGLISH (Broadway)
“Few are the standout gems—those plays that conquer an audience so wholly you feel a delicious two-way crackle in the room as a performance progresses.”
Tim Teeman, Daily Beast – ENGLISH (Broadway)“Knud Adams, who directed the Roundabout Theatre Company’s world premiere of Primary Trust, stages the play with an amiable lightness that exemplifies Cranberry’s motto: “Welcome Friend, You’re Right on Time!” The small cast, much like a small town, manages challenges with a neighborly wink. The simplicity is endearing.”
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times – PRIMARY TRUST (La Jolla)
“Knud Adams masterfully directs the taut, 95-minute production, generously layering in humor to balance the story’s darkest moments.”
Pam Kragen, The San Diego Union-Tribune – PRIMARY TRUST (La Jolla)
“Mesmerizing. The show is receiving its West Coast premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in a production that had the capacity audience at my performance involved, and I mean TOTALLY… Director Knud Adams deserves highest commendation for his skill at shaping the production with a naturalism that melds perfectly with the turbulence boiling within.”
Dan Zeff, Stage and Cinema – PRIMARY TRUST (La Jolla)
[★★★★★] “Credit also has to go to the simple ingenuity of the staging.”
Graeme Strachan, British Theatre Guide – THE BOOK OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS
[★★★★] “A thoughtful examination of grief, love and learning to let go.”
Susan Mansfield, The Scotsman – THE BOOK OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS
[★★★★] “The Book of Mountains and Seas will make you laugh, cry, and feel all the emotions in between.”
Ellen Leslie, The Indiependent – THE BOOK OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS“Ryan Spahn’s new play, brilliantly staged by Knud Adams in a West Village theatre’s green room, dives right into the paralyzing heart of suspense for 95 minutes… Under Adams’ always-sharp direction, this is a not-to-be-missed pressure cooker.”
Juan A. Ramirez, Theatrely – INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS
“The play is artfully staged and masterfully acted… As he did with the ensemble casts of English and Primary Trust, Adams makes these very different actors inhabit the same world, so we never question that we are invisible observers in this Rochester green room.”
Zachary Stewart, TheaterMania – INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS
“A fine production with dozens of little touches that almost pass unseen. His creative team here has worked to continue his process of presenting an excellent play in a perfect way.”
J. Peter Bergman, Berkshire Bright Focus – ENGLISH (Barrington)
[Critic’s Pick] “William Jackson Harper performs with astonishing ease and vulnerability… Knud Adams’s graceful production resembles a miniaturized model of a provincial square… The play on perspective and proportion, with people as tall as buildings, enhances the undertones in Booth’s work that question who, and what, we pay attention to and why.”
Naveen Kumar, The New York Times – PRIMARY TRUST
“Director Knud Adams (English) continues his run as a pitch-perfect distiller of dramatic essence, working with the dreamiest of dream casts. The restraint in Booth’s script, added to Harper’s immense gift for clarity and stillness and a director keeping the ensemble on the edge of comedy and despair—it works… Primary Trust restores your faith in theater’s elemental storytelling powers, how it helps us be alone together.”
David Cote, Observer – PRIMARY TRUST
“New York City’s best new play—truly, it is five-star exceptional, book a ticket right now—is happening off-Broadway… Primary Trust, as beautifully written by Eboni Booth as it is directed by Knud Adams, is a 95-minute, intermissionless, buffed-to-gleaming jewel.”
Tim Teeman, Daily Beast – PRIMARY TRUST
“Knud Adams directs inspiring performances that are loaded with extraordinary detail. He has also wisely chosen a most unusual environment in which to tell Booth’s story… Adams’ direction is as mercurial as Harper’s performance, and together, they keep us guessing as to what happens next.”
Robert Hofler, The Wrap – PRIMARY TRUST
[Highbrow/Brilliant] “William Jackson Harper’s winning performance in the sensitively written Primary Trust.”
Dominique Pariso and Chris Stanton, New York Magazine – PRIMARY TRUST
“Eboni Booth’s comedy-drama is so disarmingly gentle in spirit, and populated by sympathetic characters, that it feels like a throwback—the size of a Hail Mary pass (successful)—to another theatrical era… Directed with a gossamer touch by Knud Adams.”
Charles Isherwood, The Wall Street Journal – PRIMARY TRUST
“Extraordinary performances and this fogbound atmosphere are the show’s chief pleasures: every detail has been tended to, from the reduced-scale Main Street set to the way that Sanders, popping up as a French waiter, blows out a match. Puff! He makes a miniature production around a dying light.”
Helen Shaw, The New Yorker – PRIMARY TRUST
“Adams, who last season staged Mosaic Theater Company’s engrossing tech-world dramedy “Private” — and a compelling version of “English” for off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company — shows a deep affinity for Toossi’s work in this second go with the play. Their collaboration is itself a textbook case of playwright and director communicating in a dynamic common language, one that, for lovers of potent theater, needs no translation.”
Peter Marks, The Washington Post – ENGLISH (D.C.)
“Gracie Gardner’s bleak, funny drama, at the Atlantic Theatre Company, is all about clearly defined edges… It’s a relief that Knud Adams’s customarily gorgeous production makes it so rewarding to lean into the microscope and observe.”
Helen Shaw, The New Yorker – I’M REVOLTING
[★★★★, RECOMMENDED] “Director Knud Adams's humanistic touch ensures that there's rarely a false note.”
Raven Snook, Time Out New York – I’M REVOLTING“Gardner, Adams, and all the performers capture the ebb and flow of gallows humor, trauma, mundanity, and pivotal decision-making of the day with precision. In its focus on a group of people who are on varying edges and turning points, it reminded this critic—in structure and composition—of the Atlantic’s last much-deserved success, English. They are not the same play thematically, but both are beautifully written and directed character studies—both singular and collective.”
Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast – I’M REVOLTING
“The director, Knud Adams, orchestrates his actors with masterly precision, switching from laughter to loss with the lightest of touches. He also gets extremely apt work from his design team.”
David Barbour, Lighting and Sound America – I’M REVOLTING
[Critic’s Pick] “Hanks has a dry, tart tone that is well served by the director Knud Adams. He wrings finely tuned performances from the excellent cast and never oversells the comedy, letting a raised eyebrow, a side glance or a throwaway line do a lot of work.”
Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times – BODIES THEY RITUAL
“One of the most electrifying new works I have seen on any stage… The pacing and timing in this show are astonishing. It is a precise and complex score — from staccato crosstalk to a raging aria of a monologue to voids of silence so full of unspoken feeling it almost aches — and kudos for conducting it go to director Knud Adams.”
John Stoltenberg, DC Theater Arts – PRIVATE
“This sizzling one-act is a compact exploration of the increasingly nasty Big Tech habit of reaching into corners of lives in which it has no business nosing. Staged with muscular authority by Knud Adams.”
Peter Marks, The Washington Post – PRIVATE[★★★★, Editor’s Pick] “Director Knud Adams’ brilliant world-premiere production conveys the play’s points that the future is now.”
André Hereford, Metro Weekly – PRIVATE[Critic’s Pick] “Director Knud Adams gently underlines the calm, almost classical rhythms of Toossi’s writing. Chopinesque piano solos play between scenes. As the play contemplates the question of language from several angles, the cube-like set, by Marsha Ginsberg, slowly rotates, offering in turn a street view of the building, the classroom interior and an entry portico. The cast is uniformly excellent, in a suitably unshowy but fully lived-in way.”
Jesse Green, The New York Times – ENGLISH
“Mounted impeccably by director Knud Adams.”
Peter Marks, The Washington Post – ENGLISH
“Toossi’s play frequently delights in the infelicities of imperfect speech, it’s never cruel.”
Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker – ENGLISH
“An exquisitely written, performed, and directed play… Few are the standout gems — those plays that appear, shimmer, and conquer an audience so wholly you feel a delicious, building two-way crackle in the room as a performance progresses.”
Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast – ENGLISH
[⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] “Knud Adams beautifully directs the world premiere from Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theatre Company with a fluid assurance.”
Naveen Kumar, New York Theatre Guide – ENGLISH
“Knud Adams directs with a firm caress, letting dramatic beats flow organically from an appealing ensemble.”
David Cote, Observer – ENGLISH
[The 10 Best Theater Moments of 2020] “Director Knud Adams is always fastidious, and here his icy perfectionism exactly matched the writer’s cinematic naturalism: It was so rich in detail, audiences could feel the Vermont cold from their seats in New York. The performances were also all stupendous, and I dream that this production might return after the shutdown.”
Helen Shaw, New York Magazine – PARIS
[Critic's Pick] "Beautifully directed by Knud Adams, with (Josh) Hamilton in a rowboat in a gray shirt against a gray sky, it’s really just an expertly delivered list of pandemic deprivations that eventually become indistinguishable from life’s: street fairs, Times Square, youth."
Jesse Greene, The New York Times – ‘ONE ROOM’ Online Monologues"Elegantly directed by Knud Adams, Christopher Chen’s ingeniously constructed new drama—a novel blend of twisty whodunnit, family mystery, immigrant tale, and memory play—finds ample humor early on, in the contrast between Henry’s upbeat affability and his grim hobby, but then turns unexpectedly and profoundly haunting. The design elements all work in satisfying unity."
Rollo Romig, The New Yorker – THE HEADLANDS
“Director Knud Adams frames the production like a horror movie. He has thought carefully about the way our eyes move through David Zinn’s photorealistic set, so that the spaces, even empty, throb with menace. Each element has this cinematic precision.”
Helen Shaw, New York Magazine – PARIS
“Booth’s beautifully executed drama is an exercise in careful characterization, exquisite pacing.”
Helen Shaw, New York Magazine’s 14 great things to do in NYC – PARIS
[★★★★, Recommended] “There’s an easy rhythm to director Knud Adams’s subtly brilliant production that cloaks Paris in a guise of lightness. But the truth lies in wait like a box cutter in the dark.”
Naveen Kumar, Time Out New York – PARIS
A “lean and impressive debut play… Each character is both sharply written and played.”
Tim Teeman, Daily Beast – PARIS
[BEST BET] "Nylon is a rare treat. This is intimate black (or in this case white) box theatre at its best. It’s a joy to watch this excellent five-person ensemble up close and personal… Director Knud Adams wisely makes the experience an uber-intimate one by cutting the TheaterLab space in half, thereby creating an extremely shallow playing space. The piece feels less like a play and more like an examination of five characters under a microscope.”
Ken Kaissar, Theater is Easy – NYLON
[★★★★] "Like flies on the wall to both aggressive and tender moments, what director Knud Adams achieves is mirroring in the audience a similar feeling of suffocation and inescapable angst that our protagonist Anna is grappling with on stage.”
Nicole Cardoni, Plays to See – NYLON
"Marie and Bruce is a grueling experience for artists and audiences alike. But if you were going to revive it, Adams, Hammel, and Landenberger are the artistic team you’d want."
Miriam Felton-Dansky, Village Voice – MARIE AND BRUCE
"Mr. Adams has demonstrated his touch with off-kilter comedy in such plays as 'Tin Cat Shoes' and 'The Workshop.'"
Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times – MARIE AND BRUCE
"Entertainment that feels custom-made for a “school’s out” state of mind... With a lesser cast and design team the ingredients of Tin Cat Shoes might not seem quite as fresh or tasty. But it’s hard to resist the eccentric top spin that these performers so happily put on their lines."
Ben Brantley, New York Times – TIN CAT SHOES
[★★★★, Recommended] "The cast, direction, and design are top-notch... Tin Cat Shoes is a delight in three acts."
Helen Shaw, Time Out New York – TIN CAT SHOES
"The kind of candid introspection many of us should be undertaking — though probably funnier and sweeter than most of ours would be... Behind Bent is a gorgeous set, designed by Adams."
Miriam Felton-Dansky, Village Voice – ALOHA, ALOHA, OR WHEN I WAS QUEEN
"The play is a monologue, which Mr. Adams has smartly double cast with actors who speak different passages of the text — an approach that heightens the production’s already pitched surreality but also the implication that this reckless, narcissistic disaster of a human being is in some ways us... Is it brutal, discomfiting and truly gross? Absolutely. But in a production this spot on, that’s not a bad thing at all."
Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times – ASSHOLE
[Critic's Pick] "An incisive and insightful tale of ambition and envy, inspiration and mediocrity... Knud Adams craftily uses the tight confines to create and sustain tension, and the actors portraying the students are all excellent."
Elizabeth Vincentelli, New York Times – THE WORKSHOP
[★★★★, Recommended] "Well-performed [and] bracingly cynical... Knud Adams’s intimate production tucks us close enough that we can smell the spilled coffee."
Helen Shaw, Time Out New York – THE WORKSHOP
"One hell of an evening of theater. Directed with a deft and unaffected hand by Knud Adams and featuring a shattering central performance by Austin Pendleton."
Sara Holdren, Vulture – THE WORKSHOP
[VOICE CHOICE] "The intimate, tight-focus staging by director Knud Adams in the lobby of the HB Playwrights Theater is perfectly scaled: 41 audience members on bleachers mere feet away from squirming students and bloviating prof... The young ensemble is appealing and precise in their character typing, and Pendleton does Pendleton — the elvish, shambolic shaman — surpassingly well."
David Cote, Village Voice – THE WORKSHOP