The production was acclaimed, with sold-out audiences and mostly positive critical reactions, with the "New York Times", "New York Magazine" and "Variety" among its proponents. John Simon, in his review for "New York Magazine" "declared that Lindsay-Abaire was Ionesco's 'true heir' (November 8, 1999)." Ben Brantley, in his review of Lindsay-Abaire's play "Rabbit Hole" for "The New York Times", noted: "With works like "Fuddy Meers" and "Kimberly Akimbo," Mr. Lindsay-Abaire established himself as a lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives." In his review of the 1999 production, Brantley wrote that the play was "dark, sweet and thoroughly engaging comedy... Mr. Lindsay-Abaire blends cliched ingredients into something savory and distinctive, with scarcely a tinge of residual staleness... The production is willfully silly and grotesque, yet there's a cool, satisfying strategy in its piecing together of its jigsaw puzzle of a plot." John Heilpern, drama critic for the "New York Observer" wrote: "Mr. Lindsay-Abaire, a manic farceur with an original mind, surprises us all the way to the nut house and receives my Most Promising Dramatist Award, bummer though it is to be labeled 'promising.'" (Heilpern awarded Lindsay-Abaire the "Heilpern Award for Most Promising Dramatist" in 1999.)