The Hollywood Reporter was hardly impressed, writing, "The characters ultimately prove as grating and irritating as the loudly vocal cries of the unseen child in the first act. What a writer like Samuel Beckett would have successfully conveyed in tiny brush strokes is elongated to wearying proportions, even with a running time that barely exceeds 90 minutes."

Broadway.com also found the characters unpalatable: "Hunt's surly, impatient Sonia and Spiner's smarmy Hubert are, for the most part, merely unlikable. Only Emond, as the put-upon Inez, locates a deeper humanity in her portrayal. If Life (x) 3 fails to live up to its ambitions, it is because Reza does not establish these people's reality convincingly enough to toy with it."

The Associated Press was equally bored but found praise for the TREK actor: "The whole thing has the feel of an academic exercise, an acting lesson by each of its four performers... Spiner comes off best as the pompous, unfeeling Hubert, cheating on his wife while at the same time tormenting the hapless Henry who needs his approval to survive in the academic community."

Variety also found the play's tripartite structure more aggravating than enlightening: "Spiner is fine in the thin role of the arrogant Hubert, but it is Emond who comes closest to giving the evening the emotional dimensions necessary to engage us. The run in Inez's stocking turns out to be an evil portent: Inez spends the evening(s) slowly unraveling, and Emond manages to make her dissolution continually poignant."

The New York Times stops short of praising Spiner's performance, saying he just doesn't create a spark with Hunt: "While she looks smashing in both a plain bathrobe and a soignée hostess ensemble, she exudes little of the vixenish sensuality her character is said to possess. And it's hard to take her flirtation with the resolutely hearty Mr. Spiner at all seriously."

This production was translated from the original French by Christopher Hampton and directed by Matthew Warchus. The play is slated to run through June 29th.