Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”) made her Broadway debut last night, March 6, in the opening of Eclipsed, a drama about a group of women held captive by a Liberian war lord. The play, by Danai Gurira and directed by Liesl Tommy, premiered at off-Broadway’s Public Theater in October and comes to the Golden Theater with its cast intact. In fact, the production is billed as being the first-ever Broadway show with a female playwright, a female director, and an all-female cast.

Still, with such dark material for a Broadway show, Eclipsed is surely banking on its movie-star lead and good reviews to woo ticket buyers. So were critics once again over the moon over Eclipsed?

Firmly in the rave column is chief New York Times critic Ben Brantley, who writes: “For all its harrowing power, Eclipsed, headlined by the Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, one of the most radiant young actors to be seen on Broadway in recent seasons, shines with a compassion that makes us see beyond the suffering to the indomitable humanity of its characters.” Brantley adds that the play makes room for “moments of welcome levity” alongside its “profoundly important” message that “African lives matter.”

Agreeing is Deadline.com’s Jeremy Gerard, who gushes, “Eclipsed is a major achievement — a scorching work about women and war whose humor burnishes rather than undermines its seriousness of purpose.” He calls the drama “shattering” and concludes, “We can do little more than bear witness — something this miraculous play helps boldly to accomplish.”

Joining the chorus of approbation is AM New York’s Matt Windman, who grants Eclipsed ***1/2 (out of ****) and notes that although the show is “brutal and harrowing” and “not an easy play to take in,” it’s “important” and features “exceptional performances all around.:

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Leah Greenblatt is surprised by the almost “small-scale domestic comedy” tone of the first act, which then turns “much tougher and more sinister” later on. She finds Nyong’o captivating to watch, as are all the women in the cast, even when the script doesn’t quite rise up to meet them.” In fact, Greenblatt ends her B+ graded review noting that the show is so gracefully done, “the play’s flaws feel less consequential than the resonating force of its story.”

In his Associated Press review, Mark Kennedy calls Eclipsed “searing and stunning” and calls the Broadway arrivals of author Danai Gurira and director Liesl Tommy “important.” He’s impressed by the way the usually glamorous Nyong’o “loses herself utterly” in the lead role but also stresses the full acting ensemble which “must not be missed [in] . . .an extraordinary work that shines and shines.”

Somewhat less enchanted is New York Daily News scribe Joe Dziemianowicz, who calls Nyong’o’s work “powerful and poignant” in a drama that is “harrowing, albeit heavy-handed.” He appreciates Tommy’s “taut staging” but complains that the acting can lean towards the “overly showy.” Still, the play is “unsettling and eye-opening.”

Newsday’s Linda Winer has similar reservations about the script (as she did when the show ran off Broadway). To her, Eclipsed feels like “an earnest, heavy-handed labor of love — sincere and worthy but a dramatically simplistic look at the oppression of women as a weapon of war.” The show’s move to Broadway “magnifies both the strengths and weaknesses of the play,” with Nyong’o “compelling” but the story still “weighed down in message and metaphor” and decidedly inferior to Lynn Nottage’s similarly themed Ruined.

More welcoming is NBC New York’s Robert Kahn, who calls Eclipsed “a colorful and fiery drama and one that . . . stands bracingly apart from ordinary Broadway fare.” Among the “top-notch performances,” Kahn “loved Nyong’o, who is vulnerable, comical and charismatic, as a still-malleable girl on the cusp of womanhood. [He] was touched, as well, by Sengboh and Armand, who are torn between the enemy they know, and the uncertainties of a life without his protection.”

“Beautifully layered with warmth and humor” is how Broadway World’s Michael Dale describes Eclipsed,, which also features “excellent direction” and “terrific” design elements. He, like several other critics, also feels the producers’ decision to move such a gritty play to Broadway “should be considered a major achievement.”

OVERALL: Three weeks ago, Humans looked like a near-lock for the best-play Tony Award. If Eclipsed gets the box office grosses to go with the slew of rave reviews, Gurira’s show will quickly move into the fast lane come prizes time. From critics praising the show’s strong and timely themes to its humor to its compelling lead in Nyong’o, Eclipsed has received the sunniest possible reviews.