Hot L Baltimore was very popular with both critics and audiences on its debut in February 1973. After a month, Wilson's play moved to an Off-Broadway theatre, the Circle in the Square Theatre, where it opened March 22, 1973.

Amongst critics, a sense of nostalgia prevailed. As Douglas Watt noted in his review, "It's no place to live, but it's worth a visit." Watt discussed the setting, a crucial element of this play: "Time stands still in seedy hotels. The locations may change, and the people's names; but today's castoffs are the same as yesterday's, giving their own kind of continuity to life. They're the ones you meet in Lanford Wilson's quietly affecting three-act play."

According to Watt, "nothing much happens ... [but] we become part of their small world." The audience becomes interested in these characters, although there is no plot or action, just dialogue.

Watt asserted that the...