“The Fiasco Company brings joyful music, playful inventiveness and just an air-kiss of irony to Shakespeare’s mock-epic. In just under two hours, they remind us what theater, at its simplest and most powerful, is really for: the alchemical thrill of watching an entire world conjured into being out of sheer wit and will. A small masterpiece.”
— Scott Brown, New York Magazine
“I have never seen a Cymbeline as easy to follow as this one. For once, the play itself really is the thing. This plucky troupe credibly portrays incredible feats of derring-do; brings elaborate battle scenes to life, and organically blends music into the action. The lucid, modest performances let the comedy, poignancy and unlikely magic of Cymbeline surface gently and naturally.”
— Ben Brantley, New York Times
“Sincere with the dialogue and merry of heart, a young ensemble of actors adeptly and joyously handles acting, playing musical instruments and singing harmoniously. A genuinely lighthearted, playful production.”
— Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press
4 STARS!
“This scrappy and likable little ensemble’s bare-bones Cymbeline is fresh, frisky, jammed with playful theatricality and music to match. Besides being talented actors, they’re all terrific musicians who serve up pretty a cappella chorals, guitar-strumming ballads and a foot-stompin’ bluegrass ditty, washboard included.”
— Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News
“Fiasco Theater’s charming production makes crystal-clear the endlessly convoluted plot developments of the Bard’s late-period romance. The youthful performers have a winning playfulness.”
— Frank Scheck, New York Post
“Co-directors Steinfeld and Brody exploit poor-theater to often-hilarious effect in this high-spirited show. The company’s palpable, easy delight is a surging tide to raise all boats.”
— Helen Shaw, Timeout NY
“A frolicsome form of poor theater on a bare stage, Fiasco Theater gleefully undertake poisoning, beheading, cross-dressing and betrayal. The excitement is infectious!”
— Alex Soloski, The Village Voice
“Plucky and perky. It is a bright feather in the cap of Fiasco Theater that so much fun abounds in this crazy-quilt of an opus. The change-character-on-the-spot conceit inserts bountiful laughs.”
— David Finkle, Theatremania