The Myopia/Plays

GRADE: B+


The Myopia by David Greenspan, Plays by Gertrude Stein. Directed by Brian Mertes. Atlantic Stage 2. Through February 7.

Most critics are left in wonder of David Greenspan and his ability to transport audiences with the power of speech. He plays dozens of characters in The Myopia, which on weekends he performs in a double feature with Gertrude Stein's Plays. Frank Scheck, writing for the New York Post finds the exercise pretentious, but even he is taken by Greenspan's transformation into the various characters.

Time Out New York A+
(David Cote) In a culture as supersaturated with digital eye candy as ours, David Greenspan’s solo coup The Myopia is nothing short of revolutionary. Greenspan devotees know already that he is a one-man cabinet of wonders, voice fluting up from tenor to falsetto, delicate hands slicing and molding the air as if it were an endless supply of clay, while he navigates 20 characters and half a dozen genres with quicksilver aplomb. And he does it without special lighting or sound effects or even leaving his chair. Sounds low on visual thrills? Then you don’t know how to see.

The New York Times A+
(Charles Isherwood) Strictly speaking “The Myopia” is a one-man show, the brown paper bag of contemporary New York theater. Yet you emerge from this brilliant and bewildering production, directed by Brian Mertes, feeling dazzled and disoriented, as if you’d just seen a splashy Disney musical crossed with a Greek tragedy and a kitchen-sink drama, or maybe an evening of Samuel Beckett plays as staged by Florenz Ziegfeld. With this unique and strangely bewitching work Mr. Greenspan, a quirky downtown actor and an avant-garde playwright, proves himself once again to be a theatrical conjurer of rare gifts. Using just the words he has written and the music of his voice, he fills the imagination of the audience with images of pathos and comedy, of fantasy and absurdity, that do not exactly cohere to create a sensible narrative — au contraire! — but leave a fizzy sense of excitement, the giddy elation that follows a great fireworks display.

Backstage A
(Jason Fitzgerald) Rather than summarize the Tilt-a-Whirl of interrelated stories Greenspan's play tells, it's better to sample some of his more memorable moments. A testy Rapunzel figure sings a haunting rendition of the title song from "Funny Girl" in the shower. Henry Cabot Lodge orchestrates a smoky gathering of senators into giving the dull-witted Warren G. Harding the 1920 Republican nomination. (I didn't know how many varieties of fussy aristocratic male there could be until Greenspan played 13 of them.) A glowing, anthropomorphic orb ruminates over the scattered papers of its dead father. Koreen, a jealous giant, tears down her husband's castle and runs to the ocean, where she converses with her Poseidonlike father. In this new twist on meta-theater—a play-within-a-bunch-of-plays-within-a-playwright—Greenspan contains multitudes.

The Village Voice A
(Alexis Soloski) "Plays," as penned by Stein, is not edge-of-your-seat entertainment. Crafted in Stein's famously recursive prose, it is a drowsy meditation on stage action vs. audience emotion and poetry vs. prose, rendered as a series of cumbersome koans. "It is always the most interesting thing about anything to know whether you hear or you see," declares Stein. And, "All this is very important, and important for me and important, just important." It's certainly important for Greenspan, who in his own writing continues Stein's fascination with language and sometimes adopts her deliberate plotlessness. (Of course, Greenspan also delights in complicated storytelling and lavish characterization, techniques Stein does not embrace.) Here, he devotes himself to enlivening Stein's somnolent sentences.

Variety A
(Sam Thielman) Greenspan has said in interviews that he hates expensive pyrotechnic stage magic. In "Myopia," he explains why, when, after observing teasingly that some extremely successful shows are "inherently untheatrical," he simply tells us about a location and we are there with him -- no FX necessary. This seems simpler than it is. In order to create a place on the stage, after all, the only thing you need to do is describe it adequately. But Greenspan's great gift is the ability to read any line with total conviction. When he employs that gift here, he's able to tell us about crazy, ridiculous things -- a woman whose hand is bigger than her husband! A husband who's writing a musical about Warren G. Harding! Warren G. Harding, frustrated with a donkey named Dearie! -- and we accept them without question.

Gothamist B
(John Del Signore) Much of your enjoyment of this peculiar monologue depends on your appreciation for David Greenspan, but I don't know how one could not be charmed by this inimitable raconteur. If his goal of transporting audiences merely with the incantatory power of words sometimes fails to take flight, it's worth sticking around for the moments that soar.

On Off Broadway B-
(Matt Windman) Greenspan's ability to spin so many story strands at once with relative ease is a marvel to behold, yet it all eventually feels monotonous and physically underwhelming. It would serve Greenspan well to trim the show's 100-minute length and remove the intermission.

New York Post D+
(Frank Scheck) The Myopia" is sup posed to be a clear- eyed look at theater, but only the truly pretentious will see it that way. So dense is David Greenspan's theatrical collage -- which touches on the political machinations of Warren G. Harding, the philosophy of Aristotle and more -- that you feel compelled to present your academic credentials on the way in. Dubbed "An Epic Burlesque of Tragic Proportions," the evening isn't without its entertaining moments, thanks to its charismatic writer/performer.

TONY A+ 14; The New York Times A+ 14; Backstage A 13; Village Voice A 13; Variety A 13; GIST B 10; On Off Broadway B- 9; New York Post D+ 5; TOTAL: 91/8 = 11.38 (B+)

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Coraline

GRADE: B-

By David Greenspan and Stephin Merritt, based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman. Directed by Leigh Silverman. MCC at the Lucille Lortel. (CLOSED)

While this adventurous Off-Broadway musicalization of Neil Gaiman's dark fairy tale has some full-throated partisans who find it an imagination-stirring romp, most reviews are decidedly mixed on the production's seam-showing, low-tech approach. Many praise Jayne Houdyshell's unlikely turn as the show's 9-year-old heroine and librettist David Greenspan's campy take on the villainous Other Mother, but Stephin Merritt's tinkly piano score gets mostly low marks for melody and variety, and both Greenspan's book and Leigh Silverman's direction get dinged for inconsistency and cutesy knowingness. Even many who are up for the ride and see much to admire in it complain of encroaching monotony.

Village Voice A+
(Michael Feingold) The big, glossy, efficiently tidy musicals often seen uptown, with nary a hair out of place, aren't an eighth as fresh or as much fun as Coraline...An obstinate, adorable, wayward brat of a musical, Coraline is scruffiness personified. And it's the quintessence of fresh—a musical with a score, by a noted rock musician, that's squarely in the musical-theater tradition and manages to pull off the magical double feat of never sounding either like just another piece of musical theater or like another recycled rock album trying to find its place on the stage. Coraline, gratifyingly, never sounds like anything but itself, from the ear-tickling overture, plinked at you by a phalanx of toy pianos as they creep out of the shadows, to the goofball finale, its moral warbled and tootled by the cast as they impersonate a marching band of trained circus mice. Scruffy never had it so good...Leigh Silverman's production not only enhances the work but fulfills it thematically.

Variety A
(David Rooney) Hand-tooled, proudly low-tech and endearingly mad...Whether or not the musical theater crowd warms to this wildly unconventional piece, it succeeds fully in harnessing the essence of three distinctive talents. It has Gaiman's magical blend of old-fashioned storytelling, modern fantasy, tight plotting and sly humor. It furthers the fascination with theatrical illusion that runs through Greenspan's work. And the voice of Merritt's music as frontman for bands including the Magnetic Fields and the 6ths comes through loud and clear in the droll lyrics and atonal melodies...Leigh Silverman's production is a bizarre but devilishly funny pantomime, its presentational style recalling John Doyle's stagings of "Sweeney Todd" and "Road Show." Design elements of the latter are echoed in Christine Jones' marvelous bric-a-brac-choked set, with the mountain of suitcases here replaced by a jumble of pianos and doors, doused in Ben Stanton's eerie lights...Even when it borders on the precious, the show is mesmerizing and original.

Backstage A
(Adam R. Perlman) A polished work of theater that feels marvelously like a bit of child's play. The production, presented by MCC Theater, hasn't been lavished with expensive special effects but with that special brand of make-believe that can turn a dreary afternoon magical...Age, gender, and race are like the bricked-up door in Coraline's flat—no obstacle for an imaginative young girl. Like her, you embrace the players and their game. The story they enact—a ghoulish tale of faded thespians, childless parents, and parentless children—seems ripe for musical treatment...Merritt's songs are like the spontaneous ditties you might have made up in your childhood backyard: singsongy, lilting, and sometimes taking unexpected turns...The stakes can feel a bit lightweight if you step back, but there are usually more than enough theatrical pleasures to keep you firmly invested in the present...Adults will find much to love in this child's entertainment, and, unlike in most overblown efforts, they'll be responding to the same things their kids do. There are no winking double-entendres, no references lobbed over the kids' heads. The joy of this family entertainment is seeing a superb group of theater artists exercising their imagination—and getting you to do the same.

The New York Times B
(Ben Brantley) Droll, dry and very cerebral...Less like a full-bodied show than the idea of one. It’s an intricately articulated skeleton to which flesh only occasionally adheres...A grown-up exercise in story theater that asks its audience to take a childlike leap of faith into fantasy. But the invitation is couched with such self-conscious craftsmanship that you wind up frozen in admiration of its elegance and inventiveness instead of taking that necessary step into make-believe. Though steeped in off-kilter charm, Coraline is too cool to be truly seductive...For me the most completely drawn character is a cat. Portrayed by Mr. Fleisher, who isn’t remotely feline-looking, this yawning, stretching Cat...has all the compelling self-containment and capriciousness of his species.

Theatermania B
(Dan Balcazo) Stephin Merritt's charming score to the new musical Coraline, presented by MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel, is played largely on toy piano. That's just one of many bold choices in this adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novel, featuring a book by David Greenspan and stylish direction by Leigh Silverman. While not every choice works, enough of them do to make the show a memorable and worthwhile experience...Christine Jones' set calls to mind a cluttered backstage, and indeed the production emphasizes its reliance on stage conventions...Greenspan's book is quite faithful to Gaiman's plot, but occasionally gets too bogged down in expository narration...It's easier to suspend your disbelief about some details more than others. The gender-bending done by Jue and Greenspan are easy enough to buy into -- particularly as both actors have such an overwhelming stage presence, and play their parts with panache...However, it's much more difficult to accept the central conceit that veteran actress Houdyshell is a small little girl. She pushes too hard, particularly towards the beginning of the piece, indicating her girlishness in too forced a fashion.

The Daily News B-
(Joe Dziemianowicz) Offbeat and partially intriguing...Greenspan's story faithfully follows Neil Gaiman's best-selling novel and has written himself the juiciest role as the sinister Other Mother who terrorizes Coraline. Her/his defeat is a hoot, if not a yodel. Merritt, of the Magnetic Fields, is known for his quirky style and has come up with clever lyrics and an interesting plinkety-plinking piano score (including a toy spinet) that fits the kooky, spooky story...For all its virtues, the MCC presentation has issues. It's naggingly repetitive and, at 90 minutes, long outstays its welcome. This Coraline is wise, brave and tricky, yes. By the end, though, it's become trying.

The Wall Street Journal B-
(Terry Teachout) Previews generated so much buzz that the show’s limited run has already been extended for two weeks. Whether the musical version has any future beyond its current run is another matter. I think it does—but only if future productions slice away the obscuring coyness that keeps this exceptionally promising show from living up to its full potential...Stephin Merritt...has written a self-assured score that is easily the best thing about the show...David Greenspan’s book is for the most part equally effective, a few overcompressed transitional passages notwithstanding...So far, so good—so what’s wrong? The biggest problem with “Coraline” is that the title role is being played not by a girl but by a 56-year-old woman, Jayne Houdyshell, a talented actress whose performance here is inexplicably, exasperatingly twee...I had so much difficulty with the way “Coraline” was performed that I’m not absolutely sure how good the show really is. Even so, I think it more than likely that it will be taken up by regional theaters looking for a small-scale children’s musical that appeals no less strongly to adults, and I offer two pieces of advice to the directors of these companies: (1) Cast a child as Coraline; (2) cut back sharply on the archness.

Bergen Record B-
(Robert Feldberg) Fascinating in its attempt to find a theatrical equivalent to the imaginative experience of reading the story...The songs, written by Stephin Merritt, are small and strange and often quite clever. They complement a book by David Greenspan that sticks closely to Gaiman’s account of the adventures of Coraline, a young English girl who passes through a corridor in her apartment to an evil parallel universe, and must struggle to return to her real parents. The story, full of psychological excursions into the meanings of home, family, independence and need, will reverberate with children of all ages. Most magically, there’s the remarkable portrayal of Coraline by Jayne Houdyshell, a plump actress in her 50s. From the moment she first appears, we unquestioningly accept Houdyshell as a young English girl..Coraline, however, doesn’t sustain its early promise. Alongside some murky storytelling, whimsy creeps in and becomes the tiresome monster that takes over the show. There’s also the feeling that a self-conscious devotion to process becomes more important than communicating with the audience.

The Hollywood Reporter B-
(Frank Scheck) Although this version of Coraline is unlikely to have the widespread appeal of the recent hit 3-D animated film, those with a taste for the decidedly offbeat could well turn it into a theatrical cult hit...Book writer David Greenspan's adaptation is choppy and disjointed, failing to compellingly capture the source material's narrative tension and making the evening feel much longer than the 100-minute running time. Merritt's score is equally problematic. Although the musical numbers demonstrate the prolific composer's ability to craft endless catchy melodies, many of the brief songs fail to cohere. And the fact that they're played mainly on such instruments as toy piano and "prepared" piano tend to give them a monotonous sameness...Director Leigh Silverman has staged the proceedings in an imaginatively low-tech fashion, with Christine Jones' abstract set design consisting of numerous pianos of different shapes and sizes, several doors and various pieces of antique bric-a-brac. The performers do well by their multiple roles, and Houdyshell is utterly winning as the vulnerable Coraline. For all the musical's inventiveness, however, audience members might ultimately relate all too well to the title character's growing unease with her bizarre surroundings.

Talkin' Broadway B-
(Matthew Murray) Lights up the Lucille Lortel Theatre with invention but, like its heroine, proves that not all adventures have entirely happy endings...Rather than writing a spiritless point-for-point adaptation like those so frequently seen on Broadway these days, or radically rethinking the style or locale for easier assimilation on these shores...Greenspan and director Leigh Silverman have mined the novel for the quirky and unpredictable spirit that so artfully captures imagination, elation, and terror as only children can experience them...Each of the seven performers in the production's nonstop cavalcade of an acting troupe are terrific...The only thing Coraline lacks - and it's unfortunately a biggie - is musical necessity...It's not just that the songs give you nothing to take away, it's that they take in nothing to give you...Coraline obviously isn't trying to be a conventional musical - and how could it ever be one? - but it still has the obligation to be listenable rather than merely bearable.

New York C+
(Stephanie Zacharek) The set, by Christine Jones, is a pleasing jumble of steampunky Victoriana, stocked with a selection of tired old pianos of all sizes and colors, which make a smart visual counterpart to Merritt’s eerie, plinky prepared-piano melodies...But the show’s modest, clever touches work only part of the time. Elsewhere, they have the DIY quality of a crude Christmas pantomime, winsome only to a point. As Coraline, Jayne Houdyshell (a 2006 Tony Award nominee for her role in Well) relies too much on that shoulder-shrugging, toe-stubbing “I don’t wanna grow up” affectation adopted by adults when they’re trying to act like little kids. Greenspan himself appears as Coraline’s “other” mother, flouncing about like a nightmare June Cleaver whose hair is inexplicbly done up in dreadlocks bedecked with tinsel. Campy touches like that only dilute the material’s delectably creepy undertones, an instance of fanciful vision giving way to button-eyed shortsightedness.

Time Out NY C+
(Adam Feldman) Given the dim-wittedness of so many modern musicals, it may seem churlish to find fault with this one for overthinking itself. But watching Coraline is a frustrating experience, precisely because a good deal of it is quite wonderful. Faithfully adapted by David Greenspan from Neil Gaiman’s delightful book, the show has a witty, elegantly evocative score by Stephin Merritt...Christine Jones’s set has an appealing antique junkiness, and much of the stage imagery is memorable. But Silverman can’t leave quirky enough alone. Treated more or less straight—as the National Theatre of Scotland did in its superb adaptation of Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Walls—this might have been an oddball triumph. Here, however, it’s hobbled by a deliberately poor choice of actors, almost across the board, to suit a fussy-cute conception of the material.

Just Shows To Go You C+
(Patrick Lee) You think of words like “uncompromising” and “integrity” as you watch Stephen Merritt’s musical of the enormously popular children’s tale. The score’s strange, angular melodies as primarily played on a single tinkling keyboard, the casting of mature Jane Houdyshell as the adventure-seeking nine year old heroine, the avoidance of anything that smacks of gratuitous crowd-pleasing: a unique artistic vision has been rigorously followed and realized. But it’s hard to feel anything besides detached appreciation for the show’s uniqueness: despite a uniformly wonderful cast and many isolated performance moments that tempt the imagination, the production is curiously remote and short on the inventive theatricality that would showcase the very special material to advantage.

CurtainUp C+
(Simon Saltzman) As the titular character, the courageous Houdyshell is not only totally believable in a role significantly far from her own age but also delightful...She is the heart and soul of a musical that unfortunately is constructed around too many incredulously conceived and performed characters...If [Silverman] has purposely blurred the boundary that separates a dream from reality, she has succeeded. Where her direction falters is in not keeping a tighter rein on the essential group of supporting actors who unfortunately drift in their portrayals between the amateurish and the acquiescent...There is evidence that Greenspan has labored rigorously to grace the short novel (first published in 2002) with a conspicuously audacious sense of theatricality. Much of it, however, falls as flat as the singing, with Houdyshell the notable exception...Set Designer Christine Jones and lighting designer Ben Stanton have done a super job creating a basic environment of musty fixtures and relics that transposes itself from the mundane to the mysterious and foreboding with a minimum of ado and fuss...In considering Merritt's score, in which the soured notes follow one another gainfully and mercifully without bumping into each other, there is occasionally something to admire in the lyrics.

AM New York C+
(Matt Windman) Rather than turn “Coraline” into a conventional children’s musical, rock singer-songwriter Stephen Merritt and downtown playwright-performer David Greenspan have opted for a decidedly off-kilter, otherworldly and openly theatrical production that resembles John Doyle’s creepy actor-musician revival of “Sweeney Todd” more than perhaps “Shrek"...While the score itself is not enjoyable and tends to slow down the story rather than build upon it, it at least manages to be unique...Houdyshell, who is a wonderful actress, captures Coraline’s plucky youthful spirit, but it makes no sense for the actress playing Coraline to be as big as everyone else. Meanwhile, Greenspan is awkward and unthreatening as Coraline’s nemesis. The rest of the small ensemble – which plays multiple roles including mice and ghosts – keeps the production grounded in a spirit of theatrical ingenuity. Regardless of whether they agree with its artistic choices, fans of the story will probably get a kick out of this unconventional musical treatment.

Entertainment Weekly C
(Jeremy Medina) Something got lost in translation: The characters and plot might be the same, but the tone is inconsistent and off. Thanks to the sharp but distinctly exaggerated performances — particularly Greenspan as the Other Mother, whose bizarre affectations are grandiosely over-the-top — this version has much more humor. The humor lends the production its own identity, but it does not capture the spirit of Gaiman's work...The serviceable music by Stephin Merritt, best known as the frontman for avant-garde indie rock group The Magnetic Fields, is well integrated into the story, but ultimately lacks punch. The lone element that's truly memorable is the haunting toy piano score used throughout. As the play advances toward its anti-climactic finale, the songs are tossed aside in favor of far too much exposition. Much is told, and too little is shown. For a story that celebrates imagination, that's a serious shortcoming.

New York Post D+
(Elisabeth Vincentelli) The single greatest idea in Coraline was to cast middle-age Jayne Houdyshell in the title role, a 9-year-old girl...Her characterization of a bold, resourceful little heroine is spot-on...Aside from that coup, however, Coraline is surprisingly unimaginative. With David Greenspan penning the book and the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt in charge of the score, this musical had an intriguing creative team. That the show turns out so flat and timid is a crushing letdown...Gaiman's droll, matter-of-fact creepiness is completely lost in this diffident translation. Despite occasionally clever rhyming schemes, Merritt's songs aren't all that interesting melodically, a problem compounded by their being played exclusively (by Phyllis Chen) on various pianos. This burdens the tunes with a monochromatic sonic palette they just aren't strong enough to overcome. Director Leigh Silverman only makes things worse. It boggles the mind that such a project would be entrusted to someone with zero visual sense. Her staging of the various worlds is completely confusing, and she can't even render the novel's best, most macabre invention (the Other denizens have buttons for eyes). Silverman also shows little control over the supporting cast, which flails in a variety of roles.

VV A+ 14; Variety A 13; Backstage A 13; The New York Times B 10; Theatermania B 10; The Daily News B- 9; WSJ B- 9; Bergen Record B- 9; The Hollywood Reporter B- 9; Talkin' Broadway B- 9; New York C+ 8; TONY C+ 8; JSTGY C+ 8; CurtainUp C+ 8; AM New York C+ 8; Entertainment Weekly C 7; New York Post D+ 5; TOTAL: 157 / 17 = 9.24 (B-)

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Cornbury: The Queen's Governor

GRADE: B

By William M. Hoffman and Anthony Holland. Directed by Tim Cusack. Theatre Askew at the Hudson Guild Theatre. (CLOSED)

Inspired by a possibly apocryphal piece of New York history involving a cross-dressing English colonial governor, Cornbury divides critics with its blend of Ridiculous Theatre-style camp, farce, and queer politics. All the critics praise David Greenspan's turn in the lead role, and most similarly enjoyed Everett Quinton's performance as the heavy; but while many enjoyed those elements so much they're willing to overlook the play's dramaturgical flaws, others are not so forgiving, finding the show a shticky grab bag well past its expiration date. A favorite quote, from the eminently quotable Trav S.D.: "As an amateur historian, I am proud to say I didn’t learn a thing."

Offoffonline A
(Adrienne Cea) Greenspan has a playful nature and a charming magnetism. He appears to be having fun with his eccentric character, much to the credit of Holland and Hoffman’s witty dialogue, costume designer, Jeffrey Wallach’s exaggerated gowns and set designer, Mark Beard’s unique scenery all of which give him great material to have fun with...Watching Greenspan glide across the stage draped in outrageous fashion designs also delivers a series of hilarious visuals.

Time Out NY A-
(Adam Feldman) On David Greenspan’s lips, every line of dialogue is a little lemon drop, and his pucker doubles as a kiss. He is a specialist in dryly tangy gay camp, and his skills are put to ample use in Cornbury...William M. Hoffman and Anthony Holland’s script is like a winking companion piece to Derek Jarman’s aggro-queer Edward II; it has a goofy, anything-goes spirit, matched by Tim Cusack’s likably ramshackle production. And although the party goes on too long—the show’s corset could use 30 minutes of tightening—you’ll have a gay old time.

Backstage A-
(Leonard Jacobs) As he minces, flounces, and flits, watching David Greenspan as Edward Hyde--history recalls him as Lord Cornbury, the cross-dressing colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1702 to 1708--is a trés gay fey treat...The idea behind Theatre Askew's whimsical production is that something meaningful and contemporary can be gleaned from this fantasia about a footnote in the annals of sexuality...Musical numbers bog down its campy speed, emphasizing that not all in the cast reach the Ridiculous heights achieved by Greenspan and Quinton. It's not just Greenspan's fiendish way with a saucy quip ("How the French worship the enema"), but the pleasure taken in queer madness, divinely told.

Travalanche A-
(Trav S.D.) I’m glad to report the product was everything I hoped for and more. Greenspan, of course, is only ever and always himself, but this role makes an ideal setting for the jewel that he is. Luxuriating around the space, eyelids halfway drawn, sculpting the atmosphere with his hands as he sings out orders to his obedient and put-upon minions, Greenspan’s Cornbury is every inch a Queen. Quinton, who’s played his fair share of similar characters too, acquits himself no less favorably as the nasty, prudish Dutch clergyman Pastor Van Dam...Furthermore, the cast also includes someone named Eugene the Poogene...The play is terrific in details – the speech is exquisitely accurate and full of double entendre. But as a whole it is somewhat formless, with Cornbury being “dethroned” at the end of the first act, leaving the entire post-intermission as an anti-climax.

CurtainUp B+
(Elyse Sommer) If the late Charles Ludlum's [sic] Ridiculous Theater was before your time, the Theatre Askew's presentation of this fantasy about an actual historical figure is your chance to experience some of what made Ludlum's [sic] theater something of a downtown cult venture...Greenspan is very much the evening's star...As part of the Dutch contingent Everett Quinton is hilarious as the pious but bigoted pastor Van Dam...While things often get too shticky and not all the actors match Greenspan and Quinton's bravura performances, set and costume designers Mark Beard and Jeffrey have managed to bring the flavor of the period to the small stage.

New York Times B
(Charles Isherwood) The camp-as-Christmas style of the show, directed by Tim Cusack for Theater Askew, recalls the heady frolics of Charles Ludlam, the playwright and actor who led the Ridiculous Theatrical Company for two decades before his death in 1987. In the person of Everett Quinton, who plays a righteous Dutch pastor bent on wresting power from the sartorially wayward governor, the production boasts a direct link to that brilliant company. Mr. Quinton was Mr. Ludlam’s longtime partner and frequent co-star, and his fire-breathing oratory and angry expectorations in quasi-Dutch provide some of the funniest moments in the show. And in David Greenspan, the marvelously odd downtown actor who plays the title role, the play has an interpreter more than equal to the task of imbuing a historical footnote with theatrical allure...But the colorful performances cannot distract you from the play’s potholed surface and the often long pauses between good gags. The scenes seem to be arrayed almost at random, and the story meanders in unnecessary directions.

New Theatre Corps B
(Jason Fitzgerald) In this example of what Hoffman calls “revanchist revisionist history, or history as…it should have been,” the Lord Cornbury becomes a queer comic-book hero...This project of deconstruction by theatrical silliness was once exemplified by the late Charles Ludlam’s Theatre of the Ridiculous, to whose aesthetic Cornbury owes an obvious debt...And director Tim Cusack is wise to cast Everett Quinton, Ludlam’s partner and heir, as the Puritan pastor. But the rest of the ensemble struggles with the self-conscious style of the Ridiculous, despite glimpses of success in Ashley Bryant (as Hyde’s African slave) and Julia Campanelli (as his besotted wife)...As a theatrical experience, it reveals the potential of Hoffman and Holland’s play while leaving space for a more definitive production in the future.

Village Voice B-
(Alexis Soloski) David Greenspan, no stranger to feminine adornments on the stage, gives a delightful turn in the titular role. His Cornbury is teasing, charming, infuriating, and a dab hand with an épée. And Everett Quinton and Bianca Leigh have a fine time as the grim Dutch who oppose him. Mark Beard's set, a marvel of trompe l'oeil absurdity, deserves royal praise. Yet the show's not nearly as much fun as these impish performances and scenery should allow. Much of director Tim Cusack's supporting cast perform it too hestitantly [sic}, and the script is unbearably wordy—though it does contain the unusual and succinct insult, "Go fuck a beaver."

Theatermania C+
(Dan Balcazo) Greenspan delivers just the right combination of haughtiness and camp, even if he doesn't look very attractive in the dresses that costume designer Jeffrey Wallach has outfitted him in -- particularly the cheap-looking blue gown that he initially wears. Quinton plays his part broadly, but with an intensity that makes him both funny and mesmerizing...On the downside, several of the supporting players are incredibly weak...Much of the blame has to be laid at the feet of director Tim Cusack, who has not been able to guide his company of actors in a coherent performance style. The production is also hampered by Mark Beard's set design.

American Theatre Web C
(Andy Propst) Neither the script nor Tim Cusack's staging manage to satisfyingly meld two diametrically opposed views of the Cornbury tale. The play and the production are certainly graced by a number of gifted actors who give first-rate performances. As Cornbury, David Greenspan delivers a deliciously mercurial performance that's a mix of drag queen camp and well-observed naturalism. His ability to wed such distinct styles into his performance is what gives the piece genuine heft...Unfortunately, sermonizing creeps in, as Cornbury's persecution and eventual imprisonment is condemned as being both politically, and more dangerously, philosophically, motivated...Just as the play and performances experience a curious sort of disconnect, so too do the visual elements of the production.

Show Showdown C-
(Patrick Lee) This campy farcical comedy (by Anthony Holland and William M. Hoffman) depicts him as a silly lavender-scented fop whose lavish wardrobe bills nearly bankrupt the city. He's meant to be someone we cheer for, as the small minded Dutch citizens all but light torches to storm the Governor's mansion, but the play's sensibilities are decades out of date and lack any naughty kick: we're past cheering cross dressing for its own sake, especially when it's as cutified as it is here and divorced of sexuality...David Greenspan's performance has some appeal.

Variety D+
(Sam Thielman) David Greenspan is a perfect lady as the title character in Theater Askew's new production, but Tim Cusack's direction is hysterical in the worst possible way. William M. Hoffman and the late Anthony Holland may even have written a good play, who knows? It's impossible to understand a word of it here over the production's assaultive crassness. Arguably the most frustrating thing about "Cornbury" is the potential for a very funny deconstruction of 18th-century restoration comedy, glimpsed every now and then in Greenspan's foppish perf and in Julia Campanelli's occasionally cute turn as his governor's klepto wife.

Offoffonline A 13; TONY A- 12; Backstage A- 12; Travalanche A- 12; CurtainUp B+ 11; NY Times B 10; New Theatre Corps B 9; Village Voice B- 9; Theatermania C+ 8; American Theatre Web C 7; Just Shows To Go You C- 6; Variety D+ 5; TOTAL: 115/12=9.58 (B)

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