See it if you want a "beach read" play: light, breezy, short (altho the 80 mins can feel long). JTF is good (but not great) at creating 40 characters
Don't see it if you want a big show. This should be off-Brdway. There's little plot, but some laughs. Here, if your cellphone rings, no one will notice!
See it if You like great acting and witty humor that particularly skewers hipsters and pretentiousness.
Don't see it if You're more concerned with WHERE you eat than WHAT you eat.
See it if you are a rabid fan of Jesse Tyler Ferguson; you got a cheap ticket; you've seen all of the other new shows this season.
Don't see it if you have to pay full price. (This 80-min confection could've played fine on TV or in an evening of 1-acts. Doesn't need a Broadway staging.)
See it if you're a fan of Jesse Tyler Ferguson or seeing an actor transform effectively into dozens of characters.
Don't see it if you don't like to feel exhausted by an evening at the theater.
See it if want to see a BRILLIANT performance, laugh for 90 minutes, and have a great time.
Don't see it if you prefer lugubrious dramas and are allergic to talent or humor.
See it if you are a huge fan of Jesse Tyler Ferguson, still enjoy plays where the dialogue, action, and scenes are repetitive
Don't see it if you are expecting good writing and to laugh hysterically, you don't like one-man shows, you don't want to waste your time and money
See it if you enjoy one man shows and particularly like Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Don't see it if you want a show you can follow and do not particularly enjoy one man shows or if you want a truly hiarious comedy.
See it if you're a JTF fan. He plays 40+ roles excellently!
Don't see it if you don't appreciate one man shows.
"Mr. Ferguson brings such warmth and variety to his performance that you may not notice that in the more than 15 years since the play opened Off Broadway, it has acquired a slightly sour aftertaste. Back in 1999, the words 'income inequality' were not on the lips of every economist, pundit and politician...Lively as Mr. Ferguson is, and as frequently hilarious as ‘Fully Committed’ can be, it feels shrunken in a Broadway theater."
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“Before he became a household name, Jesse Tyler Ferguson was one of New York’s most inventive comic character actors. You can sense his delight at stretching those muscles in the revival of ‘Fully Committed’...Ferguson's performance is necessarily broad, and not always precise: a half-British accent creeps into several voices. But it hardly matters. The actor’s likability glazes his hamminess with sugar, and the play, while not very filling, can be enjoyed with few reservations.”
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"Ferguson is not a television star for nothing. He gradually builds the performance from a base of detailed realism...Still, it’s an inversion of the 'Fully Committed' of 1999...Asking a play that is basically a clever stunt to support the weight of this more complex interpretation is asking for trouble, which here takes the form of a strange pall. As a result, 'Fully Committed' never quite reaches the pitch of mania you may be hoping for, as if it were on beta-blockers."
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“Somehow doesn't add up to much more than a string of sometimes-funny jokes...The play doesn't lend itself to bloated Broadway treatment, no matter who is starring...It's impossible to escape the nagging feeling that this flippant satirical comedy is being swallowed up by its outsize production...Within those limitations, Ferguson excels, bouncing among 40-plus distinct characters without ever tripping up.”
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“Ferguson juggles all of these personalities rather deftly, making only a few fumbles. It takes about three calls for the ego-tastic chef to really take shape, and reservations manager Bob never really becomes instantly identifiable...Yet one can’t help but wish that for his Broadway return Ferguson had chosen something more substantial. 'Fully Committed' is full of laughs, but leaves you wanting more.”
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“Without bringing anything special to the role...Ferguson’s performance should remind the industry why this clever trifle is among the ten most-produced plays in the country...The funny voices and comic poses Ferguson adopts to play all these characters are no more amusing than they need to be. But he shines as one character: Sam. Not only does he bring a sense of true if battered humanity to the role, he also gives Sam all the satisfaction he deserves."
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“The immensely likable Mr. Ferguson doesn’t quite have the vocal flexibility necessary to impersonate so widely varied a gallery of characters, and so the tour-de-force aspect isn’t fully realized. Even so, his acting crackles with physical energy and comic life, and it won’t take long for you to shelve your doubts and buy into his performance. The play itself is a piece of very well-made fluff...The laughter is pretty close to nonstop. If it’s light entertainment you crave, you’re in luck.”
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"It’s alarming to see Mr. Ferguson do so little with such a juicy role...He plays them all with a whirlwind of clumsy, poorly timed confusion, rattling off the various voices that come and go with accents that often change in the middle of a sentence, making the whole thing absurdly hard to follow...Trapped in a straight jacket by Jason Moore’s shrill direction, all that was once fresh and funny has been ground and grated into a colorless mush."
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A modern-day reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet centered around a queer, Black man.
A long-running revival of Kander and Ebb's satirical musical about lust, treachery, and murder.
New York premiere of a play shortlisted for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.