Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsMember Reviews (282)
See it if Mike does a great job and is funny and entertaining. Especially skillful at playing to the entire audience on all sides.
Don't see it if you don't like stand up comedy.
See it if You enjoy Birbiglia or stand up comedy. It's a fun and entertaining night out. I didn't like his last show The New One but enjoyed this!
Don't see it if You aren't in the mood for a stand up comedy type show.
See it if You like funny, smart, relatable comedy told in a friendly, non-offensive style. Warm. Endearing. He makes you care about what he’s saying.
Don't see it if You don’t like stand up comedy or storytelling. If you’re looking for a musical or political humor or comedy that’s divisive this is not it.
See it if you like to laugh (esply if you're a MB fan). Gentle, funny, deeply observed humor abt health/aging. MB has gr timing & well-honed material.
Don't see it if you want true theater, not standup. Large venue for a 1-man show. MB's end interaction w/audience was meh (too contrived, cheap laughs).
See it if you enjoy humor based on being human. This is a set of relatable stories about aging, health and medical challenges woven together well.
Don't see it if you are seeking a Broadway play or musical - this is a solo comedian in a Broadway house.
See it if sharply observant & self-deprecating 1-man show; movingly refracts comedic themes thru lens of his family; winning performance
Don't see it if limits to 1-man show; some bits are cliche-ish; nothing ground-breaking or subversive
See it if One man show that shows and tells humor about all in a persons life. Funny show with laughing at life.
Don't see it if Funny stand up is not your taste.
See it if you enjoy finding humor in the mundane and tragedy. If you need a pick-me-up, this show is the best medicine.
Don't see it if you’re turned off by solo shows. Think of this more as a comedy special, because it is.
Critic Reviews (20)
"Birbiglia’s virtuosity as a narrator is very real, giving him full control over the evening and the audience’s reactions."
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"Like all of Birbiglia’s joints, 'The Old Man & the Pool' is carefully structured: The chatty sidetracks always loop back to the central path. Birbiglia is an expert at controlling the pace and energy of the evening."
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"If you’ve ever seen Mike Birbiglia before, whether on stage or screen, then 'The Old Man and the Pool' feels like catching up with an old friend — albeit one with a lot more health problems than you."
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"This is a man in full control, perhaps not of his body or his health or any of the bad stuff that life brings our way, but of how he, and perhaps his audience, can cope with it all."
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"Birbiglia doesn’t bend toward sentimentality. When it comes to matters of the heart, poetic and cardiovascular, he simply suggests chains of family history can be broken."
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"There is an appealing smoothness, simplicity, and sense of construction to Birbiglia’s shows...Here’s hoping that Birbiglia continues to come to Broadway each season with new autobiographical monologues and inspires the same kind of turnout."
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"There is an emotional honesty to the piece that makes it feel like it only could have been born following our worldwide collective trauma. You come away feeling like you've met Mike Birbiglia, the man, for the very first time, for real. I can't wait to see where he goes from here."
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"It makes for a downright pleasurable evening presided over by an adroit and crowd-pleasing entertainer. These days, that might just be what the doctor ordered."
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