Noises Off NYC Reviews and Tickets

"The heady, headlong and altogether hilarious farce providing generous doses of heat-generating laughter as the winter chill finally sets in…Once it hits its lively stride, Mr. Herrin’s production rollicks along with machine-tooled precision, churning out belly laughs as if from an assembly line…'Noises Off' would be a mere dissertation in clever dramaturgical mechanics, were it not for the expertly drawn characters, here embodied by a first-rate cast."
Read more

"'Noises Off' is a precision-timed laugh machine, and director Jeremy Herrin’s ensemble is peppered with some of New York’s finest comic actors. So why did I chuckle so little? Various excuses could be made. There’s the culture gap: Good as our American troupers are, they don’t quite get the jauntily sleazy vibe of English sex comedy. Or the fault lies in the director...All due respect to the gamely guffawing audience with whom I attended, but I wanted to make more noise."
Read more

"This cast is so well-matched that they really do seem to have been working together for months….Indeed, the astonishing thing about the contrivances is that, in a well-judged production like this one, they eventually break into yet another sphere…How something can be both nonsense and (in the context of the play) inevitable is a great and beautiful mystery, one that makes 'Noises Off' not just one of the funniest plays ever written but one of the best."
Read more

"The second act in particular is a whirligig of slapstick choreography for whose pristine execution Mr. Herrin deserves the highest possible marks. The secret ingredient of his production is that Mr. Herrin has gone to similar lengths to ensure that every member of the cast plays for truth, not laughs—which makes you laugh twice as hard…Complaints? I’ve got none. This show is flawless."
Read more

"A percussive dose of slamming doors, wince-inducing pratfalls and enough suggestive tomfoolery to fill the bill at Minsky’s…Jeremy Herrin lets 'Noises Off' wind up a bit slowly, but once all the gears are in synch, the show is a dazzlement of set-pieces fit together with jigsaw perfection. Martin returns to her roots as a mistress of the comic gesture, doing more with a plate of fish or an old newspaper than you may have imagined possible."
Read more

"This production gets about it about halfway right — so even with a soggy and slack final stretch, you’re left grinning over the show’s sly inner workings…Act I, set amid a dress rehearsal of 'Nothing On,' lands some good laughs…Act II, set a month later, rotates the perspective…This is when real show hits its stride. It’s packed tight as a tin of sardines with laughter. But Act III, set a month later, leads to diminishing returns. It strives to be madcap merry mayhem, but it’s overly long overkill."
Read more

"Funny lady Andrea Martin leads the nimble cast of this well-tooled revival...Martin who was born to make us laugh, is a perfect hoot in the pivotal role of the scatterbrained actress…On the laugh meter, Act I is only so-so. But as a setup for the next two acts, it’s brilliant. Act II is bust-a-gut funny…'Noises Off' seems to be always playing somewhere in the civilized world...And that’s exactly the way it should be, because this kind of comedic brilliance never gets stale."
Read more

"The performances haven't yet clicked into the tight lockstep required to make Frayn's intricate comedy run at full tilt…While there are some brilliant set-pieces and terrific physical comedy, the repetition built into the material grows tiring...Despite its wit, structural inventiveness and reputation as one of the all-time great farces, this is a tough play to pull off. Even if they're not 100 percent there yet, Herrin and his ace cast seem well on their way to mastering it."
Read more