Oh, Hello on Broadway

"Stupendously entertaining...There are lots of bad puns on tuna and even more jokes that qualify as politically incorrect...Consider that as a trigger warning, if you must, but I find it hard to imagine anyone’s taking offense. That’s because, like most good theater, 'Oh, Hello' exhales the transporting joy of actors becoming someone else so completely and infectiously that on some level we become them as well and adopt whatever warped worldview they’re selling us." Full Review

"Audiences will laugh uproariously at their clownish behavior...Under the direction of Alex Timbers, the jokes are sharper, the flow more efficient, and the design considerably more extravagant...Each performance features a different guest, giving Kroll and Mulaney an opportunity to improvise and riff—and they're often funnier doing that than when they're delivering scripted material...'Oh, Hello' turns out to be a bottomless well of funny." Full Review

"The ninety-minute evening allows for bits of improvisational riffing and Kroll and Mulaney have perfected a loose chemistry that plays on a low-key level...While fans of Kroll and Mulaney will no doubt eat it up, 'Oh, Hello on Broadway' tends to lose some steam during the last half-hour...The fact that something as non-traditional and New York-centric as an evening with George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon can play the Lyceum is a welcome sign for the creative health of Gotham's theatre scene." Full Review

"Sloppy, silly, occasionally inspired...'Oh, Hello' might not be the show to win over new enthusiasts...There’s no defining theme to the show, and the humor is all over the map. The core component of their act is pure character comedy...Is the material of this show really that uneven, or is the production still evolving? With the duo’s improv skills and their packed houses, 'Oh, Hello' could develop into a production format that would be all its own—and genuinely original." Full Review

"'Oh, Hello on Broadway,' directed by goofy-smart prince Alex Timbers, stretches the shtick to 95 minutes of metatheatrical horseplay...The internal logic gets foggy, but 'Oh, Hello' is really about watching Kroll and Mulaney do high-level tag-team comedy, in the great tradition of Mike Nichols and Elaine May and Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. If some of the tuna seems a bit canned, both comedians are superb improvisers...They make mustiness new, and they’re a New York City must." Full Review

"A Comedy Central cult act created by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, Gil and George are curmudgeonly wannabe artists still waiting for their big break...Directed with a keen sense of the absurd by the brilliant Alex Timbers, 'Oh, Hello' is extremely funny stuff, veering from satirical wit to wackadoodle zaniness. Kroll and Mulaney have honed these grotesques for years and 90 minutes is almost too little time in their creepy company." Full Review

"The funniest show in town...Don't go looking for much of a plot in this stand-up comedy routine dressed up as theater...The evening is structurally ragged, composed of tenuously related blackout sketches, improvised bits, and an interview segment featuring a different special guest at every show...Not all the jokes land...The show could use some pruning. But it hardly matters when the jokes come this fast and furious." Full Review

"Strap yourself into the roller coaster and ride along for ninety-five minutes of hilarious insanity or insane hilarity, take your pick...The scenery—designed by Scott Pask—is full of jokes, including some real belly laughs...Alex Timbers directs; or perhaps we should say he successfully manages to keep up with his actors (who seem to be unrestrainedly improvising along the way)...It starts out funny and moves past hysterical to sublime." Full Review

"This show is messy, puerile, crass, and wildly indulgent...It is also uproariously, stomach-achingly funny...The show probably shouldn’t work as well as it does. Kroll and Mulaney don’t always play the characters consistently (when it seems like too much effort, they just play themselves) and they crack themselves up habitually. But the pleasure they take in the exercise is obvious and infectious...The writing, though variable, has more than its share of semi-precious gems." Full Review

"The jokes are excellent...It’s the kind of nonsensical set-up that leaves the writers maximum latitude as to what they can build, but it also limits how strongly they can build it. The result is both delightful and shaggy, pointed and unmemorable. Most of the delight and pointedness come from the exemplary verbal polish of the scripted material...The 90-minute evening is already a mite too long, and if it weren’t for a few stand-alone bits, 'Oh, Hello' might be too soggy to enjoy." Full Review

"I was surprised at how little I laughed...Not quite a real play with a plot, but also not quite a series of comedy sketches. It’s reminiscent of 'Wayne’s World,' but without the narrative consistency, and 'The Pee-Wee Herman Show' but without the colorfully inventive design...It’s 100 anarchic minutes of shtick and weirdness and one-liners and scenes that mock the idea of scenes....Much of 'Oh Hello' struck me as inside jokes that everybody in the audience seemed to get except me." Full Review

"Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland of 'Oh, Hello on Broadway' are refreshingly crotchety. For those unfamiliar with these cantankerous oldsters, Gil and George are bizarre creations of 30-something comics Nick Kroll and John Mulaney...The structure of their two-man show is loosey-goosey...Director Alex Timbers keeps the daffy duo on a relaxed leash, allowing them to romp and jump but not run out of control...Anyone with a taste for tangy humor should see 'Oh, Hello.'" Full Review

"There is the barest thread of a story line here and these two give it a nod every once in awhile...Mostly they wander off the reservation and tell stories or offer observations on everything from Lenny Kravitz‘s private parts to a childhood friendship with Robert Durst...About halfway through this show you realize you are never going to catch up so you let go of the reins and hang on for the ride. You realize that you have spent the better part of the past 70 minutes laughing." Full Review

“Gil and George’s language constantly subverts expectations as ordinary remarks take extraordinary turns. There are simple malapropisms, like saying ‘home page’ for ‘homage,’ while many words are mispronounced by accenting the wrong syllable. Where Gil and George are concerned, the Marx Brothers can’t be far behind, although without this show’s scatological and raunchy humor. Even the Marxes never had a love affair with a raccoon, though, much less impregnated one.” Full Review

"Intended for aging, oddball, scruffy, cranky, culturally (if not authentically) Jewish New Yorkers—and anyone else who identifies with or appreciates the same demographic...There is a wisp of a story line and even a dream ballet, but 'Oh, Hello' is primarily a vehicle for the duo to kvetch and kvell about everything under the sun and long nostalgically for the bygone days of New York in the 1970s...'Oh, Hello' is 95 minutes of politically incorrect, gleefully silly fun." Full Review

"The entire 100-minute evening is pointless, and evinces no socially or theatrically redeeming value I could detect. And yet I loved every single second of it...Despite its innumerable failings, it is insanely hilarious. And, considering that it never for a moment wants to be anything else, and that everything everyone involved does with it is in pursuit of that goal and no other, it unfurls with the unshakable confidence of a no-holds-barred success—and, in turn, becomes one." Full Review

"This act, by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, consists of two curmudgeonly old men...Personally I don’t get it and the emperor has NO clothes...A series of comedy sketches, where the two try to crack each other up and do most of the time. By the way, unprofessional. There is no plot, arc, nor is it funny. I laughed at maybe one joke. What you get is 100 minutes of stupidity...It’s all an inside joke, that I seriously do not get! By the way, a lot of the audience does not get it either." Full Review

"Gil and George have written a play, and it's aswirl with jokes and jabs at actors, stage hokum and overripe clichés. The crotchety geezers bat that around for a while, then launch into NY and personal history...The trio’s chat roams from babies and being Jewish to flexing biceps...There are moments that had me in stitches, but the show’s so shapeless and shaggy that it doesn’t add up to much." Full Review

“The less said, the better. A hoary vaudeville masterminded and performed by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, their Upper West Side alter kockers have ’em rolling in the aisles of the Lyceum Theatre with politically incorrect jokes, interspecies copulation, Norm Crosby-style malapropisms, idiosyncratic mispronunciations, and a tuna sandwich that would do the soon-to-be-departed Carnegie Deli proud. The whole thing is exceedingly idiotic or possibly just too cool for me.” Full Review

"For Kroll and Mulaney's many fans, 'Oh, Hello' is a winner...If the jokes overshadow the plot, that will suit them just fine...Anyone who, like me, comes to the Lyceum as Kroll-Mulaney virgins, will have a harder time getting into their brand of wacky, often in-your-face humor. Still, the very genuine chemistry between these guys does give a dash of charm to their shticky trajectory...I can't say that 'Oh, Hello' ever quite escaped its improv-sketch comedy roots for me." Full Review

"What’s 'Oh, Hello on Broadway' doing on Broadway? You may well ask. Depending on your threshold for the shaggy ridiculous, you may well keep asking yourself during much of the wildly uneven 95 minutes...The show bungees around with absurd, occasional cleverness, with dated references to Blue Man Group and softball observations about theater cliches....Timbers encourages a breathless pace that suggests we are not meant to ponder too long on any of the foolishness." Full Review

"The big problem with 'Oh, Hello' is that Mulaney doesn’t deliver. He’s neither the classic straight man who sets up the zany alpha male (Kroll) nor is he an even mildly amusing caricature in his own right...Promises to be much raunchier and offensive than it ever delivers...Often resembles a 'Pee-wee’s Playhouse' for the post-millennial crowd. No surprise, it’s directed by Alex Timbers, who brought 'The Pee-wee Herman Show' to Broadway a few seasons ago and has never recovered." Full Review

"They're smart and very funny–at times. But, over 95 minutes, there is also a fair share of clunkers, bottom-drawer lines...And in a show as loosely constructed as this, without a strong through line to carry interest past bumpy moments, the evening rises and falls joke by joke...For the person who comes to the theater innocent of knowledge of Kroll and Mulaney, their extended sketch of a show will likely depend on how he or she responds to a pair of cantankerous elder citizens." Full Review

"I find Kroll and Mulaney funnier in manner and outrageousness—they are very good comics—than in much of their material. However, they often exhibit very savvy comments reflecting knowledge of theater, culture and politics...The sort of humor that will arouse laughter in some and possibly make others uncomfortable. One can say that these cut-ups are an acquired taste...Alex Timbers directs the show with a clear understanding of what makes these entertainers funny." Full Review

"A gleefully misanthropic sketch show...The laughter here often hinges on the feeling that we probably shouldn’t be finding any of this quite so funny...But when that banter knowingly sends up its own bigotry, then we may guffaw as well as groan...That blend of arcane local colour, highbrow repartee and toilet humour makes for an improbably enjoyable evening. 'Oh, Hello' may just consist of two evil old men gassing on stage for 90 plotless minutes, but you’ll love them by the end." Full Review