"The plot of 'Important Hats' has stray bits poking out here and there, and while undeniably inventive, it isn’t exactly wearable...By which I mean coherent...While it’s amusing for a while to imbibe the perplexity that contemporary fashion might cause for ordinary folk from decades past, the novelty wears off, and Mr. Jones’s play rattles along waywardly, spinning into a confused quasi-farce. But while the play may lack substance, the production has style to spare."
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"Flexibility, velocity, the instant pivot: These are all hallmarks of the farceur, and the first parts of his wackadoodle sci-fi frolic 'Important Hats of the Twentieth Century' whiz by. Unfortunately, the speed runs out before the show's quite over...But without a dramatic engine the show already seems long at intermission. Jones might take Greevy's attitude about tailoring to heart: The show is comfy fun, but might fit better with some judicious cuts."
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"The problem is inherent in the concept, or lack of one. No one involved seems to have operated from the understanding that satire is a pinpoint form of criticism, not a clown car in which irrational characters with funny lines get taken for a ludicrous spin...This confusion isn’t just the result of the chaotic plotting, though Jones’s idea of tying up loose ends resembles what would happen if a cat did macramé."
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"A charming farce that feels more like a zany cable-TV sitcom episode than an old-fashioned stage comedy…Part sci-fi parody, part Ayn Rand spoof and 100% screwball comedy, 'Important Hats' covers a stageful of bases in a way that is less than ideally disciplined but never anything other than funny. Sweetly uncynical and fueled by a steady stream of how’s-that-again non sequiturs, this is millennial comedy at its most engaging...The cast leaves no punchline unpunched."
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"This play is often very, very funny. There's a profusion of laugh-out-loud one-liners; the expert ensemble is consistently hilarious. But as the plot synopsis suggests, the evening also is wildly overstuffed and self-indulgent, with the playwright throwing so many subplots and gags into the mix that weariness eventually settles in. Overlong by at least a half-hour and losing comic momentum with its intermission, 'Important Hats' feels increasingly strained in the second act."
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"Irreverent and imaginative, 'Important Hats' takes a critical question and sends it through the ringer...It's unapologetically silly fun, given an appropriately fast-paced and cinematic staging by von Stuelpnagel...Unfortunately, Jones has a tendency to rely on non sequitur as a punch line...Still, the actors sell the absurdity of each situation and bring us through the shagginess of Jones' script with a minimum of cringe-worthy moments."
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"A mass of plot points that barely cohere as the story lurches from crisis to crisis...Somewhere inside 'Important Hats of the Twentieth Century' is a parable about the challenges of being an artist and the struggle to please oneself as well as one's public, but it's hard to get at, what with all the shouting and general running around. In the frantic pursuit of any available laugh, Jones undermines his own often-imaginative conception."
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"They all know that, substance-free as what they're saying and doing may be — having and making fun can often be its own reward. The play could be funnier still if it were even more tightly knitted, but what's the point in arguing too much? When the clothes fit and are right for the person, little else really matters. And in all the places where it counts most, 'Important Hats of the Twentieth Century' is impeccably tailored."
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