"A veritable depository of old-fashioned zingers...Taylor mixes reminiscences about her childhood and beginnings as an actress and writer with a lighthearted look at her self-image and quest for love...Taylor is especially funny when recounting her tiny parts in B movies and gigs on television talk shows...The show’s central part is a fascinating evocation of a woman with a weak body image and a strong sense of humor trying to make it in the late 1950s and early ’60s."
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“Taylor is just good company...And damn it if she doesn't land an unexpected laugh...She maintains an intimate, just-us-friends attitude throughout, and she never, ever pushes for a laugh. She knows where they are, and she'll get to them...The show's throughline, about Taylor's obsession with dieting, doesn't provide a terribly strong spine...In any case, she is a distinctive talent, and one of the last survivors of a vanishing show-business tradition.”
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"It’s LOL funny. Funny? Why, absolutely every single solitary joke lands, and there’s a rarity for you...Before Taylor finishes, she all but subtly hands out a moral: Forget about the diets and learn to be happy with who you are. She generously hands out a second, not necessarily new show-biz moral: Always leave them laughing. To her immense credit, she does."
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"She is someone familiar, someone from the old neighborhood. Let's admit it, this is a show aimed at fans of old films and actresses 'who had faces'...Michael Redman's treasure trove of projections deliver the perfect 'Pow!' to Taylor's memories. And there's a bittersweet ending...'My Life On a Diet' is not classic comedy for the ages but you will have plenty of laughs for 90 minutes."
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"'My Life on a Diet' is the theatrical equivalent of dessert—sweet, frothy, and perfectly fine with not being a main course...Taylor is a master joke-teller, particularly with the slow comic burn after a hoary pun or self-deprecating punchline. If you’re not an ardent Taylor fan, you might find the 90 minutes a bit long, as all those memories of meeting stars and going on diets can get repetitive. But on the night I saw it, none of that mattered."
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"May I suggest you binge on 'My Life on a Diet,' the comical sundae topped with a cherry of sentiment being served…by the eternally delicious Renée Taylor…Her softened voice lacks the force it once had, but her timing is intact, her jokes ignite guffaws and chuckles, and she's every pound the Renée Taylor fans will be paying to see...A scrumptious smorgasbord of tasty and, I'm happy to report, tasteful anecdotes encompassing her life from childhood through her years on 'The Nanny.'"
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“If Taylor becomes any more charming, hilarious and in possession of laser-like timing, she will have to be arrested because there is only so much perfection that the rest of us can stand...She does not disappoint...The anecdotes that make up her life are nearly unbelievable...Behind the leopard print...lives a magnificent woman who is choosing to tell her story to us. She sits. She reads. She makes us scream and howl. And she breaks our collective hearts – just a little.”
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“The show is about much more than Taylor’s attempts to get and stay thin...The format for the show is fairly basic...She tells the audience she will ‘read’ her memoirs—and, indeed, she has notes to which, at rare moments, she discreetly refers. But she is fully engaged with the material...Her comic timing is, unsurprisingly, that of a seasoned-pro, both as writer and performer...May not be to everyone’s taste. But the audience at the performance I saw ate it all up.”
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