Nice Fish NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (63)
See it if You're a Mark Rylance fan. This is him in all his quirky glory. Fun. Funny. Heartwarming and sweet.
Don't see it if You don't like quirky. This is weird but in the sweetest kindest way. It sneaks up on you and before you know it, it's touched your heart.
See it if you like absurdist comedies. This is Waiting For Godot On Ice with lots of insights into Life (capital "L" intended).
Don't see it if you only like shows with a plot. This has almost no story arc, but it does make you think and laugh.
See it if You enjoy new, quirky plays
Don't see it if You don't like fish
See it if Are a Mark Rylance fan, a man who is a chameleon brilliant actor. Quirky, funny engaging
Don't see it if don't like to think at the theater
See it if you don't mind being confused at times if the payoff is funny, thoughtful moments delivered by an exceptional cast
Don't see it if prose poetry is too off-putting for you, you can't tolerate mundane or confusing moments
See it if you like mark rylance, who is an absolute treasure; if you are up for a witty, gently philosophical but very funny meditation on ... life.
Don't see it if you want action, DRAMA, music, or a fluffy show that won't challenge you or ask you to think.
See it if you'll enjoy quirky & entertaining musings on the meaning of life written by the same guy who wrote Mark Rylance's Tony acceptance speeches.
Don't see it if the absence of plot and character development is a deal breaker, despite the show's other charms.
See it if You enjoy language and visual delights washing over you. Everyday "prose poems", rather than plot, are the basis, like "Love & Information."
Don't see it if You need a hard plotline and defined relationships; you prefer Taxi Driver over Prairie Home Companion in terms of tone
Critic Reviews (31)
"It took only a few minutes for the audience to simmer down and settle into the bewitching theatrical spell cast by 'Nice Fish,' The production has been expertly directed by Claire van Kampen, and features wonderful performances not just from Mr. Rylance but from four other gifted actors...A few of the more whimsical moments in 'Nice Fish' left me, um, cold. But if one scene doesn’t grab you, you’re quickly on to the next."
Read more
"'Nice Fish' is a whimsical, ultimately resonant portrait of lost souls waiting to hook or be hooked...It’s all vaguely 'Waiting for Godot'–ish, and Jenkins makes a modest bid as a flyover-state Samuel Beckett. Generally, though, the ultimate lure is a chance to see a great actor like Rylance cutting loose."
Read more
"'Nice Fish' has the flat, folksy vaudeville quality of that radio show ['A Prairie Home Companion'], with its rime of humor and undertow of malaise. But with Rylance bringing his usual brilliance to the proceedings, and with a magical production directed by Claire Van Kampen, the play is clearly aiming for something deeper, and sometimes, despite the thin ice, achieves it."
Read more
"Featuring a hilarious deadpan performance by Mark Rylance, 'Nice Fish' is a great catch...'Nice Fish' is certainly disjointed and rambling, and its slow pace could provoke irritation among the less patient. But its whimsical observational humor is consistently amusing, and the performers deliver the poetry with unforced naturalness. All are excellent, but it's Rylance who enchants. "
Read more
"'Fish' is at its best when it’s at its most absurd: Rylance, in a fluorescent orange snowsuit, attempting to entertain his intense fisherman by pretending to be a snowman…The waters get muddied when other random characters float in. Not that sweet young sauna owner Flo and the DNR Man aren’t amusing additions...They simply seem unnecessary — particularly since Rylance and Lichtscheidl prove such a perfect, almost vaudevillian pairing."
Read more
"'Nice Fish' is both the title and the punchline of the deliriously funny existential ruminations that Mark Rylance and the Midwestern folk-bard Louis Jenkins have fashioned from Jenkins’ poetry. It’s a compact, unpretentious play, but gorgeously set on stage...Some wonderful theatrical effects are executed during the show’s blackout scenes...The show ends with a coup de theatre that is pure surreal pleasure. But it’s Jenkins’ poetry that hangs in the air at the end of the show."
Read more
"Jenkins’ work tends, like Keillor’s monologues abot the fictional Minnesota town, toward stream-of-consciousness musings that begin in a specific moment before spiraling off into morality tales or nonsense, take your pick. Either way, the result is entertainment of an extremely high order: this is the kind of play that gives situation comedy its good name."
Read more
"Imagine Beckett’s 'Waiting for Godot' on a frozen lake and you’ve got an idea of what to expect from 'Nice Fish,' an existential vaudeville piece...While there are moments that hook you and amuse and charm, the show, told in short scenes between blackouts in lieu of actual transitions, loses its grip. These ice men cometh — and sometimes boreth."
Read more