The Government Inspector

“Madcap, zany and high comedic exhilaration...Hatcher’s writing makes this production so completely sumptuous, you will want to feed on it again and catch a second time the artful ironies and slick phrases…Without this ensemble, the jokes would scintillate but not with the power to strike as hard and send us as furiously as they do into the comic heavenlies…Urie has stretched his talents to new heights. He is reminiscent of some of the comic greats...Something truly wonderful and riotous.” Full Review

"More than funny—this madcap comedy of mistaken identity is the perfect antidote to whatever ails you...A breakneck pace that never flags, this night at the theater is laugh line atop laugh line, all of it based in characters that are well-crafted and stomach-achingly funny individuals...Urie’s every move, every facial expression, every line, is so perfect that you spend the zippy two hours wondering what he’s going to do next...His brilliance is matched by pretty much every member of the cast." Full Review

"The funniest play to hit New York this year...Brilliantly adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, faultlessly staged by Jesse Berger and flawlessly acted by a talented ensemble...It ignites laughter that ripples in solid blasts and at peak moments creates gales of fun...The actors Mr. Berger has chosen are staggeringly competent, and no one is miscast...Mr. Urie gives the comic performance of his career...The production is impeccable on all fronts: acting, adaptation, direction, artful scenery." Full Review

"The pleasures afforded by this breakneck show are as old as the days when cave dwellers discovered that human stupidity was really kind of funny, as well as potentially tragic...This dumb-and-dumber scale of values could easily lend itself to the broadest kind of mugging. But Mr. Berger has staged his 'Government Inspector' with a subversive straightforwardness...All the performances are dead serious in their ridiculousness, capturing the big egos beneath the small-town madness." Full Review

“Under the hilarious direction of Jesse Berger, the insanely funny production is a night well spent at the theatre. Berger has collected a company of A-list actors at the top of their game…Michael Urie is adorable, Michael McGrath, superb, Mary Testa, over-the-top delicious. Arnie Burton, outrageously funny. For that matter the whole cast is utterly impressive and layered…Jeffrey Hatcher has created an adaption that brings to mind our present political dilemma.” Full Review

"Gogol waxed broadly funny, as the revival of the play proves with great delight and close to nonstop entertainment. Jeffrey Hatcher’s knockabout translation is even more than that. Often, it’s unashamedly corny, which has the effect of proving that when farce is delivered this expertly, under such bold direction, with such over-the-top performing, artistic corn is sweet. The cast means no end to the rib-tickling and thigh-slapping." Full Review

"Red Bull Theater is presenting Hatcher’s clever adaptation of Gogol’s 1836 comic masterpiece...This production’s biggest plus is the casting of Michael Urie...He demonstrates a previously unseen talent for physical comedy that is prodigious...Most of the other actors create vivid characters and work well as an ensemble...Red Bull’s artistic director Jesse Berger keeps things moving fluidly. If you enjoy farce and slapstick, well-performed, you will have an enjoyable time." Full Review

"An exuberantly raucous revival...If you don’t find yourself guffawing out loud at least once or twice during this show, check to make sure your vocal cords are still intact...Director Jesse Berger has assembled some of the most physically and verbally dexterous performers around to act out this fable/cautionary tale...This tremendously talented troupe is led by the wiry, wily Michael Urie...Berger’s staging is often daring and consistently hilarious." Full Review

"What was once deemed exaggeration now seems as relevant as it does rollicking and absurd...Hatcher’s adaptation is quick and clever...Berger does a splendid job with physical comedy, timing, and use of Distler’s inspired, two-story, doll’s house environs...Though a well-oiled, Rube Goldberg machine, the day is carried by Michael Urie whose creativity, energy, focus and ebullience offer one of the great pleasures of a jam-packed theater season." Full Review

"A snappy production…The farce hits its mark, while making a larger statement about the systemic nature of institutional greed and incompetence…Director Jessie Berger has assembled an excellent ensemble that delivers Gogol’s satiric slam at governmental fraud with glee…Urie is sensational…Indeed, the cast, like Alexis Distler’s sets and Tilly Grimes’ costumes, hits exactly the right note: fast and furious.” Full Review

“Urie is a sterling stage clown and graceful physical comedian, an actor with the ineffable ability to keep us tantalized about what comes next…Urie is the hub of director Jesse Berger’s crackerjack revival, but what makes the production so memorable is that his performance is exquisitely matched to those of a slew of other well-cast jokesters…Any of the leaden possibilities of Gogol are safely airlifted out courtesy of Hatcher’s buoyant script and a cadre of funny people.” Full Review

“The top-notch cast lead by the indomitable and beyond adorable Michael Urie and Michael McGrath is nothing short of comic genius. Directed by Jesse Berger, this very old gem of a comedy still rings true even in this day and age…The comedy is fresh, the delivery is crisp, and the laughter flows throughout this romp. Grab a ticket and get ready for multiple belly laughs with this one.” Full Review

“Those of us lucky enough to have viewed the great physical comedy performance this season by Kevin Kline in ‘Present Laughter’ now have the privilege of viewing a second such remarkable performance by Urie…The curtain falls. We have been greatly entertained. But mightn’t we also be a bit uncomfortable?...Is it possibly a mirror of ourselves? And of our governing officials?...'The Government Inspector' is a hilarious comedy, beautifully cast and acted." Full Review

“Jeffrey Hatcher’s witty, withering, endlessly entertaining (and super loose) adaptation, currently playing in a new production at the Red Bull Theater…It’s a play and a rendition that deserve to be seen. Director Jesse Berger taps straight into the grotesque veins in Gogol’s writing, coaxing stylized performances from his expert cast of clowns...Pretty much every member of the cast is delightful to watch…At the center of it all, Urie gives a performance that is close to flawless.” Full Review

"Just watch Michael Urie in Red Bull Theater’s hilarious, buoyant, frenetic production of 'The Government Inspector.' The gifted actor...is gifting us with a gladsome performance, surrounded by equally expert farceurs...Directed by Jesse Berger as if everyone is high on pot...A satire disguised as farce, the play skewers sitting ducks quacking with indignation...The evening is ditsy and the situations ridiculous, but there’s truth here, too." Full Review

“Hatcher adeptly slims Gogol's wordy original down to a lightning-fast two hours (with one intermission), uses doubling to allow a cast of 14 to play twice as many characters, and gives the dialogue a contemporary spin filled with punchy one-liners…Sometimes the production seems like a free-for-all game of ‘I can be funnier than you,’ the actors going as far overboard as they can to play up their clownish characters…The Red Bull's 'Government Inspector' passes inspection with flying colors.” Full Review

"An irreverent and highly watchable adaptation...The cast is full of great comedians...Director Jesse Berger creates this atmosphere of lunacy through a surprisingly compelling mixture of slapstick comedy and operatic design...Even if the staging is occasionally bungled, you won't want to miss a moment of this zippy two-hour production, which is full of laughs from beginning to end thanks to the unwavering commitment of the cast." Full Review

"A gloriously silly mounting...Jesse Berger loads up the evening with terrific sight gags and wacky antics performed by a top-shelf cast...McGrath lays out a full arsenal of double takes, verbal timing and physical bits to give a master class on playing bellowing authority figures...Urie's physical shtick as the character gets more and more inebriated is matched in hilarity by the way the desperate town officials continue to treat him with reverence." Full Review

"Humor is doled out generously in Red Bull Theater’s diverting production of Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 satire, zippily adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher...Distler’s bilevel set evokes a cartoon in the Sunday funny papers, and Jesse Berger’s talented cast of 14 commits hard to fill out its panels...Although the play’s lampoon of corruption is wide-ranging, it is tempered by the jovial spirit of farce, which feels like a mercy. There’s a lot to be said for shouting, but sometimes you just need to laugh." Full Review

"Loaded with laughs; but, like all good comedies, even those going way over the top, it's underpinned by all too real relevancy...I can't think of a better company than Red Bull Theater to give Hatcher's smartly modernized and streamlined adaptation a production to land every joke and double entendre...If I had to single out the funniest of these buffoons, it would be Arnie Burton as the nosy Postmaster...Good as all these actors are, it's clear that Michael Urie is very much the play's star." Full Review

"A big, brash and buoyant Off-Broadway revival...This is a high-energy, fast-paced production with gleefully over-the-top performances and door-slamming slapstick comedy. In one inspired gag, Urie (in a drunken stupor) stumbles off the elaborate two-story set (designed by Alexis Distler) and hangs on for dear life. Hatcher builds upon the play’s plotting with his own one-liners and sly winks to the audience." Full Review

"Hilarity reigns in this madcap revival...A Mel Brooks-style presentation with coarseness, slapstick, pratfalls and gags galore...Hatcher’s frothy adaptation is jocularly crammed with one-liners, zingers, anachronisms and double entendres...Berger’s fast-paced staging is an exuberant amalgam of physical and verbal virtuosity combined with visual flair...Michael McGrath dominates the show...A wonderful opportunity to experience the play’s timeless splendor." Full Review

"Gogol’s satire remains razor-sharp and Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation contemporizes the humor while keeping the action in Gogol’s dusty old provincial town...Urie is marvelous indeed...Director Jesse Berger does a thoroughly assured job, wrangling his clowns and keeping the laughter percolating...All in all, the Red Bull 'Inspector General' is bright, funny and as refreshing as a bowl of cold summer borscht crowned by two dollops of sour cream." Full Review

"Jeffrey Hatcher’s spirited adaptation of Russian author Nikolai Gogol’s play 'Revizor' is broadly staged by Jesse Berger with hilarious results in this Red Bull Theater presentation. The cast is wonderfully up to the uproariously funny satire on government dishonesty...The entire company deserves much praise for providing the ensemble merriment...Much credit should go to director Berger, whose vigorously over-the-top staging gives an audience a rollicking good time." Full Review

"Hatcher has crafted an adaptation that's a bit too contemporary for my taste but I totally appreciate how director Jesse Berger has shamelessly plagiarized the playbooks of comic geniuses to squeeze every single laugh out of it...He's aided by a brilliant cast of clowns...We in the audience are most indebted to the always-appealing Urie, who is as adept at physical comedy as he is with a one-liner...The other 10 cast members, all masters of comedic timing, are funny as hell too." Full Review