The Government Inspector NYC Reviews and Tickets

"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."
Read more

"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."
Read more

“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.”
Read more

"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."
Read more

"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."
Read more

"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."
Read more

"The good news is that Berger has rounded up a gaggle of first-class clowns and set them loose to play...Urie does double duty here as the production's motor, driving the increasingly frantic action while also earning plenty of laughs. He is an inspired choice...With each scene functioning as its own complete sketch and each line primed for comic blood, the action becomes a bit wearying. A more organically conceived production would, I think, have a stronger sense of progression."
Read more

"Where other productions of the play generally have invited us to appreciate its satire through the writer's cleverness and wit, everything here is thoroughly and unabashedly soaked in slapstick, farce, and low comedy...A marvelous romp of a production, which boasts richly comical performances by its wild and woolly cast. If you are in the mood for good, silly fun, 'The Government Inspector' will more than fill the bill."
Read more