The Smuggler (Irish Repertory Theatre)
Closed 1h 10m
The Smuggler (Irish Repertory Theatre)
81

The Smuggler (Irish Repertory Theatre) NYC Reviews and Tickets

81%
(21 Ratings)
Positive
100%
Mixed
0%
Negative
0%
Members say
Entertaining, Clever, Absorbing, Great acting, Funny

A new monologue in verse, about an Irish immigrant is living the American dream.

Read more Show less

Show-Score Member Reviews (21)

Sort by:
  • Default
  • Standing in our community
  • Highest first
  • Lowest first
  • Newest first
  • Oldest first
  • Only positive
  • Only negative
  • Only mixed
712 Reviews | 401 Followers
91
Intelligent, Great writing, Great staging, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if A very dark play about illegal immigration & those who take advantage of them. Tremendous acting!

Don't see it if If you prefer a lighter topic, then skip this one. I

58 Reviews | 10 Followers
90
Masterful, Profound, Great acting, Funny, Absorbing

See it if You want to feel like you are being told a story by an old friend

Don't see it if You should see it anyway!

535 Reviews | 155 Followers
86
Actor *******, Entertaining, Absorbing, Original, Clever

See it if This is a superbly crafted one man show. You enjoy plays with a contemporary historical context. You enjoy Irish theatre.

Don't see it if You have to have an elaborate set and costumes and a 20 piece orchestra to make you feel as if you are watching the best of the best theatre

53 Reviews | 12 Followers
86
Thought-provoking, Riveting, Great acting, Clever, Absorbing

See it if You want to be transported into the struggle of new immigrants to America for their very lives. It’s the story behind the news.

Don't see it if You don’t want your preconceived ideas about immigration and immigrants to be challenged.

752 Reviews | 145 Followers
85
Great staging, Absorbing, Great acting, Clever, Entertaining

See it if Dark and funny about people take advantage of other people. The stage is a bar.

Don't see it if Not light, make you think. One man show.

97 Reviews | 18 Followers
84
Ambitious, Entertaining, Clever, Absorbing

See it if You enjoy a superbly acted one man show challenging us to consider the many corners we all cut to live the American dream

Don't see it if You don’t like one man shows or storytelling that challenges our premises about right and wrong and fairness towards immigrants

187 Reviews | 41 Followers
82
Entertaining, Ambitious, Great performance, Clever, Absorbing

See it if you appreciate a wonderful performance in an intimate space all done in verse with an usual immigrant perspective of surviving in America.

Don't see it if you don't like one-man shows and and don't like listening intently and having to think too hard.

499 Reviews | 77 Followers
82
Intelligent, Riveting, Great acting, Entertaining, Clever

See it if you want a great story that is original and unexpected

Don't see it if you don't like one man shows and characters who are morally ambiguous.

Critic Reviews (8)

The New York Times
January 27th, 2023

"If 'The Smuggler' aims to be about the price of the American dream and the moral cost of being a successful American citizen, it takes more than a few measures of doggerel from a black-market bartender to do so."
Read more

New Yorker
January 26th, 2023

“Mellamphy is a dynamic presence, shifting easily among male and female roles and a variety of accents, while showing off some damn impressive cocktail-mixing moves.”
Read more

Theatermania
January 26th, 2023

“ ‘The Smuggler’ does raise enough troubling questions about what being an American truly means in this day and age for Finnegan's extended barroom anecdote to be worth seeing and contemplating.”
Read more

Talkin' Broadway
January 26th, 2023

“There is much food for thought in ’The Smuggler,’ and much of it leaves a bitter taste. But you'll be glad you partook.”
Read more

Theater Pizzazz
January 26th, 2023

“While the verse format is less effective in serious moments—forcing sentences into specific rhythms undermines the emotions of a scene.”
Read more

Front Row Center
January 26th, 2023

"Be advised, the drinks, and also the plot, are served with a twist."
Read more

Theaterscene.org
January 27th, 2023

With his throaty Irish accent and magnetic presence, Michael Mellamphy dazzles for 85 minutes as a legal Irish immigrant unemployed bartender who gleefully embraces a life of crime in author Ronán Noone absorbing contemporary solo play. It lives up to its billing as a “thriller in rhyme,” with its punchy rhyming sentences and gritty film noir-style plot twists and turns among corrupt police officers, vicious human traffickers and scheming strivers.
Read more

Off Off Online
February 24th, 2023

“The performance is a physical as well as verbal feat. Bagley’s direction of Mellamphy is skillful and well-paced, energizing the 70-minute play.’The Smuggler,’ however, leaves the moral quandary of thievery and smuggling a tangled mess.”
Read more