Zero Hour NYC Reviews and Tickets

"In manner, voice and mind he is unmistakably Zero Mostel...While the performance and the play are both thoroughly engaging, those who saw the previous two-act version may find this one a bit incomplete...But even in this shortened form, 'Zero Hour' effectively paints a portrait depicting the artist as he might like to be remembered; brilliant, defiant and highly entertaining."
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“For 90 enthralling minutes, Brochu dramatizes and enacts the remarkable life and career of that unforgettable performer…His sensational acting is matched by his heavily researched and very skillfully constructed script…The success of the production is abetted by Piper Laurie’s meticulous and creative direction…Every moment is staged with aesthetic focus and ingenuity, preventing the show from ever becoming static.”
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“Even those who already know this colorful rags-to-riches account of a poor Brooklyn boy whose father was a 'street rabbi' and whose mother never forgave him for marrying a 'shiksa' - or who don't think they need yet another iteration of the blacklist saga and the naming of red-tinted actors by Jerome Robbins and his ilk - will appreciate the illusion of hearing about it all from Mostel himself. I mean Jim Brochu, of course, but when you're watching him it's really one and the same.”
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"The absolutely best solo performance I’ve ever seen in my life...Those 90 minutes were the 100% most enjoyable hour and a half I’ve spent in years. Jim Brochu deserves a double A+ for impeccable playwriting and a flawless performance. Director Piper Laurie rates several hip, hip, hip, hurrahs for her discrete direction and for impeccably maintaining the ideal balance between Mostel/Brochu’s chutzpah and anguish."
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"A helluva piece of writing...This deeply researched piece, as personal as it is historical, illuminates Zero Mostel. Peppered with anecdotes, jokes, and insults, its serious depiction of reasons for the subject’s dark side provides affecting, whiz-bang dramatization...Brochu is so filled with energy, so present, it’s as if he’s performing early in the run of a new show...This is less a purposeful imitation than top-notch channeling...Laurie has done a wonderful job of utilizing the stage."
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"Zero’s back in town, and the town is jollier for it...In this new incarnation, if anything, the author and star is more formidable, more unpredictable, more voluble—more Zero. He also resembles Mostel more than ever, to an almost scary degree...Director Piper Laurie entertainingly keeps him pacing and blustering and registering satisfaction when the audience laughs, which is also often...It’s a fully stuffed hour and a half. And a fun one."
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"'Zero Hour' is a wonderfully funny evening of theater...The unseen hand in this performance is that of Piper Laurie, the stage and screen actress, who handled the directorial duties. Brochu was never still, but his movements around the stage all felt motivated and natural. I was impressed with how Brochu, alone on the small stage of the Theatre at St. Clement’s, drew me into a world that he created all through the strength of his storytelling."
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"Jim Brochu, who both wrote and performs 'Zero Hour,' seemingly channels the roaring bellowing rhinoceros Sam 'Zero' Mostel...What makes the revival of 'Zero Hour,' beautifully directed by Piper Laurie, so timely for audiences today is the nearly 10 year swatch of time between 1947 and 1956. This is when political repression and government scare tactics spawned a communist witch hunt that destroyed the lives of thousands of individuals."
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"The one-man show is a triumph...Brochu's intense performance makes you think you are actually watching Mostel himself. He rails, rants, raves and charms...He also shows us Mostel's softer, sentimental side...'Zero Hour' is a remarkable achievement about the life of a great talent whose name is in danger of fading into oblivion...Don't miss it-this is New York theater at its very best."
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“In a biographical solo play about a celebrity, you can usually count on a few things. The conceit designed to get the famous person to narrate a highlights reel of a lifetime is going to be strained.…Those who see ‘Zero Hour’ are signing up for these conventions, so criticizing them is like bemoaning a musical for having a character break into song…How well does Jim Brochu imitate the singularly captivating Mostel?…It brings him back to life, just the way his fans want him.”
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"By all accounts, the great Zero Mostel blazed most brightly in live performance. So we owe writer-performer Jim Brochu a debt of gratitude for this extraordinary act of reincarnation (directed astutely by Piper Laurie), which restores the outsize actor to us in all of his daunting dimensions. From the moment Brochu spins around to face the audience, he is a Hirschfeld drawing come to pulsing life. You can’t help being swept up in the tornado."
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“Brochu’s knack for characterizing Mostel is somewhat more interesting than his avatar’s hand-wringing over the blacklist, which comes off as a little sanctimonious…Ultimately, though, the play works whether or not Brochu’s script searches Mostel’s life for nuance and color. Under the direction of Piper Laurie, his performance has plenty of both; the end result is frequently funny and always engaging.”
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"A polished if predictable solo show...With his ample frame, expressive eyes and hair forced forward to cover a thinning scalp, Brochu looks spookily like his subject, for whom he's written the piece as a heart-engraved valentine. The vocal inflections, too, are absolutely impeccable...'Zero Hour' may be too formulaic to honor fully the memory of the mold-breaking actor it enshrines. Still, in his meticulously calibrated portrayal, Brochu pays Mostel the next best kind of compliment."
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"Brochu impersonates girthful, mirthful actor Zero Mostel so accurately that his performance is tantamount to a reincarnation...Smartly directed by Piper Laurie...All is not vengeful blasts in 'Zero Hour,' however; in Brochu's hands, Mostel is often belly-laugh funny. Indeed, there's a show-business saying that insists it takes a star to play a star. By that reckoning, mark down Jim Brochu as a truly big star."
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“A fun and entertaining celebrity portrait that rises above the limitations of its genre and tackles some very important themes…A moving portrait not just of a talented man and his fascinating milieu, but also of a moment in American history that should not be forgotten…I found this show to be the most affecting account of the McCarthy era that I have encountered…Simply for reminding us to remember, 'Zero Hour' is worth the price of admission.”
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"An informed, absorbing, highly entertaining one-person play...A delectably insightful homage...It is often meant as a compliment to say that an actor has gotten the essence of the real-life character that he may be impersonating. It is with a particular, if almost uncanny, distinction that Brochu does much more than that—just short of bringing Mostel back to life...Brochu's play and his perceptive performance owe much to the precisely paced direction of Piper Laurie."
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"Brochu starts with the advantage that he manages to look and sound like Zero Mostel, effortlessly catching the quirky mannerisms and Jewish intonations of the comedian turned actor...Jim Brochu paces the story well, gives his audience lots of laughs and then hits them in the solar plexus with the bad times. This solo show has already won awards out of town and deserves to augment them in New York."
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“A strong, affecting one-man show…Brochu not only takes on Mostel's story, but he literally climbs into his skin…It is the portrayal, not just the surface attributes, which is so convincing…Brochu launches into the story with one-liners peppering the earnest monologue—sometimes not so funny, sometimes clever and witty…But it is in the second act that the show has its most powerful—and most attention-grabbing—moments...Brochu offers a fine tribute to this legendary man of the theater."
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“Tackles the complex and contradictory life of Zero Mostel with a flourish that is captivating from the moment the lights come up...A night of thought-provoking entertainment…All of this is hysterically funny. The writing is marvelously witty…Very occasionally heavy-handed but certainly timely…‘Zero Hour’ reaches from the past to give us commentary on the hard times and tough choices that we face today…A night of deep thoughts and deeper belly laughs.”
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