Nice Fish NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (63)
See it if You like brilliant acting, clever staging, thought provoking prose and quirky humor
Don't see it if you prefer traditional narrative
See it if you want amazing acting. Rylance is in a class by himself!
Don't see it if you need a standard-structured play.
See it if Mark Rylance is masterful in this beautifully paced piece of theater. As is the rest of the cast. Simple reflections on life.
Don't see it if you're expecting Jerusalem or Richard III. Totally different set of actor muscles from Mr. Rylance.
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 Enjoy thoughtfulness. This is a play for true theatre lovers.
Don't see it if You don't like poetry you may not get it. This show is based on a series of poems that are somewhat esoteric.
See it if you're interested in an unorthodox production that combines amusing poetry with remarkably creative staging and excellent acting
Don't see it if you require plays with plot and character development
See it if Mark Rylance fan? See it. Brilliant set and theater environment. Thoughtful, absorbing play. I recommend it highly.
Don't see it if Why not go? Brooklyn / Dumbo too far? GMAB.
See it if You love Mark Rylance, he does not disappoint. The play is funny and sweet. The set is gorgeous!
Don't see it if If you want a plot. This is a series of conversations and monologues that require you to just sit back and enjoy.
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."
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"'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."
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"'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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"'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."
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"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. "
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"'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."
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