Reviews

"...innate pizzazz..." "...chemistry..."

The Houston Press has the distinction of carrying the first theater review that mentioned me by name. Sadly, the reviewer (D.L. Groover) came on opening night, when the microphones weren't working and I was still struggling with lines and lyrics, so the phrases highlighted above are two qualities that the reviewer said I lacked. In the words of a famous peasant, "I got better."

At least we fared better than the unfortunate fellows in the review that followed ours.

Paxton Collins' father reviewed the show as presented on the second Thursday of the run.

There were, of course, other, less official reviews: comments from people who came to see the show. Naturally, they tended toward the complimentary. Still, there was enough enthusiasm from them that I think we achieved our most important goal: entertaining the audiences. (The fact that we had several sold-out houses is also a review in its own way.)

Jim Allman remarked to me that he considered my Marcellus character to have been professional quality. That, to me, is a memorable review.

But my favorite review came from Robin Van Zandt, who, at the cast wrap party, hugged me and said, "You saved our show." It's great to have your performance be admired; it's a rare thing to have it be important.

This show represented a lot of firsts for me, and apart from a couple of days of being really worried, I enjoyed it just about as much as I've enjoyed anything.

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