Hand To God at The Booth Theatre

The New York Times - Highly Recommended

"..."Hand to God" popped open on Tuesday at the Booth Theater like a cackling jack-in-the-box, scaring away (really) a couple of audience members at the performance I caught, but bringing peals of joy to most everyone else. In a Broadway season dominated by the usual fodder - musicals new and old, and a healthy serving of Important British Dramas - Mr. Askins's black comedy about the divided human soul, previously seen in two separate Off Broadway runs, stands out as a misfit both merry and scary, and very welcome."

NY Daily News - Highly Recommended

"...But Askins, in his Broadway debut, proves deft at writing dialogue that's hysterical and at serving up insights about organized religion and family dysfunction. He's unapologetically profane - prompting a handful of walkouts after a line about body fluids at a recent performance. Their loss."

Hollywood Reporter - Highly Recommended

"...The five actors couldn't be better. Oberholtzer's Timothy is the archetypal high school bad boy - dumb and horny but maybe deep down just as desperate for love as Jason. Stiles is dryly hilarious but with moments of disarming sweetness and a surprising ballsy streak. Kudisch makes Pastor Greg stolid, well meaning and dull, but neither the actor nor the playwright condescends to the character by making him ridiculous. The wonderful Carr plays a character on the dangerous edge of desperation throughout, but she keeps Margery sympathetic, giving her fragility a soft sexiness that makes her believable as an object of desire to both the lonely pastor and the teenage delinquent."

Vulture - Recommended

"...For centuries, theatrical antiheroes have vied for attention by going to extremes, but Tyrone, in Robert Askins's Hand to God, may be the first, onstage at least, to bite off an ear. He's as violent and vengeful as Sweeney Todd, and, despite his evangelical upbringing, as comically foul-mouthed as any Mamet mook. (His voice combines the appetitive rumble of Cookie Monster with the sexual bravado of James Brown.)"

amNY - Highly Recommended

"..."Hand to God" -- a dark, irreverent and smart comedy by the young, previously unknown playwright Robert Askins -- is one hell of a great success story, having graduated step by step from off Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway to finally Broadway itself."

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...In this highly original and laudably fearless and politically incorrect piece - far indeed from the usual fare here - playwright Robert Askins has essentially taken this performance tradition further by writing the story of a group of troubled young Texans, stuck in a church youth group with their various hang-ups and repressions. They're all in puppet therapy with Margery (Geneva Carr), a youth counselor who needs therapy herself, given the recent death of her husband and her consequent sexual interest in one of her more dangerous students, Timothy (Michael Oberholtzer)."