The New York Times - Somewhat Recommended
"This is a more assured production than the one I saw a year ago, and the encompassing visual lushness of its environment is new. But a fundamental stumble still keeps it from fully blossoming to life...Mechanics get in the way of fantasy, though, at a crucial point...Just when we want the play to move us, there's a frantic muddle instead. That long sequence contains the key to the story's heart, and this abundantly beautiful show still needs to find it."
Hollywood Reporter - Recommended
"It tells the backstory of the Tin Man via movement, mime and puppetry, with only a short prologue verbally setting up the action. It achieves great impact with minimal means...The evocative mood is set even before the show begins and it's sustained beautifully throughout the virtually wordless piece...The narrative is diffusely conveyed at times, many of the individual sequences are vividly rendered."
New York Theater - Somewhat Recommended
"There is no question that it is heartfelt, and beautiful to look at; that James Ortiz is deeply talented; that the nine other performers are a dedicated ensemble, who even breathe as if one: We see their unified breath at both the beginning and the end of the show...Everything is tasteful and inventive, languid and lovely, and, to me, a tad tedious...It's not their fault I left feeling like W.C. Fields, wondering if Toto's origin story is next."
Variety - Recommended
"There's a haunting beauty about this dark puppet show, created by James Ortiz, the writer, co-director, puppet master and star of the current production. This eerie prequel to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' reveals how the Tin Woodman lost his heart - not to mention all his body parts - when the Wicked Witch of the East put a curse on his ax...The puppeteers are proficient and the effects are exquisite."
Time Out New York - Recommended
"Strangemen & Co.'s immersive and practically wordless adaptation of the writings of L. Frank Baum uses low-tech stagecraft like evocative Bunraku puppets, haunting vocal sound effects and a lone violinist to tell the backstory. Emotions are communicated through simple gestures, grunts and glances, not one wasted. Touching on mortality, futility and fate, 'The Woodsman' is a grown-up fairy tale that proves happiness is a worthwhile goal, even if it doesn't last ever after."
Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended
"Silence, precisely enough articulated, can indeed speak volumes. And it does, in 'The Woodsman,' the haunting, lovely, and unforgettable puppet-fairy-tale extravaganza. So well rendered is this astonishingly short but impossibly full show...On the few occasions when an actor does use his or her actual voice, you'll be amazed at what you've been missing-and how, against the odds, you haven't missed it at all."
Huffington Post - Highly Recommended
"'The Woodsman' is theatre at its most basic and beautifully creative...'The Woodsman's' success isn't simply a result of good source material...Though the actors are all excellent storytellers, and the ensemble work is excellently executed, the stars of this show are three puppets...So go see this piece which has a great deal of heart, even before the Tin Man loses and finds his."
Broadway Blog - Recommended
"Combining elegantly choreographed movement, sensitive music, imaginative puppetry, and a minimum of spoken language, it offers 70 uninterrupted minutes of theatre magic that can be enjoyed by both adults and children...'The Woodsman' is ensemble theatre at its best, but that doesn't disguise the fact that in James Ortiz, a lanky young Abe Lincoln-type with a memorably unruly shock of hair, it has a special kind of genius at its helm."
As Her World Turns - Highly Recommended
"'Stupid Fu**ing Bird' is among my favorite theater-going experiences of the past month. It uses Brechtian distancing effects superbly—direct address, musical interludes, some audience interaction...Playwright Aaron Posner's take on this classic is bold, original, and in-your-face. It pulses with an undeniable current that answers Conrad's non-rhetorical question: yes, theater can still bring originality and excitement."
