The New York Times - Recommended
"...Dazzling though Mr. Frayn's engineering is, "Noises Off" would be a mere dissertation in clever dramaturgical mechanics, were it not for the expertly drawn characters, here embodied by a first-rate cast well aware of the addictions, indulgences, pretensions and general egotism of actors (some actors!) that Mr. Frayn is gently playing for laughs."
NY Daily News - Somewhat Recommended
"...This production gets about it about halfway right - so even with a soggy and slack final stretch, you're left grinning over the show's sly inner workings...Act I, set amid a dress rehearsal of 'Nothing On,' lands some good laughs...Act II, set a month later, rotates the perspective...This is when real show hits its stride. It's packed tight as a tin of sardines with laughter. But Act III, set a month later, leads to diminishing returns."
Associated Press - Highly Recommended
"...Michael Frayn's farce about putting on a stage farce is breathlessly clever and funny, a staple of the contemporary theater repertoire. How can it be made even funnier? The Roundabout Theatre Company somehow has found a way...An all-star group of comedic talents allowed to run riot...Everyone onstage has to believe that the risks are real, and this new ensemble never mugs or winks. They are utterly, terribly good at being bad, which is meant as a supreme compliment."
Hollywood Reporter - Somewhat Recommended
"...Still, as evidenced by the constant laughter, few in the audience appear to be complaining. Despite its wit, structural inventiveness and reputation as one of the all-time great farces, this is a tough play to pull off. Even if they're not 100 percent there yet, Herrin and his ace cast seem well on their way to mastering it."
Vulture - Highly Recommended
"...This cast is so well-matched that they really do seem to have been working together for months....Indeed, the astonishing thing about the contrivances is that, in a well-judged production like this one, they eventually break into yet another sphere...How something can be both nonsense and (in the context of the play) inevitable is a great and beautiful mystery, one that makes 'Noises Off' not just one of the funniest plays ever written but one of the best."
Variety - Highly Recommended
"...Funny lady Andrea Martin leads the nimble cast of this well-tooled revival...Martin who was born to make us laugh, is a perfect hoot in the pivotal role of the scatterbrained actress...On the laugh meter, Act I is only so-so. But as a setup for the next two acts, it's brilliant. Act II is bust-a-gut funny...'Noises Off' seems to be always playing somewhere in the civilized world...And that's exactly the way it should be, because this kind of comedic brilliance never gets stale."
New York Post - Somewhat Recommended
"...The ensemble in the new Broadway revival includes some of the funniest people in the biz. And they're having a ball, each one firing up at least one memorable scene or move...At times it seems as if the cast is so focused on hitting its marks - 'Noises Off' requires Swiss-like precision - that the actors forget to have fun. Let's hope that with time, they'll become as comfortable as sardines in oil, and the production should gear up into the required breakneck speed and unhinged lunacy."
Newsday - Highly Recommended
"...A cumulatively virtuosic nine-expert ensemble of smart and fearless comic actors...British director Jeremy Herrin turns out to have a shrewd silly streak...The comedy in the first of three acts feels a little forced. But Herrin soon catapults the physical and verbal humor headlong into increasingly inspired opportunities to watch characters play out their real lives while trying to perform the complications of their second-rate play."
amNY - Highly Recommended
"...For 'Noises Off' to work on a basic level, its thoroughly intricate physical activity must be staged with the precision of a ballet. But a great production, which this revival certainly is, builds the slapstick around truthful performances, thus making the chaos feel natural...Act Two is a tour-de-force of silent comedy...Jeremy Herrin has brought together a dynamic ensemble cast of stage veterans."
Wall Street Journal - Highly Recommended
"...But Michael Frayn's "Noises Off," which is widely thought (by me among others) to be the funniest play ever written, give or take Mr. Ives's "The Liar," is a happy exception to that gloomy rule. First seen on Broadway in 1983 and revived there in 2001, it is now being done again, this time by the Roundabout Theatre Company in a production directed by Jeremy Herrin, who made his New York debut last season with the transfer of "Wolf Hall." This revival is as glorious as "Wolf Hall" was dull, not least because it features Tracee Chimo, the most gifted young comic actor to hit Broadway in recent memory."
NorthJersey - Recommended
"...The ingenious 'Noises Off' is the world champion of farces, and it's nice to report it's received a very funny, properly dizzying revival from the Roundabout Theatre Company. Michael Frayn's 1982 play, which opened Thursday night at the American Airlines Theatre under the savvy direction of Jeremy Herrin - its third time on Broadway - takes farce to its extreme limit."
Time Out New York - Somewhat Recommended
"...'Noises Off' is a precision-timed laugh machine, and director Jeremy Herrin's ensemble is peppered with some of New York's finest comic actors. So why did I chuckle so little? Various excuses could be made. There's the culture gap: Good as our American troupers are, they don't quite get the jauntily sleazy vibe of English sex comedy. Or the fault lies in the director...All due respect to the gamely guffawing audience with whom I attended, but I wanted to make more noise."
The Wrap - Somewhat Recommended
"...There's much to smile at in director Jeremy Herrin's new revival. Truly inspired is David Furr's performance as Garry Lejeune...As a nose bleeder, Jeremy Shamos somehow manages to make each attack different. Which is not the case with Megan Hilty's cluelessness, Kate Jennings Grant's gossip-mongering, or Tracee Chimo's sobbing....A greater problem for this production is Campbell Scott, who has neither the style nor the size to play the director of 'Nothing On.'"
The Guardian - Somewhat Recommended
"...An excellent cast, though notably undiverse, except in terms of acting styles, which is something of a problem...Is it funny? Of course it's funny. It's very funny. It can't help but be very funny. Even the terrible movie version is funny. But could it be funnier? Well, yes...The actors don't quite seem to be in the same play or even the same play within a play...The chemistry of the whole cast only crackles sometimes."
Deadline - Recommended
"...Here's Megan Hilty bouncing down a stairway - bounce bounce bounce - and strutting her outrageous stuff in a pink beribboned bustiere, mouth agape and eyes betraying an overabundance of oxygen to the brain. Here, too, is Andrea Martin dueling losingly with sardines, which sometimes fly off the plate like birds heading south for the winter. Politically incorrect? Only if you're brain dead. This is Noises Off, the Roundabout Theatre Company's happy antidote to all things January, a percussive dose of slamming doors, wince-inducing pratfalls and enough suggestive tomfoolery to fill the bill at Minsky's."
Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended
"...Director Jeremy Herrin and his near-consummate cast have achieved a feat I'd previously deemed impossible: They've unlocked more complexities in 'Nothing On,' the thoroughly absurd play-within-a-play...'Nothing On' means something powerful to each and every person putting it on...It's to Herrin's immense credit that so many of the thousand jokes still hit their targets, when they never seem to be his prevailing goal."
TheaterMania - Highly Recommended
"...The funniest backstage comedy ever written...Director Jeremy Herrin painstakingly sets up the dominoes in a muted first act, only to knock them down in spectacular fashion in the second, and dynamite them in the third...Cheeky design, a highly talented ensemble, and perfect comic timing: This 'Noises Off' has the right combination of elements to make the perpetually funny comedy soar. If you're looking for a night of gut-busting hilarity, you can't do any better than this one."
Huffington Post - Highly Recommended
"...This 'Noises Off' is splendidly delirious fun...A perfectly-calibrated production which brings full value to Frayn's text while adding layers of visual humor that leaves audiences hooting with delight...Herrin's production is slam-bang, knockdown funny...Director Herrin has pulled out all the stops with this 'Noises Off,' with a fair share of the credit due the insanely warped mind of Michael Frayn, who dreamed the contraption up."
DC Theatre Scene - Recommended
"...An impressive nine-member cast, made up of the best of Broadway today...I can't remember ever hearing laughter at a higher sustained volume for any show on Broadway...Such a reaction en masse is just a slightly alienating experience for those of us who can't help viewing this three-decade-old farce as little more than 'The Three Stooges' with a British accent...Such proscenium pandemonium requires precise coordination, and director Jeremy Herrin is clearly up to the task."
Towle Road - Somewhat Recommended
"...The revival's second half - what should be a prolonged, hysterical frenzy - goes off the rails. An extended pantomime of hushed backstage pratfalls lacks clear choreography to direct our gaze amidst chaos. The disastrous performance we witness in the third act unspools without the precision that might make it funnier than it is awkward. Yet, despite the production's muddled payoff, you'd be hard pressed to stifle guffaws."
WNBC - Highly Recommended
"...An A-list ensemble, led by beloved comedienne Andrea Martin, takes classic scenes and amps them up...I don't have warm and fuzzy feelings toward farce in general, and 'Noises Off' takes its time building to full-fledged nuttiness. But director Jeremy Herrin shrewdly pulls off 'Off' with one intermission...Things here just flow...Even if you know the farce inside-out, this team ensures that some laughs will catch you off guard."
Broadway World - Highly Recommended
"...An uproarious new revival solidly mounted by Jeremy Herrin, featuring a fantastic ensemble of seasoned stage actors strutting their stuff...The gifted clown Andrea Martin is just darling as Dotty...Jeremy Shamos is very funny as the good-natured, but nervous wreck Frederick, and has a bit of physical business about regaining his footing that might very well get him nominated for an Astaire Award...'Noises Off' is a night of wild, frenetic fun."
