Washington Post - Recommended
"...You can see why “Imagining Madoff” has been controversial. Margolin takes chances and seeks unconventional connections. The play is not newsy, and it’s hardly the last word on Madoff. But the license Margolin claims, diminished though it is, is intriguingly exercised."
Washington Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...Theater J's season is subtitled "Brilliant Fictions --Shattering Facts." With its insight into the factof Madoff's irresponsibility and the fiction of his conscience, "Imagining Madoff" is an excellent way to start this season."
MetroWeekly - Recommended
"...Of course, a play about Bernie Madoff must live and die by its depiction of Bernie Madoff. In doing so, Margolin plunges into depths of his life not considered, using means unexpected. Imagining Madoff is not a complete portrait of the man, nor a how-to account of his theft. But when it's over, an incomprehensible man fits better into focus."
WeLoveDC - Recommended
"...While the show maybe more fiction than fact, Imagining Madoff offers a realistic take on the man that swindled millions. Yes there are a few artistic liberties that will make Madoff a bit quirkier than your average crook (I don’t know many white-collar criminals that dream of vaginas shaped as wallets), but Madoff is exactly who we would imagine him to be: immoral, driven, and deceptive."
Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended
"...The performers do their part to shed light on the characters. Mendenhall has perhaps the toughest assignment, finding a flesh-and-blood secretary in snatches of exposition spoken in response to unheard questions, but the character’s pain is palpable by the end, both at what she’s witnessed and at what she’s felt. Foucheux makes Madoff a persuasive cad, at once charming and coarse if still essentially unreadable, while Nussbaum puts sparkle in Galkin’s wit and conviction in his moral arguments."
Washingtonian - Somewhat Recommended
"...The hope was that Imagining Madoff would reveal more about the man. Instead I learned more about Madoff from the playbill than from the play itself. His sleaziness was apparent. Associating him with the Jewish faith and the Holocaust were unnecessary affectations that I could have done without."
Washington Jewish Week - Recommended
"...Though the play meanders at times, and the dialogue could sound frivolous in the hands of less expert actors, the result will leave audiences with much to contemplate on the guilt of Madoff, his secretary and even his starry-eyed friend, Galkin. That the evening's climax hinges on the Akedah -the moment when God commands Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac -which figures so prominently in the upcoming High Holiday service, seems nearly prophetic on its face. Delving more deeply into this ageless biblical drama, which Madoff brushes off as incomprehensible when Galkin brings it up, the stunning realization dawns on viewers who have been paying attention to the Madoff family tragedy. Two years to the day after Madoff was arrested, his son, Mark, one of his employees, hung himself in his SoHo apartment. Abraham's faithful belief in God spared his son, Isaac, from the ultimate sacrifice, while in Madoff's case the sins of the father were visited upon his son continuing the tragedy."
Curtain Up - Somewhat Recommended
"...Playwright Margolin and director Alexandra Aron fail to make the men's backstory clear. We are told in the program mptes that these two characters are having an imagined conversation but conversations usually involve verbal give and take. Not so in Imaging Madoff which sounds more like a series of monologues interspersed with some very bad, very old jokes; for example, "Ginger Rogers, heels, backwards," and "How many (Jews, lesbians) does it take to change a light bulb?" Spare us this stuff, please."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Deb Margolin’s play is a roller coaster ride of emotions filled with passionate characters and funny, powerful, and shocking dialogue. Director Alexandra Aron has done a masterful job with her three talented cast members –as they all give exceptional and very ‘human’ performances. A triple tour de force!"
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Foucheux adds Madoff to his growing body of work portraying men difficult to understand, and does the nearly impossible – make Madoff, the mumbleface, possible to understand. His Madoff is a blunt charmer, bubbling with mischief and joy, his seeming candor a seeming gift. And Mendenhall gives her everywoman role an absolutely authentic feel, radiating befuddlement, remorse, undeserved guilt, and profound sorrow.
