Washington Post - Highly Recommended
"...Nothing is pretty about “A Bright New Boise,” a play that marches in the footsteps of Sam Shepard’s acid comedies, set in the weird American West. Yet, you’ll find substantial beauty in Woolly Mammoth’s production, beginning with the mysterious, magnetic ordinariness Russotto manages to project, and extending to the exceptionally fine-tuned performances director John Vreeke elicits from the rest or the class..."
Washington Examiner - Recommended
"... Director John Vreeke keeps the play moving evenly. Misha Kachman's set succinctly describes the high desperation level in "Boise." Its unrelieved functionality suggests why Will prefers the apocalypse to spending the rest of his days in this bleak wilderness."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"... Michael Russotto is given the difficult task of concealing more than he’s revealing and plays Will with just the right tone. His character’s most deeply held feelings have to come out in tiny drips and drops until, finally, he can only look up to the heavens and plead, with much more agony than any commuter has ever felt, “Now. Now! Now!!! Now!!!!”"
Washington City Paper - Recommended
"... The company is as rich as the material. Townley finds notes of sympathy in the beleaguered boss who could easily be a stock villain. Joshua Morgan—half of the very funny duo Assembly Required—here matches his strong dramatic turn in Arena Stage’s The Chosen earlier this year as Alex, a tightly wound kid who composes avant-garde music and avoids small talk at work by pretending not to speak English. Felipe Cabezas is his protective foster sibling, the biological son of the drunks who adopted Alex."
Washingtonian - Recommended
"... Hunter, an Idaho native, based the show on his own experiences with religion, where faith is a consolation for an unhappy existence and Armageddon a nicely misanthropic way to enact revenge on unbelieving enemies. At times, the religion message feels a little overplayed (“There are greater things in life. There have to be,” Will tells his son), compared with the subtlety of the other themes suggested (in typically gory Woolly fashion, a television onstage flits between excruciating corporate slogans and what appears to be videos of surgical procedures). As for the play’s main location, the Hobby Lobby seems to serve as a nice metaphor: People devote themselves to the art of making something tangible out of scraps, and pay for the privilege of doing the work themselves. Sound familiar?"
BrightestYoungThings - Somewhat Recommended
"... A Bright New Boise draws uncomfortable conclusions and uses a familiar setting to deepen its theme of alienation. The play is outright critical of its characters in a way I did not suspect, making a case that some bonds are more important than the one between man and God. Unfortunately, Hunter concludes the play with a superfluous theatrical flourish. The coda overstates the play’s message, especially since Vreeke and his cast handle the material with careful observation and sensitivity. Still, by the end of A Bright New Boise, Will has an answer in a way the audience does not. But because Hunter complicates his play while preserving the faith of his hero, we see how unwavering belief is rarely the answer we need right now."
DramaUrge - Recommended
"... the excess humor, not to mention the provocative nature of the themes, as well as some unusually fine characterizations by Emily Townley and Kimberly Gilbert, will stay with you. Both actresses showed the added range of their craft. Ms. Townley dialed back some of her signature energy to portray her character with warmth and moxie. The amazing Ms. Gilbert shaved off countless IQ points, altering her body stance and vocal delivery, to inhabit a character that was completely sympathetic and real."
CultureMob - Highly Recommended
"... Director John Vreeke deploys an expert cast that honors the rich shading Hunter invests in each character. EmiilyTownley enlivens the part of store manager Pauline, at once defying that she’s a pawn of “corporate” but simultaneously noses to the grindstone of improving margins. Kimberly Gilbert plays an endearing bookworm Anna not only for comic relief (“You write books?! I read books!” ) but eventually wrenching pathos. Filipe Cabezas makes for the best two minutes of dark comedy as punk artist-cum-clerk when he explains his goal of challenging Boise’s mindless shoppers with the extremes of their lives. (He wears a t-shirt, for example, with the F word.) Joshua Morgan as Will’s unbalanced son Alex explodes his inner demons with wrenching realism. And Michael Russotto as Will commands respect from those otherwise skeptical of such extraordinary concepts as the rapture, where death delivers peace. (The cast fails on the Idaho accent."
MD Theatre Guide - Recommended
"... Samuel D. Hunter’s A Bright New Boise, directed by John Vreeke, opens under fluorescent lighting courtesy of Colin K. Bills. Pauline (Emily Townley) is interviewing Will (Michael Russotto), who has applied for a job at the local Hobby Lobby craft store that she manages in Boise, Idaho. Townley is riveting as the crass Pauline, who laughs at her own jokes, sticks her prehensile tongue out, disparages workers’ unions and won’t let Will get a word in edgewise in his own job interview. “I’ll put you on full-time as soon as I can. Until then you work thirty-eight hours a week,” Pauline cheerfully tells Will."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Giddy-up Armageddon! could be the rallying cry for evangelical misfit Will (Michael Russotto), the sad-sack hero of Samuel D. Hunter’s A Bright New Boise, a divinely inspired heartland comedy directed by John Vreeke.
All he has left is his faith—and his unshakable confidence that The Rapture is coming any day now and will whisk him away from his humdrum life.
