Washington Post - Recommended
"...“Ann,” in what the Kennedy Center is calling a “pre-Broadway engagement,” feels a bit slight, but Taylor nevertheless manages to make it fun. She stays very much in her element, and even a malfunction of a set piece on the evening I attended didn’t throw her. In the guise of Richards, she barked genially at a stagehand in the wings, and when that produced no results, she shrugged and gazed out as us, as if to say, a governor can’t fix everything."
Washington Examiner - Recommended
"...For this detailed tribute to Richards, Taylor did considerable research about Richards' personal and public background. The result is a funny, moving, informative remembrance in which Taylor lays bare the essential Richards, a strong, resourceful woman who never shrank from admitting her vulnerabilities."
Variety - Recommended
"... Former Texas governor Ann Richards, one of the Lone Star State's more colorful and outspoken figures, is impersonated with full frontal feistiness in "Ann," a solo play written and performed by Holland Taylor. Actress pays homage to the late political figure (Richards died of cancer in 2006) with an affectionate portrayal that celebrates her wit, determination and homespun values; result is an enjoyable perspective of an imperfect solo subject, given Richards' limited consequence on the U.S. political stage. Production visits the Kennedy Center as part of a brief tour that producer Bob Boyett hopes will include Broadway."
Examiner - Recommended
"...Even when the play takes a darker turn, Ann keeps her sense of humor. In discussing her battle with alcoholism, which hit her hard in her early 40s, just as her political career was about to launch, Ann says she “was like a poster child for functioning alcoholics everywhere,” because she never let her drinking get in the way of her many tasks and commitments."
MetroWeekly - Recommended
"... The framework for Ann is a college commencement address that allows her to recount those heady days, before the conceit is abandoned in favor of a re-creation of an afternoon in the governor's office. And though Taylor tells us much about what happened to Richards before she got there –how she was a child of the Depression with an adoring father and a stern mother, how she was a conventional Texas housewife before making her way into politics, how she struggled with alcoholism, how she faced divorce from the husband she once idolized –it's always from the perspective of a successful woman looking back, never from the perspective of a struggling woman, in the moment, confronting her greatest obstacles."
Washingtonian - Recommended
"... The result is Ann, a blisteringly funny, meandering show that’s notable mostly for how vividly Taylor captures the spirit of her icon. Walking onto the stage with the kind of swagger that evokes W’s cowboy boots rather than the demure heels Taylor wears, she’s so visually similar to Ann Richards that it’s almost alarming. (And for a Philadelphia native, Taylor’s Texas twang ain't bad, either.) Resplendent in a white suit and glittering jewelry, Richards is here to address a graduating class, meaning there are plenty of asides to the audience about how well they scrub up, and whether the jokes she really wants to tell are suitable for such an impressionable crowd."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Holland Taylor IS the late and great Texas Governor Ann Richards in Ann, which is now playing at The Kennedy Center Center’s Eisenhower Theatre. Directed by Benjamin Klein and written by Ms. Taylor after three years of research, the Broadway-Bound Ann is brilliantly written, hysterical, moving, poignant, joyous, sad, inspiring, respectful, delightful, heartwarming, uplifting, and a hell of a lot of fun!"
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
it is a story of a woman who chose to be what she wanted to be, and in so doing got every last drop of joy out of her life. Similarly, Taylor’s Ann delivers every drop of joy from Richards’ life to us in condensed form, in a swirling cocktail which is, like Richards herself, exuberant and transcendent.
BroadwayWorld - Recommended
"... Taylor is truly outstanding in her portrayal of the late Governor noted for her 1988 speech at the Democratic convention in Atlanta when in referring to President George H.W. Bush stated, "He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." (The actual line is NOT in the play.) The line made her famous around the world. It may be a little ironic that it was President Bush's son George who unseated her as Governor after she served only one term."
