Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended
"... Stripped of its most powerful ingredient —Daisey’s firsthand accounts of labor abuses inside a Chinese plant that makes Apple products — the piece, in its return engagement at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, remains a showcase for Daisey’s remarkable skills as a raconteur-provocateur. But the necessary excision of details Daisey claimed to have witnessed but later acknowledged he hadn’t has weakened the work’s authority, and, in this sad and sorry instance, neutered his argument."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Steve Jobs is a well-known fanboy’s wet dream, but Mike Daisey’s one-man performance of The Agony and The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs enlightens viewers to the soul numbing truth of Jobs’ real legacy. Daisey masterfully weaves a world of the beloved mad genius whose utter disregard for the thousands of lives he’s has a hand in destroying can be easily excused in the name of glorious progress. A ‘must see’ for any Mac fan, computer junkie, or techie wanna-be."
Baltimore Sun - Recommended
"... Throughout, Daisey generates an odd kind of music with his voice, which covers an awfully wide dynamic range and is frequently punctuated, usually when you least expect it, with deafening, Lewis Black-like bursts of volume. It's all quite the tour de force for Daisey, a super-sized man with a healthy ego to match."
DCist - Somewhat Recommended
"... Unfortunately, where Agony and Ecstasy is concerned, watching Mike Daisey be Mike Daisey is now a chore and a two-hour exercise in vanity. He is still consumed by his own role as messenger of Apple’s corporate misdeeds, acknowledging but not rectifying the fact that his message was flawed. Daisey has long been a fixture of summers at Woolly Mammoth, but ideally, he would use these weeks to workshop a new project, not wring the last bits of life from a irreparably damaged monologue."
Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended
"...And there’s the rub: An artist who’s made a name by marrying serious craft with serious concerns has, in a crucial way, denatured the part of that equation that matters most. It’s not that sinners don’t deserve forgiveness; it’s that thundering righteousness sounds unattractively pious on the lips of even the truly contrite."
Washingtonian - Recommended
"... Daisey, as all good storytellers are, is a man in love with his own narrative, and his emphasis that his is the only correct way to see the world is as relentless and unapologetic as it’s ever been. “I have a disgusting amount of control over the narrative,” he confesses, and he isn’t kidding. In fact, since portions of the show have been altered and a new conclusion added, Wednesday night’s production came in at almost two hours without an intermission, which is a long time for an audience to listen to a monologue. Toward the end, it’s hard not to wish for someone to come in and wrestle some of the control from Daisey’s hands (his longtime director is also his wife, Jean-Michele Gregory)."
BrightestYoungThings - Somewhat Recommended
"...As the monologue winds to a close, Daisey tries to skirt around the scandal surrounding him. He reminds us that This American Life and the New York Times have uncovered crucial information about the working conditions in Apple. He says that whether he’s fabulist is immaterial because he’s arrived at a larger, more important truth. Throughout the entire show, Daisey returns to the phrase, “the metaphor within us has shifted.” He’s talking about how an epiphany changes how we perceive the world. Well, a metaphor within me has shifted, but it’s not the one Daisey wants. Now that he’s been exposed as a liar, I can no longer believe him. It’s a shame, too, since those workers in China deserve a champion who would tell us the truth the first time."
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
“Known fabulist” or not, Mike Daisey is an incredible storyteller. Despite the still simmering controversy over fact manipulation and hyperbole discovered in previous incarnations of his smash monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Daisey has reappeared on the Woolly Mammoth Stage, chastened yet still near the peak of his powers. And Mike Daisey at 95% is still electric.
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"... Mike also deserves kudos for ensuring what could have been a depressing examination of labor practices has moments of laughter. His discussion of the use of Power Point among Chinese businessmen brought a grin to my face as someone who has suffered ‘death by Power Point’ on more than one occasion in my day job. That little vignette also demonstrated commonalities across Chinese and American cultures and the powerful role of globalized commerce today’s world. This kind of discussion, although at its surface tangential to the Daisey’s subject matter at hand, would likely have left the audience saying “huh?” (as to its point) if executed by a lesser performer. However, Daisey’s way with words, and his acute understanding of what they mean and how ideas relate to one another, made this portion of the monologue work quite well."
