This Beautiful City | Paris Commune | Gone Missing
(I am) Nobody's Lunch) | The Ladies | Canard, Canard, Goose?

 

Vineyard Theatre (New York, NY, Winter, 2009, Co-Production with Center Theatre Group)

Center Theatre Group, Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles, CA, Autumn, 2008, Co-Production with Vineyard Theatre)

Studio Theatre (Washington, DC, June, 11 to 29, 2008, World Premiere Co-Production with Actors Theatre of Louisville) Buy Tickets Now!

  • The Washington Post: "Zinoman says, 'letting these really hot national companies into the Studio to rehearse and develop the work, and then we'll do the premieres. That's something that we've never, ever done before.'"

Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival of New American Plays (Kentucky, March 5 to 29, 2008, World Premiere Co-Production with Studio Theatre)

  • Variety: "the material is fascinating and the excellent cast, many of whom conducted the original interviews, effortlessly transforms into a persuasive array of Colorado Springs inhabitants"
  • CurtainUp.com: "a mesmerizing, fiercely intelligent portrait of Colorado Springs"
  • The New York Times: "'This Beautiful City' is not a polemical exposé in the Michael Moore mold. It is a thoughtful, exploratory foray into a world that, as the interviews make clear, was alien territory to the show's creators."
  • Total Theater: "an unsettling, fiercely intelligent dissection of the American Evangelical movement"
  • Denver Post: "the explosive and even surprising story of how the confluence of Focus on the Family, the Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, NORAD and the anti-gay Amendment 2 movement made this city at the base of Pikes Peak the logical place for evangelism to germinate and grow"
  • The Courier-Journal: "Actors' mission with the Humana Festival...is to develop new works that will go out into the world and find homes in diverse venues that include regional theaters, touring groups, alternative theaters, art galleries"

Sundance Theatre Lab (Workshop, July, 2007)

  • American Theatre Magazine: "as they complete their work, the Civilians's most challenging task may be convincing audiences that all the people on stage—even the ones who aren't like them—deserve serious attention."
  • Salt Lake Tribune: "draws upon the motifs of Christian pop, intercut with snippets of prayers and church speeches, to recount with dramatic urgency what happened inside the New Life Church the day Haggard was exposed."

Colorado College (Residency, January 8 to February 14, 2007)

  • Dramatics Magazine: "examines through monologues and musical numbers the often explosive combination of religion and politics as it is acted out daily in the city that has become the de facto headquarters of the Christian right"
  • Colorado Springs Independent: "Through performance and music, the production aims to illustrate the myriad of religious viewpoints in Colorado Springs, and the nation."
  • The Colorado Springs Gazette: "take a weighty theme, mix in some witty dialogue and toetapping tunes, then plop it onstage like a whimsical Jell-O salad so the audience can sink into the off-kilter delicacy"
  • Newspeak: "The Civilians will give Colorado Springs residents chance to see our local culture in the mirror of a cabaret-style musical theater production"
  • Rocky Mountain News: "a New York acting company is honing its take on what makes evangelical Christians tick"
  • The New York Times: "Haggard's Accuser, and a Theater Troupe, Visit Megachurch"
  • The Denver Post: "Jones was accompanied Sunday by members of a New York- based theater troupe, the Civilians"

 

La Jolla Playhouse (California, 2004)

Barrow Street Theatre (New York, NY, June 14, 2007 to January 6, 2008)

  • New York Daily News: "Hot: Small Musicals, Big Delights"
  • New York Sun: "smart, sad, and effortlessly tuneful"
  • The Seattle Times: "something special: a mundane and metaphysical cabaret of bereavement"
  • The Star-Ledger: "a thoughtful and sometimes loony show about forgotten wallets, missing childhood sock puppets, the lost island of Atlantis"
  • The New York Times: Profile of Damian Baldet with video clips.
  • Daily News: "uses the small and tangible - a mislaid wallet, say, or scarf - as a way to tap into yearning for what's irrevocably left us"
  • Blog Critics: "Go see this if you are in love with someone and want an evening that will bind up the little scratchy gaps you are feeling right now."
  • NY1: "director Steve Cosson displays a pitch-perfect ear for tone"
  • The Village Voice: "This bustling mosaic vibrates with energy and intelligence"
  • flavorpill: "straddles the documentary and musical genres, succeeding in both"
  • Broadway.com: "Fresh Face: Stephen Plunkett"
  • Courier-News: "this is painfully funny! I certainly wasn't leaving that evening without purchasing their CD"
  • Downtown Express: "A jewel in the lost and found department"
  • Epoch Times: "hilarious...very easy to emphasize with"
  • American Theater Web: "a rollicking rollercoaster where theatergoers ricochet with the stories"
  • New York Post: "Eclectic, Tuneful Production's a Real Find"
  • The New York Sun: "the Civilians have created a work to be cherished."
  • Time Out New York: "clear evidence of evolution in the world of modern theater. Miss it and weep."
  • New York Times: "fresh, breezy and very funny indeed, pretty much the perfect summer entertainment"
  • New York Press: "an affectingly off-kilter sketch-and-song revue, Gone Missing sweeps you up in a tight, clearheaded embrace"
  • The Star-Ledger: "The Civilians' cool, classy interpretation of their findings still packs quite a bit of thoughtful entertainment."
  • Daily News: "balances the funny, strange and touching. Ask me to name a show I've seen recently that I've enjoyed more: I'd be at a total loss."
  • TheaterMania: "a wildly funny and marvelously inventive meditation on things lost and sometimes found"
  • NYTheatre.com: "a thrillingly theatrical work that pivots on a thing that is lost and often what is surprisingly gained"
  • CurtainUp.com: "songs, monologues and coordinated trios, making for a vividly entertaining night out"
  • Variety: "Welcome to the bigger leagues...'Gone Missing' is engrossing and inventive. And it delivers a stunning payoff in its final scene."
  • Time Out New York: "this is a company that does really interesting work"
  • Time Out New York: "one of the city's smartest and most original troupes"
  • The Village Voice: "Happily, Gone Missing has been located and revived for a commercial run at the Barrow Street Theatre."
  • New York Sun: "silly, moving, weirdly spiritual hymn to lost things"
  • Variety: "the show could push The Civilians to a new professional peak while possibly convincing legiters that there's still life in Off Broadway yet."
  • Variety: "Company has attracted attention for productions, often with musical numbers, based on research and interviews about a particular topic."
  • TheaterMania: "The Civilians will make their official Off-Broadway debut"
  • Playbill: "the show has grown and now features a score by Friedman, which incorporates salsa, ballads, operetta and tuneful pop."
  • BroadwayWorld: "The Civilians, the acclaimed New York-based experimental theater troupe, will play a rare local summer season."

Actors' Theatre of Louisville (Kentucky, Septmber, 2006)

St. Ann's Warehouse (Under the Radar Festival, New York, January, 2005)

  • The New York Times: "a cunningly constructed and charmingly performed show built on real-life interviews with people who have lost something."

The Gate Theatre (London)

  • The Telegraph: "the verbatim speech is accompanied by witty, tuneful and often extremely touching original songs about loss"
  • The Independent: "a startling combination executed with great panache, satirical acumen and covert tenderness"
  • The Sunday Telegraph: "It is based on real-life interviews, but they are imaginatively edited, enhanced with half-comic, half-poetic side-shows"
  • Evening Standard: "arrives on these shores from the Big Apple laden with praise, to which London audiences should hasten to add their voices"
  • The Times: "many things to lose: the will to live, the plot, a war. These and others are explored in this slick cabaret piece"
  • Time Out London: "Michael Friedman's songs are super-smart and heartfelt."
  • Time Out London: "documentary theatre is the boom stage phenomenon of our age"

The Belt Theater (New York)

  • NY1 Television: "Best Show of 2003"
  • Time Out New York (David Cote): "10 Best of 2003; The brilliant Civilians earned more medals of honor with their brainy, touching song-and-sketch revue."
  • Time Out New York (Adam Feldman): "10 Best of 2003; The Civilians merged lost with found in this elliptic, perfectly pitched collage"
  • The New Yorker: "a surprising amount of fun and abundant moments of clear-eyed empathy"
  • New York Magazine: "As usual, they plunged into their subject with scores of interviews, and ended up with a kind of musical mockumentary so empathic it's sure to console the bereft."
  • The Village Voice: "The troupe members and director Steven Cosson have a fine ear for striking phrases and odd-ball cadences...with such linguistic virtuosity, missing Missing cannot be endorsed."
  • Time Out New York: "Gone Missing dissects the phenomenon of lost things — material and metaphysical — in a remarkably poignant and funny review of sketch and song"
  • New York Sun: "Shows That Hinted Musical Theater Might Not Be a Fussy Relic After All: The Civilians' documentary cabaret Gone Missing"

 

Soho Theatre (London, Septmber 5 to 23, 2006)

  • The Evening Standard: "Critics Choice...a funny, searching, at times plaintive look at the dangerous blurring of fact and myth in American culture."
  • The Evening Standard: "Four Stars...quirkily clever, edifyingly fun and, in all, rather brilliant"
  • Metro: "a smart, sassy piece of cabaret"
  • The Times: "an inventive and provocative exploration of the 21st-century condition"

Assembly Rooms (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, August 4 to 28, 2006)

  • Spiked: "a cute cabaret that exposes the everyday consequences of distrust and anxiety"
  • Time Out London: "Four Stars...The actors are hugely talented and sing sweetly..."
  • The Times of London: "Four Stars...a script as sharp as a tack, clever songs, five terrific singer/performers..."
  • Daily Telegraph: "...it is far funnier than its existential theme suggests..."
  • Scotland on Sunday: "often as poignant as it is amusing...a musical like no other"
  • Theatre Guide London: "a completely new style of theatre - Verbatim Cabaret"
  • The Scotsman: "Told cabaret-style, the re-enacted interviews are interspersed with witty, beautifully played songs"
  • The Stage: "Must See...polish and professionalism raise it far above usual fringe standards..."
  • The Independent: "vox pop interviews that morph into peculiarly catchy songs"
  • Metro: "Four Stars...a thought-provoking and funny alternative cabaret that delights in letting the cat out of the bag"
  • Three Weeks: "Four Stars...Moving, thought provoking, and sometimes hilariously silly..."
  • The Guardian: "the Civilians co-mingle docudrama with cabaret, spinning their interviewees' responses into improbable, inquisitive song-and-soliloquy revues"
  • The Scotsman: "Five Stars...Above all, it's a piece that bristles with ideas."
  • The List: "Four Stars...a reassuring moment where we realise that we are very far from alone"
  • OnstageScotland: "the show is elevated above verbatim-for-laughs by its glorious songs"
  • The Guardian: "A record number of New York acts are appearing at this year's Fringe"
  • The List: "New York's acclaimed Civilians present alternative cabaret based on verbatim conversations about the war in Iraq"
  • Three Weeks: "(I Am) Nobody’s Lunch is the only epistemological cabaret-theatre show in the entire world"
  • The Sunday Times: "Look out for the touching ballad about the abandonment of civil liberties. "

American Repertory Theatre (Cambridge, MA, April 25 to 30, 2006)

  • Boston Herald: "a talented troupe that combines the comic timing of a "Saturday Night Live" sketch with impressive vocals and sleek choreography."
  • The Boston Globe: "a vibrant sextet of satirists who charge their way into our contemporary Tower of Babel"
  • The Boston Globe: "entertaining mix of hilarious storytelling and serious thought"

59 East 59th Street Theatres (New York, NY, January 19 to February 5, 2006)

  • New York Times: "a five-year-old collective that has been attracting notice with its inventive and unexpected approach to docudrama"
  • New York Times: "a funny, searching, at times plaintive look at the dangerous blurring of fact and myth in American culture"
  • Time Out New York: "an elegant balance of intellectual inquisitiveness, political comment and sly entertainment"

PS122 (New York, NY, September 24 to October 17, 2004)

 

Chashama (New York, 2004)

  • New York Times: "a rollicking take on four first ladies who exercised power"
  • Broadway World: "Avant-garde from the get go"
  • Time Out New York: "an alternative to the pseudo-objective docu-theater of Anna Deveare Smith and her artistic progeny"

 

HERE (New York, February, 2002)

  • Time Out New York: "Sublimely silly and shameless, this septet of downtown talent self-mockingly tackles the issue of animal neglect in film."
  • Time Out New York: "a surprisingly intelligent showcase for the ensemble and for composer Michael Friedman."
  • The Village Voice: "it's not every company that can write bilingual comic songs or screw up in such a delightfully quackerjack fashion.""
  • DigitalCity: "Keep an eye on this troupe. They've got talent, style, convictions, and most importantly, a sense of humor."
  • NYTheatre.com: "like Rashomon cubed...kudos to director Steve Cosson for his subtle manipulations of theatrical space"

For more information, email us at info@thecivilians.org.