A sample of reviews from London, Broadway and Off Broadway

"Scapino"    
  Dir. Frank Dunlop - Circle in the Square, New York

Reviewer   John Simon   “New York  Magazine”
"Jim Dale is one of the five or six funniest comedians I have ever seen, 
and if I should be granted a dying wish, it would be for a command performance by him - 
so I could die laughing!”
Reviewer Myron Galloway “ Montreal Star”
"Jim Dale, actor, singer, dancer, acrobat, vaudevillian, composer 
may very well be one of the most talented and certainly the funniest comedians in the annals of the theatre. 
Special trains should be put on to bring people into New York from all over the country just to see Dale ........”
 Reporter  Jack O'Brian       “ New York ”
"Jim Dale is the most brilliant lunatic on Broadway since Bert Lahr, 
and his star-billing in "Scapino" merely reflects the finest review of any season, any time!"

"The National Health"    
   Directed by Michael Blakemore  National Theatre, Old Vic, London    
                                                                                        
Reviewer   Frank Rich  New York Times
"As the play began, a curly-haired scarecrow of an actor danced out onto the stage 
and proceeded to do an outrageous vaudeville routine about cadavers and bedpans, 
about doctors and death. 
Wearing an oversize orderly's smock he darted all over the set, 
pinching nurses and twirling hospital carts, lobbing his lines like hand grenades 
into every pocket of the theatre.
And improbable as it sounds he made his macabre spiel seem funny. 
In a matter of minutes a grim National Health ward started to look like a circus. 
The audience knew that it was in the presence of a galvanic talent. 
His name - I committed it to memory at once - was Jim Dale"  

Reviewer  B.A. Young , Financial Times
 "Then there is the incomparable Jim Dale as Barnet, 
I'm not sure Mr. Dale isn't the best comic actor we have." 

"The Comedians"   
  Dir. Edward Perone  Mark Taper Forum, L.A.

Reviewer   Ray Loynd   “ L.A. Herald Examiner” 
 “And it is actor Jim Dale's garishly physical, socially assaulting semi-mime and wholly private, 
demon-fed performance of a talent so individual and brilliantly frightening 
that he scares agents and others away,  that momentarily bedazzles this otherwise ensemble production"

Reviewer       Frederick Ross         “Drama Logue”
"A world-class performance by Jim Dale"   (Headline)
"Dale with his formidable acting intelligence and expressive dancer's body, 
makes his turn a searing, disturbing tour de force."

Reviewer   Patricia Burr        “South Pasadena Review”
"Jim Dale's galvanic stage presence as the most gifted of the students Gethin Price, 
reaches it's climax in the second act. It begins humorously, ends violently, and is throughout brilliant."

"Barnum"     
   Director Joe Layton   St. James Theatre    New York

  Reporter   Michiko Kakutani    “New York Times”
 Headline - "Jim Dale is Toast of Broadway" 
"Jim Dale's performance was a display of consummate showmanship"

Reviewer   Clive Barnes    “New York Post”
"Jim Dale is a one-man, three-ring, four star circus. 
He is a knockout, a great performer. 
Many comedians pratfall, but Dale freefalls!"

Reviewer    Frank Rich     New York Times
"Is there anything that Jim Dale can't do? 
 Last night he roared into town in this new musical 
and showed off enough tricks to make all but a Houdini dizzy. 
He transforms a gargantuan circus of a show into his own joyous playground."

"Music Man"      
 Directed by John Sharpe  Muny Opera House, St. Louis  

Reviewer       Joe Pollack      St. Louis Post                 
"Jim Dale, a truly marvelous song-and-dance man, was a dazzling Prof. Harold Hill. 
The part does insist that he move - and that's where Dale's performance is most thrilling. 
He dominates the stage. 
As a con man he's ultimately devious, always earnest and believable, 
and if he takes a liking to, say, the Arch, 
we'd better watch out or he'll talk someone into gift-wrapping it for him."

"Joe Egg"   
   Dir. by Arvin Brown  Longacre Theatre, New York

 Reviewer   Michael Sommers       "Backstage" 
 "Performers are supposed to appreciate fine acting more than civilians, 
so I'd advise you to beg, borrow or steal any available ticket to "Joe Egg". 
Jim Dale and Stockard Channing are giving the best performances of their career. 
Their performances are a lesson and example to actors of every caliber."
"Performers are supposed to appreciate fine acting more than civilians, 
so I'd advise you to beg, borrow or steal any available ticket to "Joe Egg". 
Jim Dale and Stockard Channing are giving the best performances of their career. 
Their performances are a lesson and example to actors of every caliber."

Reviewer    Clive Barnes         “ New York Post”
 "Welcome the arrival of "Joe Egg" 
starring the spectacular duo of Stockard Channing and Jim Dale. 
I have seen many people play the role of Bri, but no one has quite encompassed its range, 
from rage to impotence, from mockery to despair, like Dale .
He is matched at every point by the wonderful loving Miss Channing. 
You won't see better performances than these two this season."

  “Privates on Parade”   
 Dir. by Larry Carpenter  Roundabout

 Reviewer    Laurie Winer    “Theater”
 "Given a vital actor like Jim Dale, and an audience will know instantly that it is experiencing theater - 
in the best and most magical sense of the word. 
For however long we've been dutifully going to the theater, 
hoping and hoping (and failing) to see the real thing, we recognize it at once when it appears. 
For Mr. Dale 'Privates on Parade' is an acting coup......"  

"Travels With My Aunt" 
 Dir. Giles Havergal  Minetta Lane NY  

Reviewer     Alvin Klein      “New York Times”
"Only Mr. Dale plays the lustful Aunt Augusta . 
In a virtuoso performance that matches in economy of gesture and power of suggestion, 
 Mr. Dale, with a tilt of the chin, a brush of the hand, a precise inflection, 
is conducting a master class in performing art."

" Oliver !"     
   Dir. Sam Mendes         London Palladium

Reviewer     Jack Tinker        Daily Mail
"What a 24-carat asset Jim Dale is to the show. 
His rueful Fagin is a masterpiece - a feast of theatricality."

Reviewer    Neil Smith         “Theatre”
 "Even if you have to pick a pocket or two, 
get hold of a ticket to see Jim Dale's triumphant return to the West End stage.  
Dale has inherited the part of Fagin and this production has unquestionably leapt in stature as a consequence. 
It was Jim Dale's show, and for once the standing ovation - the sine qua non of most first night's - 
actually felt genuine."

”Comedians”   
   Directed by Scott Elliot    Beckett Theatre, New York

Reviewer           Jeannie Lieberman   "Theatre Scene"    
 "Dale is so good and smooth in Comedians that it is a pleasure and a treasure to watch 
this nobleman of theater as he attempts to guide his students to readiness for their performances. 
He is all Music Hall posturing, inimitable diction, 
and a face with just enough mobility to make you want more". 
 "Dale is so good and smooth in Comedians that it is a pleasure and a treasure to watch 
this nobleman of theater as he attempts to guide his students to readiness for their performances. 
He is all Music Hall posturing, inimitable diction, 
and a face with just enough mobility to make you want more". 

“Threepenny Opera”  
 Directed by Scott Elliot , Studio 54, New York

Reviewer    Clive Barnes   New York Post
“But the performance of the night – and surely one of the performances of the season – 
is Jim Dale as Mr. Peachum”.

Reviewer    Hollywood    Reporter
“It takes a theatrical pro like Dale to illustrate what the show could have achieved. 
Playing Peachum with a highly entertaining, loose limbed oiliness, 
he brings down the house with his bravura renditions of such numbers as 
“The Song of the Inadequacy of Human Striving””

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