Theatrereviews
London, Broadway and Off Broadway
Lord Olivier
British National Theatre, Old Vic Theatre, London 1972
“As Bottom in -‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ –
as Costard in – ‘Love’s Labours Lost’ –
as Launcelot Gobbo in – ‘The Merchant of Venice’
and Autolycus in – ‘The Winter’s Tale’,
Jim Dale is God’s gift to Shakespeare comedies.”
“Scapino”
Directed by Frank Dunlop – Circle in the Square, N. Y. 1974
“In Scapino, 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 John Simon “New York Magazine”
*********************************************
“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 just to see Dale”
Reviewer Myron Galloway “ Montreal Star”
*********************************************
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!”
Reviewer “New York ”
“The National Health”
Directed by Michael Blakemore Nat Theatre, Old Vic, London 1971
“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 –
Jim Dale”
Reviewer Frank Rich New York Times
*********************************************
“Then there is the incomparable Jim Dale as Barnet,
I’m not sure Mr. Dale isn’t the best comic actor Britain has.”
Reviewer B.A. Young , London Financial Times
“The Comedians”
Mark Taper Forum L.A.
“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 momentarily bedazzles
this otherwise ensemble production”
Reviewer Ray Loynd “ L.A. Herald Examiner”
*********************************************
“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.”
Reviewer Patricia Burr “South Pasadena Review”
“Joe Egg”
Directed by Arvin Brown Long Acre Theatre, New York
“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 Michael Sommers “Backstage”
*********************************************
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 this season.”
Reviewer Clive Barnes New York Post
“Privates on Parade”
“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……”
Reviewer Laurie Winer Reviewer Laurie Winer
“Travels With My Aunt”
Directed by Giles Havergal Minetta Lane NY
“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.”
Reviewer Alvin Klein “New York Times”
” Oliver!”
Directed by Sam Mendes London Palladium
“What a 24-carat asset Jim Dale is”
Reviewer Jack Tinker Daily Mail
“It was Jim Dale’s show, and for once
the standing ovation –
the sine qua non of most first night’s –
actually felt genuine.”
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.
“Comedians”
Directed by
“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”
Reviewer Jeannie Lieberman “Theatre Scene”
“Threepenny Opera”
Directed by Scott Elliot , Studio 54, New York
“But the performance of the night
and surely one of the performances of the season –
is Jim Dale as Mr. Peachum”.
Reviewer Clive Barnes New York Post
*********************************************
“It takes a theatrical pro to illustrate
what the show could have achieved.
Playing Peachum with a highly entertaining,
loose limbed oiliness, Jim brings down the house”
Reviewer Hollywood Reporter
“The Road to Mecca”
Directed by Gordon Edelstein
“Dale almost steals the show –
if it wasn’t for Rosemary Harris up there, too,
he’d sneak home with the play.”
Reviewer Mark Kennedy AP Drama Writer
*********************************************
“But Dale was a revelation to me.
His Marius is crystal clear every step of the way.
Dale slowly reveals layers and layers
to deepen our understanding of this man.”
Reviewer Michael Giltz, Huffington Post
*********************************************
“Dale, a great treasure of the theater,
is deceivingly brilliant as Marius.”
Reviewer Hollywoodsoapbox.co
One of the very best reviews
any actor could possibly receive.
by
John Simon
New York theatre critic, 5th. June 2014
“Just Jim Dale”
Directed by Richard Maltby
What a relief to come to the marvelous “Just Jim Dale,”
as good a solo show as you will ever see,
which I cannot commend and recommend highly enough.
Jim Dale may just be the most charming farceur
to tread the boards, while also triumphing
on both the big and little screen
to say nothing of his brilliant recorded readings
of the seven Harry Potter novels, in which he manages
a different, equally splendid voice for
all two hundred plus characters.
But let’s get back to charm.
This usually comes with high comedy
a la Noel Coward or Cary Grant, or,
more Gallicly and bedroomily, by Charles Boyer.
It almost never comes with unabashedly
low or middle-range farce,
dazzlingly elevated to the heights attained by Jim Dale,
as he holds you in his palms, his feet, his whole body
for two uninterrupted hours,
leaving you wallowing in laughter
but perfectly game for any number of hours more.
Dale sings and clowns, dances and jests with delicious patter,
and moves with an anthology of comic walks, gestures,
and even the odd pratfall, right onto your funny bone
and into your heart. And when I say funny bone,
I don’t mean merely that spot on your elbow,
but every bone and muscle making you shake with laughter
to make the rafters ring.
The show is essentially Dale’s telling and reenacting
of his life and stage story, and how a boy,
with working-class parents,
worked himself up through hard training
to the summits of showbiz,
to Britain’s beloved Music Hall and beyond it
to every possible medium,
including Shakespeare and Molière,
displaying matchless movement, terrific timing
and those oodles of charm which only inborn talent
and hard work lightly worn can attain.
Richard Maltby, Jr. has contributed skilled direction,
and Anna Louizos a handsome backdrop.
But mostly it’s the genius of just Jim Dale.
He has “forged in the smithy of his soul”
(phrase by James Joyce)
not just “the conscience of his race”
(Joyce again),
but also the conquest and conveying
of the summits of comedy.
It is impossible to impart all this
through mere printed words;
you must catch
“Just Jim Dale”
and experience it firsthand.
What you see and hear
will stay with you as a touchstone
for as long as you are capable of joyous remembrance.
The “Just Jim Dale” team is directed
by Tony-Award winning director
Richard Maltby, Jr.
Pianist Mark York
Musical Director Aaron Gandy.