Directing Reviews Rating Scale: êêêê Exceptional êêê Good êê Fair ê Poor The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh RATING êêê1/2 Colin Dabkowski The Buffalo News Pair of disturbed brothers spar in compelling ‘Lonesome West’ (Irish Classical Theatre Company – Buffalo, NY) “… compelling production directed by Greg Natale… It’s not a pretty truth to digest, by any stretch, but within this consummate production, it’s impossible to look away.” Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuinness RATING êêêê Ted Hadley The Buffalo News Theater company’s reprisal of McGuinness play is superb (Irish Classical Theatre Company – Buffalo, NY) “Irish Classical’s ‘three-hander’ is potently claustrophobic and harrowing, tragic and comic at once. ‘Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me’ is one of the company’s acting clinics. Greg Natale always directs with great patience and sense of pace.” Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O’Neill RATING êêê1/2 Colin Dabkowski The Buffalo News ‘Ah, Wilderness!,’ lone comedy by O’Neill, excellently done (Irish Classical Theatre Company – Buffalo, NY) “…in a boisterous production directed by Greg Natale, O’Neill’s words receive an expert and thoroughly engaging treatment.” Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets RATING êêê1/2 Colin Dabkowski The Buffalo News ‘Awake and Sing!’ still has relevance (Jewish Repertory Theatre – Buffalo, NY) “Excellent direction by Greg Natale makes wise use of the Andrew’s theater-in-the-round. This production is remarkable as much for the passionate and sometimes overwrought poetry of Odet’s words, as for the skill with which the actors under the direction of Greg Natale awake those words and truly make them sing.” The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter RATING êêê1/2 Ted Hadley The Buffalo News Cast is the treat at 'Birthday Party' (Irish Classical Theatre Company – Buffalo, NY) “Greg Natale directs for the company, skillfully building tension, poisoning the vernacular, turning the trivial nightmarish. He has the players to do this, of course… It's a wonderful cast, superbly directed.” The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein RATING êêêê Ted Hadley The Buffalo News Jewish Repertory Theatre's 'Sisters' is a success (Jewish Repertory Theatre – Buffalo, NY) “Director Greg Natale has calibrated the sisters - they pose and pretend in a crowd, hark back to their Brooklyn roots when alone, their body language and cadence different. Admirably skillful. Cast performances are faultless.” Good by C.P. Taylor RATING êêê1/2 Richard Huntington The Buffalo News 'GOOD' IS GREAT (Irish Classical Theatre Company & Jewish Repertory Theatre – Buffalo, NY) “This superb production, under the well-modulated direction of Greg Natale, is funny and incisive. The play is executed in intermingled dramatic scenes in which Halder is shuttled from his house to the SS office and back, and on to a rendezvous with his mistress that then slides into a secret meeting in the park with his Jewish friend - his "only friend" - Maurice. It is all smoothly, flawlessly done, with ingenious visual segues (like the passing of a serving tray of coffee from one scene to another)… Natale and musical director Don Jenczka’s use of onstage music galvanizes the drama. Keying on that inexplicable history of German musical greatness and the rise of the Nazis crooners, jazz combos, Schubert recitals, and operettas. (The Nazis doing the Drinking Song from ‘The Student Prince’ is a killer.)” Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee RATING êêêê Richard Huntington The Buffalo News Well Crafted Performances Take Some Teeth Out of ‘Woolf’ (Irish Classical Theatre Company – Buffalo, NY) “Irish Classical Theatre's production of "Virginia Woolf" manages to sustain the wild surge of Albee's dialogue -- to render perfectly its crazy, writhing profile -- and still leave mean, old George and Martha with some semblance of humanity. Under Greg Natale's purposeful and clear direction, this might even be seen as a bizarre love story -- love turned on its head with loud denunciations replacing whispered sweet nothings…This is a vastly entertaining interpretation of a great and difficult play that is both dramatically vital and crazily hilarious.” Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare RATING êêêê Colin Dabkowski The Buffalo News ‘Henry IV, Part I’ a darkly fun time (Shakespeare In Delaware Park – Buffalo, NY) “The weather notwithstanding, "Henry IV, Part I" was an eventual triumph for its seasoned acting, pointed comedy and realistic physical interplay. ‘Henry IV, Part I’ is one of Shakespeare's more popular histories because it has a bit of everything -- comedy, drama, combat -- and with director Greg Natale’s well-executed interpretation, Shakespeare in Delaware Park does the bard about as much justice as possible.” The Price by Arthur Miller RATING êêêê Richard Huntington The Buffalo News ‘The Price’ is right, thanks to the Jewish Repertory Theatre (Jewish Repertory Theatre – Buffalo, NY) “The Jewish Repertory Theatre gave a great play a great performance. Greg Natale's sharp direction ensured that none of the high-riding emotions of the second act would spill over into melodrama. And he kept an admirable balance between the serious and the comic in the first act when Miller's marvelous creation, an old Jewish furniture dealer by the name of Gregory Solomon, threatens to make the play into a comedy of one fabulous character…” The Chosen by Chaim Potok RATING êêê Jeff Simon The Buffalo News ‘Chosen’: Nicely Performed (Jewish Repertory Theatre – Buffalo, NY) “The inaugural production of the Jewish Repertory Theatre is as apt a demonstration of this city’s theatrical ecumenicism as you’ll find. Greg Natale’s direction is graceful, unfussy and makes solid use of such chilling period details as Edward R. Murrows’s radio broadcast of the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp.” A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas RATING êêêê Jeff Miers The Buffalo News Christmas Past (Irish Classical Theatre Company – Buffalo, NY) “The play, under the skillful direction of Greg Natale is a timeless, soul-stirring piece, and the ICTC has done an extremely commendable job of capturing the warm glow at its heart.” Mass Appeal by Bill C. Davis RATING êêê Patricia Donovan The Buffalo News ‘Mass Appeal’ fills the bill (Curtain Call Productions – Buffalo, NY) “This production is quite good – funny, troubling, well acted – quite a coup for a little company playing in a tiny space. Direction by Greg Natale is strong and the performances nuanced, witty and itchy as required.” Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley RATING êêêê Anthony Cardinale The Buffalo News Surreal Talk, real talent in ‘Crimes of the Heart’ (Curtain Call Productions – Buffalo, NY) “The temptation of this tragic-comedy is to play it over the top. But it never defoliates, thanks to restraint in the directing of Greg Natale. Just when the demented lines teeter near the edge of farce, the actors come back down to a kind of reality and plod on in their search for resolution to some very deep-seated family incompatibilities.”