SPEED FREAKS

“[A] splendidly clever choreographer…his kinetic play retains an uncontrived, anarchic spirit, which is its greatest strength."
— TIME OUT NEW YORK

 

"...a master of mayhem (albeit the dowtown theater kind)...a memorable exercise in delirious theatrical anarchy."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

CARPENTER'S GOLD
"...there is enough cleverness and antic physical energy to make this slight work a pleasant immersion in the comically surreal."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES 

 

"...Cucuzza...truly has a knack for the wacky—his non sequiturs can be their own reward."
— TIME OUT NEW YORK

 

“..the spirit of invention is plain to see."
—BACK STAGE

 

CONFIDENCE, WOMEN!

 "...the mix of voices creates an appealing, comic dissonance that plays into Mr. Cucuzza's endearingly silly side."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

"...Cucuzza's elaborate little con game actually pulls a fast one, hiding a cracking new drama in an acting-lab presentation."

"...his verbiage comes thick, fast and dirty...like a Deadwood episode written by Borges."
— TIME OUT NY 

THE STICKY BANISTER

"...[T]he fluid treatment signals the emergence of a genuine poet of the theater."

— THE VILLAGE VOICE

 

MEAN RICH WHITE LADIES

"...[T]his is a vastly entertaining and zestfully performed piece of expressionistic vaudeville. Cucuzza's direction is self-reflective, of course, but razor sharp, and filled with wonderful details: pauses, takes, and pivots."

— BACK STAGE

 

“[Cucuzza's] version of Luce's classic, is a fast-paced, pie-in-the-face to the highfalutin' production, complete with his usual dose of Marx Brothersesque physical comedy and insanely energetic choreography."
— PAPER MAGAZINE

 

"With such wickedly delightful characters and a flamboyant dance number to boot, this high-falutin' look at the superficial world of society mavens...develops into an acidic joy..."

“If, while you’re cracking up, you can catch your breath, you may want to (as Luce herself once suggested) smash the ladies ‘across the head with a meat ax,’ but then you’d only lose out on the fun.”

—TIME OUT NEW YORK

 

RICH WHITE FARMERS

"Clearly a director of talent...[his] vision is clever, his choreography riveting...and his actors move with brisk synchronicity"
— THE VILLAGE VOICE

 

LOVE CLUMP

"...Cucuzza flexed [his] highly imaginative choreographic wit and elicited doses of playful irreverence from spare compositions.”

— THE VILLAGE VOICE

________________________________________________________________________________________________

SPEED FREAKS

 

"Cucuzza delivers a thrillingly cartoonish performance through a series of raving eruptions, in which the talented actor transforms himself into a vibrating, eye-popping, slobbering Tasmanian devil. [T]he virtuoso auteur is a tremendously watchable actor..."
— TIME OUT NEW YORK

“...a hypnotic performer with a talent for slapstick..."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

GATZ

 

“…one of the most exciting and improbable accomplishments in theater in recent years.”

 

“…the show has a terrific 13-member ensemble…”

 

“[T]he most astonishing metamorphosis is that undergone by the cast, whose interpretations of Fitzgerald’s creations go from quotation-mark-framed stiffness or jokiness into a style that is compellingly sincere without ever being purely naturalistic.”
— THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

“This is simply brilliantly crafted theater of the highest order. It's the most sophisticated literary adaptation for the stage that I have ever seen, one of the most living, complex stage organisms I've ever witnessed …one of the most enriching theater experiences I've ever had… one of the best casts I've ever seen.”
— David Cote, Theater Editor, TIME OUT NEW YORK

 

“…a revelatory and exuberant experience…”

 

"...an angry, key-jangling building super who morphs into the blunt-force Tom (Robert Cucuzza), the dunderheaded son of privilege from the novel transformed into a character who asserts an even more primal (and humorous) sense of entitlement."
— VARIETY

 

"Gatz is such an ensemble effort that singling out performances only goes so far in describing it. Still, I must record the indelible impression left by bulging, baggy eyes of Robert Cucuzza, who makes Tom Buchanan into a kind of demonic clown, dangerously unstable in his deep-seated insecurities about class and masculinity."
— PLAYGOER.BLOGSPOT.COM

 

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PANIC! (HOW TO BE HAPPY)

 

"Of the four [actors], it's Cucuzza whose personality most makes an impression: mincing, lilting his lines in falsetto, a look of moonstruck delight in his eyes and a cynical, self-satisfied smirk on his lips, he forges a link between the here and now of Foreman's tormenting awareness and the memory of theaters past, proving again that, the more we live in the present, the more likely we are to be drawing on the past."
— THE VILLAGE VOICE

 

“Watching the four main performers who make up the nucleus of Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric ...we know we're in the presence of an ensemble in the best sense of the word."
— THE NEW YORKER

 

“The impeccably precise principal players...move and speak with the mannered zeal of automatons in search of their inner humanity..."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

"[The actors] move and emote fluidly, and are riveting to watch..."
— CURTAINUP.COM

 

TOTAL FICTIONAL LIE

 

“In the hour-long show…random scenes from actual documentaries...are reenacted by the seven-member cast. The funniest features Robert Cucuzza as the Bible hawker, trying to close a deal with a nearly catatonic homemaker played by Leslie Buxbaum; the banal scene repeats twice, with the actors delivering hilarious approximations of the film subjects' accents."
—THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

“[The] work here, under co-directors John Collins and Steve Bodow, has integrity, intelligence, and precision as well as imaginative skill; and its actors...have talent for days."
— THE VILLAGE VOICE

 

“What we "follow" in ERS productions is the pure formal brilliance of the ensemble itself.”
— ART IN AMERICA

 

ROOM TONE

 

“It's terribly clever, the way ERS…eases you into this tale with a laconic pace and deadpan humor. It's both amusing and disarming when Robert Cucuzza, as the uncle, apologetically squeezes through the crowd and down to the stage to let in the potential governess.”
— THE WASHINGTON POST

 

MEMOIRS OF MY NERVOUS ILLNESS

 

"Thesping is brilliant throughout."

"Cucuzza's Flechsig channels Dr. Caligari without sacrificing contemporary technique."
— VARIETY

 

LISTEN HOUDINI

 

"...[T]he flinty Robert Cucuzza (as Houdini) finds enough rabid intensity to give larger stakes to [the] clashing viewpoints."
—THE VILLAGE VOICE

 

“Robert Cucuzza captures Houdini's pathetic side with such relatively spare gestures as a single glare or a raised fist."
—TIME OUT NEW YORK

 

"[Director] Sharp takes advantage of Robert Cucuzza's lively stage personality to maintain a spirited mood."
—OFFOFFBROADWAY.COM

 

ADIRONDACK

 

"The piece was performed with knowing abandon by Gregory M. Catellier, John Heginbotham, Matthew Heyner, Krista Miller, Fritha Pengelly, Adrienne Truscott, Nami Yamamoto, the deliciously sardonic Robert Cucuzza and Clare Byrne."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES