Failure: A Love Story Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Recommended
"...Buoyant through and through, the 13-member cast exemplifies the tale's consoling message: "Just because something ends, that don't mean it wasn't a great success.""
LA Weekly- Somewhat Recommended
"...The chirpy songs and capricious plot turns in this whimsical piece are an acquired taste - and, to be frank, not mine. That said, this production is staged with tight-reined focus by director Michael Matthews, and showcases a disciplined ensemble whose pointed portrayals help shave the cloying edges from the material."
Broadway World- Recommended
"...Couerage Theatre Company mounts a fine-tuned production of Failure: A Love Story, playwright Philip Dawkins' fresh, unique take on a ill-fated family in the early 1900s. Michael Matthews smoothly directs and inventively stages his large talented, triple-threat cast as they sing, dance and act out this saga of the Fail family, with seemingly more deaths than the Kennedy clan has endured."
Stage and Cinema- Recommended
"...In gorgeous story-theater gestures, given human scale by the genius of arranger and composer Gregory Nabours and uplifted by Janet Roston's show-stopping choreography, Matthews' shockingly well-cast ensemble gets everything more than right."
Stage Scene LA- Recommended
"...A superb cast, a brilliant design team, and above all the directorial genius that is Michael Matthews join forces to turn Coeurage Theatre Company's Los Angeles Premiere of Failure: A Love Story, Philip Dawkins' whimsical meditation on the fragility of life and the resiliency of those who live it, into one of the year's most stellar 99-seat-plan productions."
ArtsInLA- Recommended
"...It's difficult to imagine the success of Coeurage's dodgy gamble without the imaginative contributions of Matthews, his cast, and his designers, who work passionately to let the Fails's message seep into our bones while we never even realize what's happening."
Frontiers- Recommended
"...Director Michael Matthews' energetic production is staged in a story-theater fashion, with no pretext of a fourth wall. It initially evokes memories of vintage Thornton Wilder (flashes of "The Skin of Our Teeth" and "Our Town"). Yet Dawkins' surrealistic creation and Matthews' interpretation thereof might also be described as unlike anything you've ever seen."