Fugu Reviews
Broadway World- Recommended
"...It's a most interesting tale, extremely well told by Howard Teichman who is also the Artistic Director of West Coast Jewish Theatre, the group producing FUGU at the Pico Playhouse. no doubt the story Teichman has brought to the stage has deep personal significance for him, as it will for many audience members, especially those of us with Eastern European family roots who lost so many of our ancestors due to Nazi hatred. And given today's atmosphere of turning away refugees needing asylum in the United States, this play all the more relevant to our time."
LA Splash- Recommended
"...Co-author Howard Teichman also serves as director and helms FUGU with a sure hand. The talented cast effectively brings history to the present. Kurtis Bedford's set, Ellen Monocroussos' lighting, Shon LeBlanc's costumes, and choreography by Hai Cohen and Kaz Matamura enhance the goings-on with skill. This is a compelling play based on compelling real-life events. Although sometimes spotty in execution, FUGU is an entertaining study of real people in an unbelievable but real situation. By the way, to find out what FUGU means, you'll just have to see the show."
Stage Scene LA- Somewhat Recommended
"... Steven G. Simon and Howard Teichman's overlong script has Colonel No(ri)hiro Yasue (Ryan Moriarty) vowing to protect the six-thousand Lithuanian Jews then residing in Kobe by sending Dr. Avram Kaufman (Warren Davis) on a pro-Japan PR mission to Wall Street, the White House, and Hollywood, a plan based on the mistaken belief that the refugees were part of an international cabal supposedly extending from NYC to DC to La La Land."
Will Call- Recommended
"...West Coast Jewish Theatre's Artistic Director, co-playwright and producer, Howard Teichman, directs a first class cast. Adding some love interest to spice up the story. Colonel Yassue has a young assistant, Satruzo Kotsuji (Scott Keiji Takeda), a serious minded, cute guy, who has spent time in Palestine, is a maven of Jewish history and speaks Yiddish with a droll Japanese accent."
Stage Raw- Recommended
"...The script, by Steven G. Simon and Howard Teichman, takes a while to hit its stride because of the complicated historical background - but when it kicks in, it is powerful stuff. The writers, and Teichman as director, enrich the brew with a canny and sometimes comic depiction of the cultural differences between two rich and authoritarian cultures, the Jewish and the Japanese. (The Jews are taken aback to discover they are expected to eat their Shabbos dinner with chop-sticks - but they solve the problem by producing their own forks.) And they also introduce an earthy thrice-married Yenta (Bryna Weiss) to provide comic relief and pithy comments."