Los Angeles Times - Recommended
"...With this bill of four vignettes, straightforwardly titled "Ruth Draper's Monologues," Bening provides more than satisfying compensation. Her work glows with subdued charm."
Variety - Recommended
"...Bening's forthright, sensitive renderings honor the almost forgotten artist who initiated the tradition, as well as those who followed in her footsteps."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...The words are there, and there is no disputing Ms. Bening can act (she has four Oscar noms under her belt), so how did it all go south? The direction–or lack thereof. Ms. Bening decided the best person to sit in the director's chair would be herself. Depending on how you look at it, this is either a brave or a foolhardy choice. It turns out not only to be a disservice to her acting ability but a disservice to the legacy of Ms. Draper as well."
The Hollywood Reporter - Recommended
"...These antique baubles can veer toward the arch or the precious, and while they may be classic in their own way (and certainly centrally important to the development of performance art), they are inevitably somewhat dated. Bening smartly walks the narrow line between acknowledging these studies for what they are and resisting the temptation to pump up their continuing relevance. She has the taste to treat them with admiring restraint, and the connoisseurship to do so faithfully. They require a combination of respect and abandon, and Bening brings both in right measure."
Stage Scene LA - Recommended
"...Four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening brings her movie-star glamour and a career-long commitment to the legitimate stage to the Geffen Playhouse in Ruth Draper's Monologues, as captivating and deliciously performed a one-woman show as you're likely to see all year."
ReviewPlays.com - Recommended
"...Never having seen the real Ruth Draper, there is no way for me to make a comparison of her performances to those of Annette Benning. However, I found Benning a sheer delight in her dramatization of four entirely different, but elite, characters. Her diversity and sense of comedy is exceptionally strong."
ArtsBeatLA - Recommended
"...The writing of these monologues is superb but Bening's execution of them in performance is astoundingly good. So precise, so perfect - this, in short, is brilliant material exquisitely performed by an actress of high caliber."
ArtsInLA - Recommended
"...Bening rises splendidly to the occasion with a performance that is skillful, graceful, and rich."
TheatreMania - Recommended
"...Annette Bening, a thoughtful and gutsy actor both on-screen and onstage, breaks some exciting new ground with Ruth Draper's Monologues, now playing at the Geffen Playhouse. Working her craftsmanly way through four vastly different characters, Bening – also the production's credited director – may be entirely alone up there, but she is well prepared and, at her best, riveting."
Culture Vulture - Somewhat Recommended
"...Bening is reverential to the original Draper. Admittedly she is a pleasure to watch, however she has been much more interesting in more interesting vehicles. I do not think we would care much about these monologues performed by a nobody. As engaging a performer as Bening is, her fidelity to the original leaves us in the position of spending the evening with tiresome women who possibly could have amounted to more had they come of age in the post-feminist era."
Total Theater - Recommended
"...Thanks to her commanding presence and Draper's touchingly human and deeply humorous writing, Ruth Draper's Monologues catches you up in its unique spell, allowing you at the same time to use your own imagination in relating to the material."
NoHoArtsDistrict - Recommended
"...Whether playing an exuberant teenage flapper at her society debut or a stuffy woman sporting an absurd plumed-feather hat, Bening displays the same exquisite sense of timing between spoken dialogue and unspoken response. Credit for the marvelously consistent pace and rhythm of the evening must also go to the director, who happens to be named Annette Bening."
Grigware Blogspot - Recommended
"...Bening has conceived the evening and directed herself, not always a wise choice for an actor. Does she need a third eye? Hardly. She is a breed of performer, perhaps as Ruth Draper was…who knows what she's doing and does it realistically and full-out with intelligence and supreme skill. It would behoove young actresses to take a look, analyze every move, every vocal inflection, every gesture."
