Los Angeles Times
- Recommended
"...The play, in revival at the Geffen Playhouse in a co-production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, is a daunting physical challenge to perform. An Olympic track and field team looking to raise its cardio fitness might consider adding a rehearsal of "Noises Off" to its training regimen."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...It's a perfectly entertaining and diverting evening in the theater. But if the 150-minute running time starts to feel long, don't blame Frayn or his slapstick shenanigans. It may not be a groundbreaking production, but with this cast, you're in safe hands-just be prepared for an evening that's more chuckles than belly laughs."
LA Splash
- Highly Recommended
"...Skillfully directed by Anna D. Shapiro - who clearly understands the basic ideas behind physical comedy - and starring a group of actors who seem to having the time of their lives in a play dependent on pratfalls, exact timing, and keeping the action going fast and furious even if clothing begins to fall in every direction and nobody seems to know what's going on. The cast features Vaneh Assadourian, Amanda Fink, Audrey Francis, Francis Guinan, Rick Holmes, Ora Jones, David Lind, James Vincent Meredith, and Max Stewart."
Stage Scene LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Westwood’s esteemed Geffen Playhouse and Chicago’s illustrious Steppenwolf Theatre Company join creative forces to give L.A. audiences a fabulously entertaining revival of what may well be the most inventive and uproarious farce ever written, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off."
LA Theatrix
- Highly Recommended
"...The Geffen Playhouse and Steppenwolf Theatre Company have co-produced this revival of Michael Frayn's farcical comedy, "Noises Off." The play requires impressive feats of acting, directing, and stagecraft. Director Anna D. Shapiro should be congratulated for managing to pull off such a precise and convoluted endeavor along with her cast and crew."
ArtsBeatLA
- Highly Recommended
"...A well-staged farce requires a tremendous amount of skill from the cast. There are split-second entrances and exits, lots of slamming doors, gags with props, people's trousers falling down at inappropriate moments and plenty of pratfalls. Frayn's side-splitting play provides all this and more. By incorporating all the backstage shenanigans, love triangles and so forth, the comedy is cranked to its fullest potential. As the fictional tour wears on, so does a crescendo of sexual jealousies and in-fighting amongst the cast."
Stage Raw
- Highly Recommended
"...Few plays capture the trials and tribulations of putting on a show as effectively as Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s classic farce that takes audiences both in front of and behind the curtain of a disastrous theatrical production. It is both a sendup of and a love letter to live theater. Currently playing at the Geffen Playhouse, the show remains an impressive feat of comedic engineering, showcasing carefully choreographed slapstick and more sardines than you can shake a stick at. While Noises Off may have lost some of its novelty since its premiere in 1982, the Geffen’s slick and high-energy production ensures it is still a delightfully entertaining romp."
Ticket Holders LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Wherever my glee being privy to the return of Noises Off presented by the Geffen in collaboration with one of the premier theatre companies of our time might have originated, for me it’s still one of the most charming and entertaining plays of the last century—and what Anna Shapiro and this extraordinary cast brings to it four decades after its debut is pure theatrical ambrosia."
Indulge Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...Some plays make you think. Others make you feel. And then there are those rare, exquisite gems that make you laugh so hard your face aches. Noises Off at the Geffen Playhouse belongs unequivocally to the latter category-a meticulously orchestrated catastrophe of such dazzling ineptitude that it left the audience breathless with laughter from beginning to end."
Larchmont Buzz
- Highly Recommended
"...The play was first performed in 1982 and played for years on London’s West End and on Broadway, including in revivals. It has since been updated, although it is still delightfully, and pointedly, old-fashioned. Anyone contemplating a career in the theater would do well to see this production, at which point they would likely consider engineering or nursing in a new light."
Broadway World
- Highly Recommended
"...Debuting in 1982, NOISES OFF by playwright Michael Frayn is a classic, having been revived many times, winning Tonys, Drama Desk Awards, and Outer Critics Circle Awards and being adapted into a film in 1992 directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who knows his way around slapstick. Now at The Geffen Playhouse (a co-production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company), director Anna D. Shapiro - along with an ace cast - show that this comedy still has legs and still plays fresh."
