Los Angeles Times - Recommended
"...There have always been Sue Sylvesters. Those shame-inducing, joy-killing gym coaches of the soul have ever been with us, ready to crush an artistic spirit at the first sign of self-expression. And a "Glee" club to the rescue is all that's missing from "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale," now at A Noise Within. "
LA Weekly - Highly Recommended
"...Director Damaso Rodriguez dances the entire production through the play's musicality on a stage lit beautifully by James P. Taylor in the soft gauziness that Williams' "romantic clichés" demand. In fact, the only slip is that early on, Puette rests on an overactive accent. But by the second act, even that flaw is forgiven, and as Williams' ever-tragic tide begins to come in, the only thing to do is let it wash over you."
Backstage - Somewhat Recommended
"...The supporting players also vary drastically from subtle to cartoonish, making one wonder why usually spot-on director Dámaso Rodriguez has so blindly left his cast hanging out there without paying more attention to performances and less to fussy staging and bumbling scene changes. Especially considering the enormous talent Rodriguez had to guide, the scenes between Alma and John fall flat. With stronger directorial choices-and perhaps the inclusion of a dialect coach-two of Williams' most intriguing characters could have touched us profoundly with their sadly fragile humanity."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...The entire production – thanks to Joel Daavid's dream-like set, James P. Taylor's subtle lighting, and Leah Piehl's evocative costumes – bears a whiff of frayed valentines and magic lanterns and a sense of what it must have been like one summer a long time ago in Glorious Hill, Mississippi. Its moment in time, so gorgeously created by Tennessee Williams, revives one's interest in a play that has not always been treated so lovingly or has seemed so stageworthy. The Eccentricities of a Nightingale shimmers."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...Eccentricities Of A Nightingale is the fourth Tennessee Williams work to be staged by the illustrious A Noise Within (following The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, and The Night Of The Iguana). As the play that closes ANW's final season in Glendale, it does so with a bang as bright as the fireworks that lights Alma Winemiller's face on that 4th Of July evening nearly a century ago."
StageHappenings.com - Highly Recommended
"...The climax of the play comes with Puette and Dechert at a hotel for which an hour was going to make a lifetime. Twisting her ring, Puette's Alma sacrifices a plume to the fire and quotes a poem finished by Dechert's John: "If I wore a gold sword on a white verandah, I would shock a simple heart with my heartless candor." And this honesty, which Alma calls a failure, is finally what we appreciate most. That nightingale which used to sing doesn't sing any more in the epilogue, but that final scene with a traveling salesman, forecasting an hour in "Tiger Town" reminds us that Alma could only tell the truth, and one hour can indeed change one's life."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...Under director Dámaso Rodriguez, John seems less a cad and more a man surrendering to first his true desire and then to the confining expectations of his domineering mother. Alma, instead of the tragic, emotionally fragile Southern belle, who ends her life in ruins, becomes a woman, in charge of her own life and her own sexuality freed from the oppressive expectations of her parents and her father's congregation. Chivalry and the Southern false gentility, were they the cage that held in the nightingale? You'll have to decide for yourself.
ArtsBeatLA - Highly Recommended
"...Tennessee Williams' play is heavy with metaphor and this production is skillfully directed by Damáso Rodriguez. The ensemble offers humor in an otherwise dark play, especially David LM McIntyre and Jacque Lynn Colton. Eccentricities is a strong show from both cast and crew with beautiful costume design by Leah Piehl, whose attention to detail added layers to each character."
