Los Angeles Times - Highly Recommended
"...The ensuing tragedy, if not entirely credible, resonates with our attitudes about race, celebrity, identity and sexuality, perhaps even more strongly today in the wake of the backlash against President Obama and the Tiger Woods scandal. But what elevates "Take Me Out" above topical melodrama is the character of Mason Marzak (Thomas James O'Leary), Darren's nebbishy gay business manager."
LA Weekly - Highly Recommended
"...Tom Costello brings comic chops and rich conviction to the shortstop Kippy, the play's narrator, who's shattered when his sentimental do-good-ism produces disastrous results. And there's a deliciously deft comedy performance by Thomas James O'Leary as Leming's fey, gay financial manager, who regards his boss as a hero, and finds in the world of baseball a wondrous epiphany. His aria comparing baseball to democracy is as penetrating as it is funny. They receive solid backup from the sterling cast. Tim Swiss's lighting design and Veronica J. Lancaster's sound are integral to the action. This is Celebration Theatre's most ambitious and impressive production in years."
Backstage - Highly Recommended
"...Richard Greenberg's drama combines a poetic ode to baseball with thoughtful ruminations on the search for personal identity and the fragility of teamwork. The springboard for the play's rich array of ideas is the effect that a black gay athlete's coming out has on his team, the New York Empires. Director Michael Matthews' smartly conceived in-the-round staging, facilitated by Kurt Boetcher's excellent scenic design and Tim Swiss' atmospheric lighting, fits the stadium milieu of Greenberg's compelling play like a baseball glove. Masterful ensemble playing propels the play to a home run in this funny and touching production."
Edge - Highly Recommended
"...The play and the acting are fine enough to have led this author into contemplation for several days. Of course, in this day and age, there are certain professions that are supposed to be exclusively dominated by masculine, heterosexual sports figures (outside of figure-skating and some tennis players). Imagine how even bigger the scandal would have been if Tiger Woods had played around with men! Firefighters, peace officers - the latter are accepting, grudgingly, of women, but - oh gasp! - faggots? A caveat: To me the talking-to-the-audience method of telling a play has been done too often and may have reached its apex in Robert Patrick's 1976 play, Kennedy's Children. That said, it accomplishes its purpose here."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...O'Leary gets excellent support from the entire cast but special mention goes to Garrett Matheson for making Shane Mungitt a figure of pathos even as the character reveals his ugliest side; to Tom Costello, who has an exhaustive way with language, as Darren's closest friend on the team; to Jacques C. Smith as Darren's African-American ally Davey Battle, whose tragic destiny is tied up with Darren's; to Ross Cosnett and Duke Dlouhy for brief but trenchant work as fellow players. Ary Katz, as Darren, is stiff at first, but, more and more, as the character reveals the feet of clay of his god-like figure, his stiffness, like his beauty, becomes an asset, because, in essence, it is his stiffness that ultimately humanizes him."
LA Splash - Highly Recommended
"...This production of Take Me Out is truly outstanding. Three acts will fly by in Richard Greenberg's intense and complex tale of power, identity and rituals. In a play that feels like equal parts monologues and scenes, director Michael Matthews orchestrates a wonderfully paced tapestry of performances with virtually seamless transitions. This director is not afraid of letting performances breathe, which in turn allows the audience to truly participate in the drama unfolding before them organically. This show is thick with the raw energy of live theatre, welded by the hands of extremely talented actors. This show I can happily give a standing ovation. Don't miss it!"
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...Sitting enthralled by Matthews' brilliant you-are-there re-envisioning of Take Me Out, this reviewer was more impressed than ever by just what a brilliant piece of writing this is, playwright Greenberg seamlessly blending gut-splitting comedic and heart-rending dramatic moments while surprising the audience again and again with unexpected twists and turns of both plot and character."
StageHappenings.com - Highly Recommended
"...The 28-year-old Celebration Theatre is a tiny, store-front box size, often difficult to stage in, but Kurt Boetcher's excellent design puts the audience on all four sides of the action, so that even the pivotal shower scene is dead-center, and the violent action is mimed beautifully. Ably assisted by Veronica J. Lancaster's excellent sound design, all bat-on-ball cracks, roaring crowds and intense quiet when demanded, this is a fantastic production, not to be missed."
Frontiers - Highly Recommended
"...There is much to recommend in the Celebration Theatre Company's fine new production of Richard Greenberg's 2003 Tony Award-winning play about a baseball superstar who upends his team's locker room by coming out, but nothing tops the home run hit by Thomas James O'Leary as Mason Marzac, the nebbishy gay accountant who falls in love with baseball. When he's handed the account of Darren Lemming (Ary Katz), the New York Empires' star center fielder, Mason immerses himself in baseball-the rules, the history, the statistics, the mythology-and O'Leary's paeans to the game, delivered with exquisite humanity and humor, are highlights."
