"Mr. Phillips is an ingratiating writer and performer...Throughout, the staging by Tatiana Mallarino (Mr. Phillips’s wife) moves with a fluidity at odds with the travel mishaps, which are related with dry humor...Then again, the stamps in the Passenger’s passport have a more lasting presence than his anecdotes, because the genial, light-footed show retreats every time things get sticky or uncomfortable."
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"On a mostly empty stage, using his talents for languages and broad caricature, the playwright-performer touches on more than two dozen cultures from five continents...It's an impressive feat of creativity and endurance, if not a consistently engaging one...The show too rarely seems urgent. Unlike some of the born-on-the-wrong-side folks he meets along the way, it's clear that the Passenger, with his U.S. passport, will always make it through. Where's the drama in that?"
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"Though Phillips is buoyant and personable and his stagecraft often charming, the show ultimately feels long on design and short on dramaturgy. It never shapes the list of its content into a substantial dramatic arc, and so ends up feeling slighter than it should — pleasant but not potent...The pleasures of Phillips’s show are largely visual, the aesthetic tricks and treats he creates in this fringe-like setting...It tells, but it doesn’t build or reveal."
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“It's a bad sign for a show when the lighting design upstages the star...Whether this performance adds up to anything more than a virtuosic 90-minute acting display is questionable...The global reach is admirable, but scope is not the same as depth...Starts to take on the feel of a glorified photo album — and as with any photo album, unless one is already invested in its creator as a personality, one is likely to come away from this show shrugging one's shoulders in indifference."
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“Despite some vivid servings of color and a commendable skepticism, this piece wanders the world without getting much of anywhere...Phillips is a physically agile performer but his vocal work underwhelms; he seems incapable of making the most of his own writing...Inside this subject matter is a potent statement...but neither Phillips nor his director has been able to capitalize on it: This fiery material has been sabotaged by an overthought approach."
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"Nothing if not utterly unique, a piece that from start to finish radiates a gritty charm....Phillips’ important effect is providing a broader picture of how borders are policed not just in this country but around the globe. It’s a helpful lesson at a time when so much is argued about controlling borders and yet so much remains perplexing."
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"'17 Border Crossings' is one of the most technically adroit Off-Broadway shows to be seen thanks to the split second cooperation between Phillips' spare scenery design, David Todaro's brilliantly inventive lighting and Robert Kaplowitz' sound design and occasional music. How Phillips uses the table alone is astonishing, literally creating multiple angles of observation, including an astonishing simulation of peering at the Passenger from up above."
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"Phillips takes the audience across the globe through a series of eye-opening, funny, and riveting encounters...A gifted mimic who speaks multiple languages, Phillips skillfully transports you to a variety of historical moments, reminding us that there is always a border issue happening somewhere around the world. Sure, '17 Border Crossings' will no doubt inspire wanderlust. But hopefully it will also encourage compassion for those whose travels are fraught and far from over."
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