"The emotional terrain has shifted with the genre, so much that the restraint now feels like withholding. As a result, the dramatization...is sweet and mild and less emotional than the book, when what you want is for it to be more so...Not that the actors in any way fall short of inhabiting their characters...But creating these simulacra of the book’s characters is not the same as dramatizing them."
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"A humorous, sweetly touching account of the couple's relationship that revolves around one main theme: Trillin really, really adored his wife, who he admits was way out of his league...It works beautifully as a two-character piece, because it allows Alice to represent herself...Despite its brief 75-minute running time, the piece wanders at times...But despite its occasional tedious patches, the play, staged in rewardingly simple fashion by Leonard Foglia, proves deeply affecting."
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"Humorous and heartfelt, this touching tribute to Trillin's late wife is not just the memoir of a marriage, but an intimate look into a lost culture shared only by two...This is a play about cancer, but it is no depression-fest. ‘About Alice’ is the story of an unlucky thing that happened to two otherwise very fortunate people who managed to find each other and spend 38 wonderful years together. For 75 charming minutes, Trillin invites us to bask in some of that warmth.”
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“’About Alice’ is an efflorescence of grace in a world that very much needs it...Trillin has a found a way to transform prose into theatre...Trillin has effectively dramatized his essay...The actors display an easy intimacy that may rouse envy in many in the audience...In size and scale, ‘About Alice’ is a little thing, but under its polished surface lurk profound and enduring emotions.”
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"An affectionate and touching portrait...A warm, often funny, altogether charming account of two nice, educated, cultured people...The story easily skips about in time as it is narrated mostly in an anecdotal fashion by Trillin...This husband and wife, or the author and his muse, or the delightful couple of New Yorkers whose interplay is so naturally acted here, are winningly portrayed by Jeffrey Bean and Carrie Paff."
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"Bean and Paff have a tremendous rapport, he somewhat wry as Trilln's writing, she bemused by his pronouncements; he, the fantasist, she, the realist. Described as a beautiful blonde, Paff lives up to that description...Neither of them seems to age even though 36 years go by in the course of the play's 80 minutes. The play also seems lightweight as it is very episodic, being told as a series of vignettes. It also doesn't have a cumulative feeling as it is not told in chronological order."
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"A New York love story that will touch your heart and perhaps make you cry... It can be a little disorienting at times to keep up with the free-wheeling repartee. However, while Trillin is more a journalist than a playwright, his wry humor and instinctive comic timing keep things on track...Maybe the only fitting way to sum up the production is to say it achieves its aspirations to bring Alice dramatically alive in the here and now."
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"The love that Calvin feels for Alice is obvious, but at the end of the piece I found myself wanting more...I left the theater wishing I had read Trillin’s memoir in order to get a fuller picture of his wife that he so loved and admired, rather than seeing snippets of their happiness together played out onstage...'About Alice' was expertly performed, and the simplicity of the production elements let the performances and the relationship be the true center of the story...A beautiful love letter to a lost soul mate."
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