“’Dropping Gumballs’ stretches Ackerman’s anecdote over a very thin 75 minutes...But the play does have a delicious villain in its Morris, played by Wohl as a tyrannical perfectionist who thrills at his own gravitas...As written, Wilson is a cartoon, but at least he has charisma, which our hero, Rob, and his thinly drawn colleagues sorely lack. That’s not the actors’ doing; the trouble is in a script that wants to honor the characters’ toil but can’t locate the drama in it.”
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“Directed with a gently surreal touch by Rebeck, the actors impersonating the celebrities are delightful: Sale’s Wilson is paunchy and aloof, and Wohl’s Morris is an offhand megalomaniac. But it’s the crew members whose perspectives make the premise of this show so weirdly engrossing. Ackerman is interested in big ideas which is one of the best jokes here: to load such heavy stuff onto such an absurd frame.”
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“’Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson’ ricochets plenty of candy and themes, but in its 75 minutes, this thin workplace-humor production doesn't give us enough to chew on...Watching an avalanche of gumballs bounce off of Luke Wilson's head was funny in a slapstick way. That being said, the concept of a human pachinko machine repurposed from a 30-second telecom commercial was not enough to sustain my emotional interest in this show.”
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"The playwright Theresa Rebeck makes her New York directorial debut here and she handles both sides of the play -- the show business shenanigans and clash of ideas -- with authority, putting a well-cast troupe through their paces and never letting the action go slack...The production benefits from a design that adds verisimilitude to these amusingly dubious proceedings."
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"A decade has passed since the much-criticized AT&T vs. Verizon commercials starring Luke Wilson took to the airwaves, but playwright Rob Ackerman has chosen to bubble up their essence into his whimsical, off-the-wall new play, 'Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson,' helmed by Theresa Rebeck in her New York directorial debut."
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"Seems to cram in every labor-related issue that might appear in a packed 75 minutes...But ‘Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson’ lacks effortless flow. While the outpouring of emotion in the script must have been derived from Ackerman’s years as the Prop Master for SNL Film Unit, what is remembered is the humor, and the desire to turn the document of a day into an interactive experience...Funny, yet tragic...A must see for theater folks, with friends in the film and television industry.”
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"I laughed because this conflict is so familiar to me having been an actor on commercial sets and it is certainly too late to cry. My husband, my date, laughed because surely this is just a fun exaggeration, right?...The casting of this show is deliciously perfect. I’m sucked in and the familiar anxiety arises within me because the characters are true to life...Get your skates on. Go see this one before it disappears."
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"One of the many problems that plagues this production is that there are almost as many platitudes strewn across the stage as gumballs, some more prevalent than others. The play does not have enough substance...Issues are established but never resolved leaving a void that is created by ignorance...Rebeck keeps the action moving...but is undertaking turning a one trick pony into a three-ring circus...The characters are too shallow and once the gumballs drop, the play is over."
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