[Year Zero is a] tenderly observed play… These characters are cut from familiar molds, but Mr. Golamco and his appealing cast bring fresh nuances, tempering the earnestness with unassuming charm.
[Year Zero is] a very smart, sweet, honest and uncommonly moving new play… Michael Golamco is a significant new dramatic voice.
[Year Zero is a] fresh, moving take on conflicted cultural identity… Golamco writes with insight and compassion.
[Year Zero is] keenly observed… Golamco has crafted a strong, character-based piece that has moments that sparkle with originality.
[Year Zero is] extraordinarily perceptive… Humor packed with electric direction and a remarkable cast.
Simply great theatre… Full of endearing, likeable characters and a sweet story, Year Zero is a simply marvelous play.
Cleverly interwoven plot strands, a lively mix of visuals, spot-on perfs and a cool soundtrack make The Achievers a divertingly loopy experience by turns deadpan, surreal, and quietly poignant.
With requisite moments of truth, hilarity, and despair, [Cowboy Vs. Samurai] is a thoughtful, thoroughly compelling piece of theater.
[Cowboy Vs. Samurai] is a very funny, very pertinent, and very smart riff on Rostand’s classic romance ‘Cyrano De Bergerac’.
Sensational… Will leave a fantastic impression on those who watch it.
[Cowboy Vs. Samurai] is a hilarious commentary on racial stereotypes under the umbrella of a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac love story.
Shrewd and droll… [A] sure, mature drama that emerges from behind the mask of puerile comedy.
Explores culture, stereotypes and self-hatred with sharp wit and frequent wisdom… Cowboy Versus Samurai shouldn’t be pigeonholed as an Asian play or a work about race — it is much more a story about friendship, love and belonging.
Cowboy Versus Samurai is a blast… A hilarious and lighthearted look at interracial dating and the forging of personal identity.
As played by Jose Abaoag, Chester is sometimes ludicrous and sometimes touching and always desperate… As Travis, Ray Tagavilla is a fascinating mix of pride and humility, goodwill and fear… Director Miko Premo’s staging is engaging and entertaining… The cowboys are gone, the samurai are gone. Their places have been taken by globalized existential angst.
Comedy hits Cyrano right on the nose.
[Year Zero is] often surprising, invariably touching… Captures the emotionally complex lives of children of survivors who never quite feel worthy,… And the lure (and price) of assimilation.
[Year Zero is] brilliantly directed… A tender story filled with beautifully calibrated, incendiary performances. [GO!]
[Year Zero is] subtle and engrossing… Director David Rose meticulously charts its shifting shades of feeling. [Critic’s Pick!]
[Year Zero is] superb… Every bit as entertaining as it is dramatic and thought-provoking. Powerful performances, entirely winning.
[Year Zero is] a delicate portrait of lost souls attempting to discover their roots and navigate awkward relationships with one another… Incisive, both dramatically and thematically, leading to a haunting and hopeful climax. [Critic’s Pick!]
Year Zero is an incisive, deeply moving play that gets a ten in my book.
[Cowboy Vs. Samurai] is a gentle, genial, frequently wise comedy of character and race… Yee-haws all around!
[Cowboy Versus Samurai] Eloquently argues that romance transcends race.
[Cowboy Versus Samurai is] Sharp, thoughtful, witty… Superb.
‘Race has nothing to do with being attracted to someone,’ says Travis, the protagonist of Michael Golamco’s Cowboy Vs. Samurai. But in this witty, satiric comedy, that statement is challenged over and over again… This play is ultimately as much about friendship as it is about love.
[Cowboy Vs. Samurai is] Nimble, conversational and contemporary… Funny yet sweet… The cast can’t go wrong because the playwright got it so right.
Sweet, charming… A story both unique and timeless waiting to be told.
[Cowboy Vs. Samurai is a] smart script with lots of laughs and plenty of poignancy… Delves into questions of identity, prejudice, and the complexity of love that will resonate with audiences of all backgrounds.
With a solid cast, [Cowboy Vs. Samurai] promises to be the kind of topical social commentary with a sharp tang of humor that Mu does well.
Cowboy Vs. Samurai: I loved this play… I highly recommend it, whether you have pressing emotional concerns or not, as it is a grandly wonderful distraction.
[Cowboy Vs. Samurai] sweetly blends ‘Cyrano De Bergerac’ with ‘Northern Exposure’.
