Reviews
“The entire company was dramatically and musically and appropriately out of this world.”
Review of Stranger from Paradise
Published Thursday | May 27th, 2017
BY DREW NINEMAN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Lawler’s staging is brilliant, including his handling of difficult transitions
between reality, flashbacks and Willy’s mental flights of fancy as he
descends into mental breakdown. Lawler draws performances from
leads to bit players that seem so natural, time and again they ambush
us with truth. Pain, delusion, humiliation, hope, elation, desperation,
worry, regret, fear, love, great internal struggle. We feel it.
Review of Death of a Salesman
Published Thursday | February 20th, 2010
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
This is great, great storytelling done by some of Omaha's most gifted
theater artists.
Review of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol
Published Saturday | November 27th, 2010
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
For five seasons now and over the course of hundreds of evenings
sitting in the dark, I have scribbled notes that made their way into
City Weekly theater reviews. I’m sure I won’t be alone in
suggesting that the Kevin Lawler - directed “Wit” will be
remembered as one of the crowning achievements of this or any
other decade. It is, simply put, an unforgettable monument to the
very best ideals of what theater can be.
By: David Williams
City Weekly, March 25, 2009
Review: 'The Tulip' opens up to deep loss
If you sit back and open yourself to what you see and hear, "The Tulip" holds the cumulative
power to make your heart burst like a spring blossom peeking from the snow.
Long after the curtain call, these characters hold the power of prophetic ghosts, evoking
the past while at the same time bracing with the possibilities that lie ahead.
Published Thursday | March 6, 2008
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
For “The Elephant Man”
“Striking a tone rarely if ever achieved before at the playhouse, this odd but affecting
drama is a work of purest theater, brilliantly staged . . . Lawler has created a theatrical
masterpiece at the area's premier theater.”
Jim Delmont, The Omaha World Herald
Waiting For Godot
“ . . .the most organized cacophony of distorted walking, lifting, and falling I’ve ever
seen. This is not slapstick - it’s more like a bowling pin ballet in slow motion . . . in an
earthquake. It’s not to be missed.”
Victor Hahn, The Reader
Reader’s Choice Awards
“In a stunning display of talent, Blue Barn Theatre director Kevin Lawler captured this
year’s Best Local Actor award. His tortured, sensuous depiction of Reverend Shannon
in “Night of the Iguana” held us captive, all steamy and worked up. That performance
juxtaposed with his sweet pre-show monologue for “The Santaland Diaries” exhibits a
range and depth we find breathtaking.”
The Reader
For “Tartuffe”
Watching Lawler is like having a religious conversion. He's absolutely riveting as
Tartuffe. He veers from creepy greasiness to overwrought piety without flaw, seducing
and repulsing at the same time. This man has to be seen to be believed.
Wearing the slickest costumes ever to grace a stage, he looks like a rock star with his
Elvis-like sideburns and maniacally gelled coiffure. And serving as a symbol of his false
piety, an ostentatious gold crucifix hangs around his neck.
When, at the end of the play, Lawler comes onstage dressed entirely in a red calf-length
pinstriped jacket over matching trousers and wearing stylish black glasses, you almost
wish Elmire would leave her dud of a husband for Tartuffe. He's smoking.
Julian Feilding, The Daily Nonpareil
For “Tartuffe”
Lawler’s uncanny knack for the perverse gives his modern production the melodrama
of an old 1970s sitcom that has landed in a French farce peppered with a Seussian
rhyme and sprinkled with a Beckettian absurdity. The cast brilliantly compensates for
Moliere’s drawn-out speeches with hilarious character eccentricities that might belong
in a David Lynch movie and not a 17th-century piece. The characters’ dialogue and the
actors’ talented wit moves at the speed of a dominatrix’s whip, and the audience is held
at bay by an experienced cast whose comic timing is syncopated like the intricate
workings of a wind-up clock.
Aaron Zavitz, The Reader
For "Fuddy Meers"
"The Blue Barn offers mass hysteria with "Fuddy Meers." The playwright and cast have
succeeded in combining the zaniness of Monty Python and the slapstick of the Three
Stooges . . . Go see "Fuddy Meers". It's a laugh-filled hour and a half that may just show
us that we are all dysfunctional. It's just a matter of degree."
Ken Mayer, The Omaha Weekly
Performances and direction by Kevin Lawler are superb and catch the rhythms and
timing of the often explosively funny jokes. "Fuddy Meers" offers wit unsoftened by
sentiment in a roughhewn, sometimes brutish and very funny comedy.
Jim Delmont, The Omaha World Herald
For "Night of the Iguana"
In "Night of the Iguana" the acting, as in most Blue Barn productions, is some of the best
you will encounter in Omaha. Everyone, from the leads to supporting performers, adds
something to this quality production. Lawler, who also directs, is instrumental in
achieving this. Artistic Director at the Blue Barn, Lawler's talent as an actor has given
him great sensitivity as a director, and his interpretations always work on multiple
levels. Even those familiar with the plays at the Blue Barn can learn a thing or two just
by watching.
Julian Feilding, The Daily Nonpareil
With three powerful lead performances in an engrossing script, the production
continues the Blue Barn's recent string - including "Tartuffe," "Wit" and "Vampire
Lesbians of Sodom" - of excellent productions.
John Keenan, The Omaha World Herald
For “The Ice Fishing Play”
It manages to be funny, moving, quirky, heartbreaking and profoundly human -
sometimes all at once. It is undoubtedly the high point of Omaha’s half-spent stage
season, not to be missed by fans of good theater. One reason is Kevin Kling’s finely
drawn characters. Another is director Kevin Lawler’s uniformly strong cast, from
which he pulls layered, nuanced performances that are mostly understated. These
actors must be able to flit between broad comedy and subtle realism, and the shifts are
smooth as ice.
Bob Fischbach, The Omaha World Herald
For “The Santaland Diaries”
At the Blue Barn, director Kevin Lawler has paired The Santaland Diaries with a "curtain
raiser" featuring songs by songwriters Bill Hoover and Dan McCarthy on alternating
nights, and an original story read by Lawler. The result is more than the promised
laugh-filled evening of irreverent humor. The music, Lawler’s story and The Santaland
Diaries also treat audiences to beauty and unexpected flashes of insight.
Meg Arader, The Reader
Director Kevin Lawler has done it again, and in style, complete with a festive set of
Christmas trees, giant candy canes and snowy painted backdrop that would make the
Grinch wince.
Bob Fischbach, The Omaha World Herald
Alexander Payne
Director/Screenwriter of Citizen Ruth, Election, and About Schmidt
“The Blue Barn Theatre is one of the most ambitious, innovative, and cheerily
subversive theater groups I know of. I am proud they are a part of Omaha’s growing
cultural landscape and we must support them.”
