Did Critics Laugh at Mario Cantone's Whore?
Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "As he acknowledges in the song that closes his one-man show, Laugh Whore, actor-comedian Mario Cantone is loud, crude, obnoxious and angry. He's also, most of the time, hilarious. In fact, you may well shed a tear or two--from uncontrollable laughter…The comic's brand of loud humor isn't for everyone. But longtime fans, as well as newcomers with a taste for campy comedy, will laugh hard and often. In a Broadway season packed with solo shows Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Dame Edna among them, Cantone will be a tough act to follow."
Charles Isherwood of The New York Times: "Much of the funniest material in Laugh Whore expresses a buoyantly, exuberantly, even belligerently gay sensibility. Mr. Cantone may be an ideal comedian for the digital-cable generation, jumping haphazardly from subject to subject like a bored viewer with an itchy clicker finger… Despite the posh trappings--the white set is bathed in psychedelic colors by the top-tier lighting designers Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer--much of it retains the formless feeling of a club routine. This can lead to a slack pace, as Mr. Cantone ambles from one segment to the next with little or no connecting tissue. Structure and thematic design, not necessities in an hourlong club set, are more important in a two-hour, two-act Broadway show, and they are missing in action here. But if Laugh Whore does not prove to be the shapeliest of the many solo shows heading to a Broadway theater near you this fall, it is certainly a fine first salvo."
Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "Presumably the title of his one-man, two-joke show, Laugh Whore, implies that Cantone will do anything for a laugh. Unfortunately, so far as I am concerned, he did not do enough… His performing style is hyper-active--he occasionally modulates his shrill, amply amplified voice down to a scream, while he twitches across the stage like a man preparing an audition for a Six Flags commercial. He has been directed by the distinguished Joe Mantello--so that is presumably the way Mantello wanted it. Odd. But from his opening Paul Anka-like anthem to his closing Kander and Ebb-style finale the show doesn't flow. It sputters. Odd."
Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Like all theater lovers, I resent when the theater--make that theat-uh--becomes a venue for standup comedy. But it took approximately a minute for Cantone to get me laughing. He was imitating Shelley Winters talking about all her leading men, a list in which she included Lauren Bacall. Seconds later, Cantone was imitating Julia Child. The transition from needy, nasal actress to stiff, hooty WASP was instantaneous. And that was when I realized this was not nightclub stuff. It has a raw energy that's truly theatrical. It fills the stage… ultimately there's a kind of bravery in sustaining this over-the-top tone for more than two hours. That's not what whores do. They've figured out the shortcuts to maximize their earning ability. Anybody this eager to keep pulling out all the stops deserves to be called a star."
David Rooney of Variety: "Leading the charge for this season's invasion of one-person shows… Mario Cantone proves himself a ferocious comic dynamo with an infectiously manic command of the stage in Laugh Whore. Title indicates an unapologetic performer with no illusions of greater glory. What's missing is some kind of narrative shape to elevate the hilarious sprawl of material from superior standup into the kind of full-blooded theatrical experience that can justify Broadway prices and a running time of more than two hours… Cantone is wickedly entertaining, supplying more laughs per minute in his solo show than anything else on a New York stage right now… This may be reward enough for Cantone's large gay following and for fans of his shrill wedding planner on Sex and the City. But the star's tireless energy, gifted mimicry and equal facility with verbal and physical comedy--not to mention Joe Mantello's taut, impeccably polished direction--hint that this freewheeling rant with a handful of songs could have become not just a good-time whore but a whole rollicking whorehouse."
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "They say Laugh Whore, Mario Cantone's gut-busting evening of guffaws at Broadway's Cort Theatre, is a one-person show, but don't believe it. Sure, there's only one guy on stage, but Cantone offers a parade of impersonations, from Shelley Winters to Cher to Michael Jackson to Carol Channing to Julia Child. That's quite a range. His mini-portraits are not only accurate in their vocal inflections but hilariously lethal in their send-ups of some distinct, often more than quirky personalities... Joe Mantello, who also directed Cantone in last season's Broadway revival of "Assassins," keeps things moving along at a fine clip for more than two hours. But then there is no stopping Cantone once his sense of overwrought outrage is fully charged."