Ventriloquist Jay Johnson has performed his solo show at various locations, including an off-Broadway run. Now, Johnson, best known for appearing on the television show Soap, is readying Jay Johnson: The Two and Only! for an engagement at Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre starting September 19. The show is currently in the midst of an engagement at Boston's American Repertory Theatre, the last of its pre-Broadway stops. Did local critics enjoy Johnson and his onstage pals?
Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
Louise Kennedy of The Boston Globe: "There are moments in Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!… when the magic he works does feel more like art than craft. There are also a few too many moments when the show feels, you should excuse the expression, too talky. Much of what Johnson has to say or has his companions say is fascinating… Just as it starts feeling too much like a history lecture, it turns into a stand-up routine. Then back to history, a personal reminiscence, a technical aside, or maybe a four-letter word… Johnson's skills as a ventriloquist are, simply, amazing. Where he could use some refinement is in shaping all this material into a piece of theater. The lecture does get too lecture-y, and the stand-up routine, entertaining as it is, does take us too far into the mood of a nightclub."
Terry Byrne of The Boston Herald: "Johnson's show is a fascinating melange of personal history, the history of ventriloquism through the ages and some pure comedy club routines, with a little education on the fine art of 'belly talking' thrown in for good measure. On a set consisting of a collection of trunks and suitcases that climb up the back wall, Johnson casts his powerful spell… Johnson has a boyish charm and an unbridled enthusiasm for his art don't call it a parlor trick and the characters that work with him. When he feigns dismay or surprise at something his puppets say, or even laughs at their jokes, his sincerity is so genuine, it's easy to forget he wrote all the puppets' material."
