Actor Reviews
The Hound in the 2019 Capital Fringe Festival:
“A terrific performance by adapter Greg Oliver Bodine…from the moment he scrambles on stage, sweaty, looking in every direction for the scratching, whirring creature who created those sounds, he makes Farnsworth be a man truly in deadly trouble, and his excruciating panic allows us to forget the inherent implausibility of the story, and Lovecraft’s occasionally over-the-top language..”
5 STARS –DC Theatre Scene
Poe, Times Two in the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival:
“Poe, Times Two sets a high bar for the remainder of Fringe 2016. Greg Oliver Bodine has taken two very difficult but very Fringe-y types of theater, the horror genre and the solo performance form, and hit them both out of the ballpark. If you like horror generally, or Poe specifically, put Poe, Times Two on your Fringe calendar.”
–DC Theatre Scene, 5/5 Rating: “Pick of the Fringe!”
“Bodine absolutely crushed the role of Alfred. He showed Alfred’s sorrow, disgust, anger and the despair of a man on the eve of his execution with skill unparalleled. I was floored by how astoundingly great his performance was.”
–DC Metro Theater Arts, 5 Stars: “Best Of The 2016 Capital Fringe!”
Universal Robots with Gideon Productions at The Sheen Center:
“Greg Oliver Bodine is hilarious in his early role of Salda the playwright, and later is deeply affecting as Baruch, a Jewish American advisor to FDR, who makes the case for stopping Hitler’s march on Europe.” –Surreal Times Press
“Conversely, we also see the dark side of human nature. Greg Oliver Bodine also powerfully plays Baruch, an American who comes to convince President Masaryk to use the robots to combat the rising Nazi threat in Germany.” –City of Kik
Daughters of The Sexual Revolution at WorkShop Theater Company:
“Greg Oliver Bodine very skillfully plays her [Judy’s] conceited husband with tremendous self-absorption that never devolves into caricature…From its complexly comical opening scene to its wistful conclusion, Daughters of The Sexual Revolution is a joyous, insightful and involving work that is perfectly rendered.” –TheaterScene.net
King Lear with Titan Theatre Company:
“A uniformly excellent cast…Titan delivers a monumental King Lear.” –Times Ledger
The Baltimore Waltz with Retro Productions:
“There are outstanding performances by the cast of three… Greg Oliver Bodine runs the gamut of different characters, playing everything from a French Waiter to an Eccentric German Urine Drinking Doctor, with finesse and expertise.” –New York Theatre Review
“In his portrayal of ‘The Third Man’, Greg Oliver Bodine steals the show with his never faltering accents and various personas, i.e. a French waiter, a dirty Dutch boy, a German Bellhop, and others. The performances are the kind that are so solid, it makes the ending even harder to stomach and the realization of the overall farce a punch straight to the gut.” —Broadwayworld.com
“In his myriad roles, Greg Oliver Bodine nearly steals the show, making the most of his many accents and costume changes.” ––Theatre Is Easy (theasy.com)
A Day In The Death of Joe Egg with Retro Productions:
“Greg Bodine charmingly shows how one can be polished and right at the expense of others.” –NYTheatre.com
Poe, Times Two at WorkShop Theater Company:
“Adapter / Performer, Greg Oliver Bodine, dramatically renders the stories of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Black Cat” with intelligence, humor and a serious appreciation of Edgar Allan Poe’s understanding of our fears and madness.” –Joe Franklin, Bloomberg Radio
“Greg Oliver Bodine is an actor of extraordinary natural gifts which he has honed to the highest professional acuity. With his agile face he can evoke emotions from scorn and amusement, to horror and despair. He connects with us tangibly, and he completely ‘inhabits’ his characters’ fast-changing moods….these two performances are supreme exemplifications of acting at its highest reaches.…A scary, stunningly staged, high-fright homage to the creator of the horror story.” –Ronald Gross, Editor-in-Chief, New York Theater Buying Guide
The Hound from “Things At The Doorstep” at Manhattan Theatre Source:
“Bodine’s performance as the narrator of “The Hound” is that of an expert in this kind of acting…this is Bodine’s thing and he is clearly in his element playing this suspenseful and maddened role…A unique evening of theater that is entertaining, educational and strangely unsettling.” –-Theatre Is Easy (theasy.com)
“The Hound is a smart and lively adaptation by a fantastic actor. Bodine’s performance is gleeful but never ham-fisted (no mean feat, considering he’s left Lovecraft’s overwrought language unchanged). The production makes excellent use of the tiny, intimate theatre space, creating an air of palpable spookiness with smart set design and well-used sound effects, and the piece is deliciously macabre.” –-Tor.com
“Deliciously creepy…a well-realized piece indeed. Bodine plays the one-character piece in a breathlessly overwrought pitched hysteria that captures the tone of the original. The setting and props—much to the glee of my companion, a Lovecraft aficionado—just as lovingly evoke the original, even to the carefully stamped “Miskatonic University” on an upstage crate… Clever writing complemented by excellent sound and light make for a most entertaining evening.” –-NYTheatre.com
“It is the most delightful thing we have ever seen anyone pull off on a stage, anywhere, ever, and if you are in New York you must go see it. You must. You REALLY MUST. Go. GO.” –Today’s Theatre Review, The Rejectionist
Misery, Apathy and Despair and I, Carpenter (part of the InGenius Short Play Festival) at Manhattan Theatre Source:
“[Misery, Apathy and Despair] served as a vehicle for one of the most remarkable pieces of acting of the evening. At the performance I saw, it was announced that fellow playwright Greg Oliver Bodine would take over for an actor who had fallen ill. Bodine was so skilled in the role of a Chekhovian layabout that it took me several minutes before I realized he was was holding a script in his hands. Rather than treating this as a limitation, Bodine used the script to emphasize his character’s obliviousness to the needs of the other characters.”
“Also impressive is Bodine’s own work as playwright, I, Carpenter – the final and most powerful piece of the evening. The play details the struggle between a construction foreman and his fired employee. It’s a modest but gripping piece, and treats the lives of working-class Americans with a truthfulness that is all too lacking in contemporary theatre. The play is also acted with startling honesty by Bodine, just as comfortable playing a blue-collar New Yorker as a Russian aristocrat.” –NYTheatre.com
Prayer in the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival:
“The unlikely protagonist is the prim, fastidious shopkeeper Jacob Bergson, played by Greg Oliver Bodine…cut off from the outside world, he endures mental and physical tortures, all in an effort to brainwash him into taking on a new identity…Bodine handles the metamorphosis masterfully, making Bergson’s changes of heart seem both inevitable and startling.” –Showbusinessweekly.com
“Prayer is one of the finds of the Fringe Festival…Greg Oliver Bodine is just right as Jacob Bergson, a painfully ordinary, probably-Jewish, fully intimidated conscript to the state religion — what they would call in Yiddish, if it still existed in the play’s reality, a schmo.” –Offoffoff.com *FringeNYC Critics’ Pick
Northanger Abbey at Theater Ten Ten:
“This funny and suspenseful production boasts strong writing, expert direction by David Scott, and a crackerjack cast…the entire ensemble (most of them double and triple-cast) does a remarkable job…a superb piece of theatre” –NYTheatre.com *Critic’s Pick
“Greg Oliver Bodine, Tim Morton, and Lisa Riegel rounded out the outstanding cast, filling several roles in both worlds of Northanger Abbey and Udolpho.” –AustenBlog.com
A Month in the Country at Theater Ten Ten:
“Utterly delightful…A great time is promised for all…Greg Oliver Bodine is excellent as the perpetually put-upon Rakitin.” –NYTheatre.com *Critic’s Pick
“Perfectly cast, the production moves with great animation and verve…Greg Oliver Bodine’s elegant Rakitin is a delightful comic creation.” –Back Stage *Critic’s Pick
Dark Soundings with North Shore Theatre Group:
“[Dark Soundings] is something reminiscent of Masterpiece Theatre — very turn of the century, very warm, but somehow unsettling, because in its richness hides something sinister…Bodine engaged the audience with his character’s intensely nervous eyes and jilting movements, spooking a boy in the front row so badly that he nearly jumped out of his seat.” –Oyster Bay Guardian, NY
A Christmas Carol with North Shore Theatre Group:
“Bodine is a charmingly dynamic storyteller, who seamlessly tells the holiday classic transitioning from actor to narrator and back…Bravo” –Locust Valley Leader, NY
“Compelling… [Bodine] switched roles so seamlessly that the audience soon forgot there was one man on stage…He captivated an audience that ran the gamut of ages — children as young as eight were riveted.” — Oyster Bay Guardian, NY
“A sincere, moving performance that set the mood for the coming holidays.” –Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot, NY
“A Dickens of a good show!” –Westfield Evening News, MA
“A classic treasure” –The Reminder, MA
Arsenic & Old Lace at Cortland Repertory Theatre:
“Bodine is splendid as the concerned nephew who tries to deal with the situation as best he can.” –Syracuse Post-Standard News, NY
The Foreigner w/ Magnet Theatre Company (at Mill Hill Playhouse):
“The Magnet staging has one great asset — Greg Oliver Bodine in the role of Charlie. Mr. Bodine resists the urge to ham it up, choosing to underplay the more blatant scenes, relying on strong comic instincts.” –The Princeton Packet, NJ
The Foreigner at Millbrook Playhouse:
“Charlie is played by Greg Bodine, in a role not too easy, but all too satisfying…[He] is simply captivating as the meek ‘foreigner’ who brings a synergy to the family found at Betty’s inn.” –The Express, PA
Sylvia w/ Magnet Theatre Company:
“The evening belongs to Greg Oliver Bodine who plays three characters: Tim, the macho guy in the park with an alpha dog named Bowser; Phyllis, Kate’s college chum; and an androgynous psychologist, named appropriately, Leslie. He does all three better than previously seen and is worth the price of the entire evening. He finds exactly the right sense of gleeful camp and never takes it too far. He has a great comic future.” –The Princeton Packet, NJ
Coupe de Ville w/ Magnet Theatre Company:
“Russ Widdall as the vacant Joe and Greg Oliver Bodine as the scheming Anthony are pretty much over the top as the two grasping brothers, to good comic effect.” –The Trenton Times, NJ
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde at Playmakers Rep Company:
“Jamie Goodwin is a dignified yet flamboyant Wilde, Adrian Witzke a tempting, tortured Lord Alfred and Greg Oliver Bodine, the best of the five Narrator / Clerks.” –The Charlotte Observer, NC
“The four narrators — Michael Frederic, Greg Oliver Bodine, Peter Savage and Denis Riva Jr. merit an extra nod for their effective use of accents while slipping from role to role.” –The Herald-Sun, NC
Playwright Reviews
The Hound (from “Things At The Doorstep”):
“Entertaining, educational and strangely unsettling… [Bodine’s] savviness in the art of adaptation is just as apparent as his acting abilities: he manages to avert the common question in such confessional monologues (‘Who is he supposed to be talking to?’) by incorporating a prop audio recording device into the set. Conveniently, this also preserves Lovecraft’s original intention that the narrator record his final moments in hopes that someone will find and believe his story.” –Theatre Is Easy (theasy.com)
“A smart and lively adaptation…deliciously macabre” –Tor.com
“Deliciously creepy…a well-realized piece indeed…clever writing complemented by excellent sound and light make for a most entertaining evening.” –NYTheatre.com
“The most delightful thing we have ever seen anyone pull off on a stage, anywhere, ever, and if you are in New York you must go see it. You must. You REALLY MUST. Go. GO.” –Today’s Theatre Review, The Rejectionist
I, Carpenter:
“Also impressive is Bodine’s own work as playwright, I, Carpenter, the final and most powerful piece of the evening. The play details the struggle between a construction foreman and his fired employee. It’s a modest but gripping piece, and treats the lives of working-class Americans with a truthfulness that is all too lacking in contemporary theatre.” –NYTheatre.com
Wicked Tavern Tales:
“Bodine’s adaptation keeps most of Poe’s original work intact with only a few cuts and alterations to compress the tales into three short works that flow together well, with each one delivering its own special jolt of horror. The product of these edits is not a watered down text, but a celebration of all things spooky…the writing leaves you with thoughts and feelings to contemplate afterwards. However, you may want to hold off on such contemplation until after you have turned on all the lights.” –Offoffonline.com, *Critic’s Pick
Christmas Thieves: A Small Town Radio Play:
“Crested Butte Mountain Theatre has just the thing for you—a lively, short (45 minutes, one act!), feel-good and fun comedy called Christmas Thieves. It’s a play within a play and sort of Garrison Keillor goes on a date with the BBC to see A Christmas Carol… The ensuing events of both the story being told and the newly anglophiled actors unravel into hilarity.” –Crested Butte News, CO
Dark Soundings:
“[Dark Soundings] is something reminiscent of Masterpiece Theatre — very turn of the century, very warm, but somehow unsettling, because in its richness hides something sinister.” –Oyster Bay Guardian, NY
A Christmas Carol:
“Mr. Bodine’s script follows closely the condensed “Christmas Carol” Dickens created for this readings, whose cuts include the schoolroom scenes… Children ready for a Dickens introduction, however, will be captivated.” –The New York Times
“I’m heartened and reminded of the flexibility and power of the original work – still mesmerizing and delighting audiences 180 years after its debut… The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio’s A Christmas Carol was exactly what I needed.” –ColumbusUnderground.com, OH
“A unique and fresh interpretation.” –Kansas City Scoop, MO
“Spirited, intense, riveting, at times eloquent, moving and joyous.” –North Bay Review, WA
“A most welcome Christmas present.” —Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot, NY
“A Dickens of a good show!” —Westfield Evening News, MA
“A classic treasure.” —The Reminder, MA
“A surfeit of riches…delivers in spades!” — NJartsMaven.com
“Promises to blow the lid off this whole “Bah, Humbug!” –DowntownExpress.com