Broadway Features and Reviews
Will Ferrell Opening Night Broadway Reviews
By Broadway Magazine Staff
Last night, Will Ferrell opened his new show on Broadway, and today the Broadway critics have weighed in on the show. You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush was written by Ferrell and is built around his celebrated characterization of the 43rd president of the United States. The critical response to the show was positive, with some critics more enthusiastic than others. A few of the Broadway critics gave qualified praise to the show, saying that Ferrell's brand of humor may be a bit juvenile for some audience members. Fans of Ferrell rave, and the show is already a hit regardless of the critical response. With laughs, surprises, and comic genius, Ferrell's Broadway debut is one to remember. Could this mean a Tony Award? We'll see. A sample of reviewer comments below:
This is the stuff of inspired stand-up, when a comedian follows a corkscrew logic into strange, scary and wondrous lands that feel truer than the truth. - Ben Brantley, New York Times
As appalled as Ferrell and most of his audience clearly are about the tarnished track record of our last president, the mockery is underscored at all times by a comedian's warped affection for a gift that keeps on giving. - David Rooney, Variety
But Ferrell's shots both overreach and fail to sting. His Bush isn't just an unqualified yahoo, but a sexually confused multi-substance abuser - we're informed that he once lived with a man in Vermont - who is eager to move into a "whites-only community in Dallas where I can pay immigrants to clear brush for me, like God intended." - Elysa Gardner, USA Today
Ferrell nails W's swagger, the gulped consonants, the half- kidding, half-sneering half grin. Like the best parodists, he doesn't constrain himself with slavish verisimilitude. - Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg
Ferrell's interplay with the audience is sharp. Late in the evening, there's a segment
where he asks theatergoers their names and their occupation. Then he comes up with nicknames, something Bush was fond of doing for his friends. - Michael Kuchwara, AP
For 90 minutes Ferrell swaggers around the stage as Bush, taking the audience through a condensed version of his life and eight years as president, referring to his successor President Barack Obama as "the Tiger Woods guy." - Michelle Nichols, Reuters
And it's a good bet that in addition to laughing uncontrollably, thousands of New Yorkers will also find "You're Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush" to be an absurdist, tragicomic and perhaps even cathartic experience. - Matt Windman, am New York
Other audience members, however, may find much of the material in the 80-minute show as unnecessarily vulgar -- even bordering-on-the-obscene -- instead of hilarious. - David Finkle, Theatermania
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