December 2006 Kimberly Stern and Michael Barra promoting BECOMING ADELE WABC New York March 2006 Randall David Cook and Michael Barra promoting SAKE WITH THE HAIKU GEISHA WABC New York March 2006 Randall David Cook being interviewed for SAKE WITH THE HAIKU GEISHA Nippon TV "Tasty plot twists and some very funny lines... Cook has an ear for humor... A sly dig at the Upper East Side is almost worth the price of admission by itself... The show, produced by Gotham Stage Company and directed by Hayley Finn, moves quickly at an intermissionless 90 minutes. And if Cook has assembled more of a grab bag than a play - blogging! campaigning! needless nudity! - well, there's pleasure in simple surprises." "In many plays and films, an older woman who desires a younger man -- charmingly referred to these days as a 'cougar' -- gets punished. Mrs. Robinson, for instance, gets abandoned. The title character in Richard Nelson's "Madame Melville" dies of cancer. But in Randall David Cook's "Fate's Imagination," Lilah, the fiftyish heroine, reaps rare and satisfying rewards: She not only finds love, she also has her sexuality taken seriously. Lilah (Elizabeth Norment) is compelling. Cook authentically blends her sexual confidence with a fear of being alone, so when she swaggers up to young journalist Brock (Jed Orlemann) outside his office building, her seduction reveals flashes of desperation. Norment's performance layers these impulses with a dawning sense of joy, as Lilah gets attached to Brock after he keeps coming to visit her. Flickering between conflicting feelings, the thesp conveys an endearing confusion. Orlemann gives strong support as he evolves from an arrogant stud looking for a wild night into a lover surprised by his own needs& Crackling chemistry." "Succeeds on many levels... Worth seeing and an enjoyable evening at the theater." NYCStories.org "Lots of witty, quotable dialogue... Donna Mitchell is convincingly Presidential as Susan. Orlemann adopts a charmingly quirky persona for the role of Brock. The production values are also first-class... One of the most arresting special effects I've ever seen on stage." THEATERMANIA “'Becoming Adele' relies on a sweet, if fantastical, understanding of class to remind us that Good Things Happen to Those Who Persevere. Mr.Houston sets out to proclaim the virtue of self-recognition and to catalog the difficulties by which it is attained, but the recalibrated Cinderella story is what ultimately compels him: the belief that the lowly paid, overweight and underwhelming can triumph even in those superficial circles of the city where the distance between sidewalk and curb can seem comparatively deep." "Engaging...Often sounding like a teleconference among Tyne Daly, Tracey Ullman,and Ethel Merman, Stern has the right kind of grit, humor, and New York chutzpah to make Adele believable and sympathetic. Seemingly plain as the grey sweater she wears initially, Stern makes you nod your head in agreement when Adele encounters a woman on a subway who tells her,"You're so young and beautiful."...Stern is certainly prepared for the paces director Victor Moag puts her through in accordance with the keep-'em-moving rules of solo shows...Guiltily pleasurable..." TheaterMania "Do the people we care about most end up hurting us? Can anyone scrape by with more than a minimum amount of dignity? Should we just stay at home and watch television for the rest of our lives? These difficult questions are addressed in Gotham Stage Company's impeccably produced presentation of Eric Houston's Becoming Adele...Honest and funny...The choice of transition music, Antje Ellermann's scenic design, and Victor Maog's direction are all flawlessly executed...Of course Kimberly Stern, as Adele, must ultimately carry the show. Fortunately, she handles the script with earnestness and charm." OffOffOnline.com "Kimberly Stern, in the title role, is such an appealing storyteller...Sweet." CurtainUp "Stern, who in voice and stature resembles Rosie O'Donnell (albeit with considerably more onstage charm), is a friendly and funny actress, who breezily brushes off jokes as though she were pushing aside an errant lock of hair." Talkin' Broadway "As portrayed by Kimberly Stern, Adele Scabaglio, the heroine of Eric Houston's one-person play Becoming Adele, is a woman of admirable spunk, vivacity, and touching vulnerability." Backstage "elegant and precise production by the Gotham Stage Company." "a beautiful fusion of the best of Western and Eastern drama... an auspicious inaugural production from the Gotham Stage Company" Curtain Up "brilliant one-liners” Variety "poignant... engaging... a confident first production by the Gotham Stage Company" TheaterMania "Gotham Stage Company makes auspicious debut... blends theatrical styles and genres intriguingly" American Theater Web "David Shih's portrayal of Ichihiro is a standout!" Theatremania "Ikuma Isaac is that rare actor who can play such disparate roles as an arrogant art professor, a pre-op transexual, and an unforgiving father with equal assurance." Theatremania "Alex Lippard has directed the production with imagination and assuredness, switching back and forth between Western and Japanese theatrical conventions." TheatreMania "Pitch-perfect cast!" Backstage "An engrossing examination of cross-cultural confusion" Backstage "An unusual subject presented in a most appealing way" Backstage "Cook cleverly entwines five short plays -- a number with significance in Noh drama -- while giving equal opportunity to Western and Eastern viewpoints." Backstage "David Shih and Sala Iwamatsu shine in their roles" CurtainUp "An intriguing play that dramatizes cultural fusion and collision in generally interesting and rewarding ways" CurtainUp "Director Alex Lippard has staged the piece with graceful theatricality on David Newell's austere, Eastern-infused scenic design: a raised square platform of dark wood surrounded by light silk curtains that, under Lucas Benjamin Krech's careful lighting design, seems to change to myriad light pastels, that bring to mind Japanese water colors." American Theatre Web "Fiona Gallagher offers two terrifically nuanced performances. Angela Lin is heartbreaking." American Theatre Web