“Brilliant!”
“This is one of the most brilliant works I’ve ever experienced in a lifetime of theatregoing. Audiences deserve the thrill of discovering, hearing and seeing it all for themselves. When they hand out the Tonys and Drama Desk Awards at the end of the season, surely Lily and Jane will be there to accept. And when the Pulitzer Prize committee considers the Best Drama of the Year, I hope they’ll include Jane Wagner for 1985. Theatregoers will never get a warmer valentine than the one Lily and Jane are sending them, in this great show.”
— Liz Smith, Daily News
“Uproariously Funny!”
“Uproariously funny and achingly real. Playwright Jane Wagner has fashioned an exhilarating theatrical marvel and Lily Tomlin brings it all to astonishing life. This is the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen on Broadway and entirely wonderful.”
–Dennis Cunningham, WCBS-TV
“Out of this World!”
“Out of this world. A true goosebump experience is what you’ll have at the Plymouth, believe me. Tomlin is both mime and mimic, her comedy is verbal and visual and it has heart. Miss Wagner’s writing leans on the unexpected felicity, and the funny, thought-provoking aphorism that you want to write down and use. Tomlin and Miss Wagner have created a full, rich evening of drama and comedy that is as satisfying as anything I’ve seen on Broadway in a long, long time. Long may Lily Tomlin survive.”
— Jacques le Sourd, Gannett Newspapers
“Buoyant!”
“A Buoyant search for signs of intelligent life in the theatre. An acerbic sendup of the current national selfishness, coupled with a knowing and ungooey lament for the loss of ’60’s innocence.”
–William A. Henry III, Time Mag.
“Brilliantly Written!”
“Beautifully funny, brilliantly written and makes you laugh till you hurt. I have never seen anything like it. Don’t miss this!”
–Joel Siegel, WABC-TV
“Spectacular!”
“An astonishing solo spectacular. Tomlin’s marvel is more than a funny and mental and emotional workout. The show really goes for the burn. SEARCH takes everything even further, deeper in technical wizardry, wisdom and wit. Tomlin crawls into the nervous and cosmic systems of pop universe of contemporary characters. Wagner tosses off enough wide-ranging, social-sexual hilarity to be a tycoon in the T-shirt slogan industry. Wagner and Tomlin have something to say about seeking and caring and the mystery — if not the meaning — of life. Trudy and her space chums have a regular ‘electromagnetic field day‘, and so do we.”
–Linda Winer, USA Today
“Awesome!”
“Tomlin is a performer of awesome ability, agility, psychological and verbal acuity, and she and her alter ego, Jane Wagner share a remarkable eye and ear. Tomlin is certainly a gifted comedienne and in Jane Wagner she has a writer who fits her skills and requirements to a T.”
–John Simon, New York Mag.
“Explosion of Merriment!”
“Tomlin is a one woman population explosion of merriment. Displays her skills honed to lethal sharpness.”
–Allan Wallach, Newsday
“Stupendous!”
“Here come the superlatives. Lily Tomlin is super, smashing and stupendous as a dozen characters subtly woven together by the gifted Jane Wagner. I don’t know if there’s intelligent life in the universe but there’s intelligent, sparkling life in the theatre. Lily Tomlin – the tops.
–Pia Lindstrom, WNBC-TV
“The First SRO Smash!”
“The first SRO smash of the Broadway season. ‘The Search’ is a compendium of pop history, a living anthropological exhibit of the relics of a society that subscribes to disposable life styles. That makes it funny, grab-your-sides funny. But it is also a chronicle of the human heart. . . . and that makes it sublime, catch-your-breath sublime.”
–David Richards, Washington Post
“Bright Comic Light!”
” ”The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’ blazes with a bright comic light that Broadway hasn’t seen for a long time. This memorable menagerie of a parade of characters who are funny, touching and skewered by life is the creation of Jane Wagner, who has not been content to just string together various character sketches. What Wagner has done is write a play with a beginning, middle, and end. An impressive achievement. She never preaches. Her stories have sting as well as soul. Tomlin has never been better. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you believe in the theatre again.”
–Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press
“Brilliant Wit!”
” ‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’ is written by Jane Wagner — who is every bit as searching, signal, intelligent, lively, and universal as Lily Tomlin. Don’t, on pain of exile, miss this one woman extravaganza. The intellectual fireworks are illuminating. The humor is mad and antic. This really is in a different league — it genuinely is a comedy about the way we are. Yet throughout this madcap (there’s a word and a half!) excursion into cartoon and caricature there is an energizing surge of brilliant wit and of thought-provoking thought. I personally felt as though what was left of my mind had been blown. She is the world’s funniest woman. Miss Tomlin should be given Manhattan. And Miss Wagner should be give the Met!”
–Clive Barnes, N.Y. Post
“Outbursts of Laughter!”
“A human comedy that strikes home so sharply it brings gasps of recognition as well as outbursts of laughter. A marvelous piece of performing by Tomlin who embodies both the heartbreak and hopefulness of our time, and a dazzling job of writing by Wagner. The audience rose to give Tomlin a long and thunderous ovation.”
–Jack Kroll, Newsweek
“Something To See!”
“Something to see. Tomlin knits her creations into what can rightly be called a play. What’s more the script is nearly as daring as Tomlin’s single-handed assault on it. As the star trails like a comet through a galaxy of characters so Miss Wagner sums up a generation of social history in a tightly compressed saga of a few representative lives. Miss Wagner‘s lines rarely miss a trick. Miss Tomlin draws her audience completely into the goosebump experience and who can stop tingling long enough to resist!”
–Frank Rich, N.Y. Times
“Joyful!”
“Joyful, warm, absolutely celebratory. You leave the theatre thinking about the characters, about the way she has shown you the odd beauty as well as the comedy in their poignant lives, and you leave convinced that Tomlin is the best thing that has happened to Broadway in years.”
–Howard Kissel, WWD
“Exhilarating!”
“A goosebump experience. This is a positive must for anyone who still has a serious belief in the power of a live performance to transform an audience into one being. This is exhilarating. How can you not go at once?”
–Alvin Klein, WYNC
“A Radiant Evening!”
“Lily Tomlin has arrived with a radiant evening of wit, joy and brilliant observations on life written by Jane Wagner. Absolutely, wonderful. Miss Tomlin accomplished that rare feat in the theatre, very special. She conveys a sense of sharing with her audience. It is a very special one woman show and I urge and be you, be sure not to miss this one.”
–Jeffrey Lyons, INN