Review Roundup: COLIN QUINN: THE NEW YORK STORY Opens Off-Broadway

COLIN QUINN THE NEW YORK STORY, a new comedy written by and starring Colin Quinn, based on his book The Coloring Book (Grand Central Publishing) and directed by Jerry Seinfeld, opens tonight, July 23, at The Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street). The production is presented by Brian Stern, Mike Lavoie and Mike Berkowitz and will run for a limited engagement through August 16th.

In Colin Quinn The New York Story, Colin bemoans the rise and fall of his hometown, the city formally known as NY from its modest beginnings as Dutch outpost to the hipsters of modern Williamsburg to the vermin below and above ground. Quinn is once again at his satirical best, taking aim at the prejudices, paranoias and peculiarities that make New York City the crossroads of the world.

Directed by Jerry Seinfeld, who directed Colin in his Broadway show Colin Quinn Long StoryShort, Colin Quinn The New York Story has set design by James Fauvell, costume design by Alexis Forte, and lighting design by Sarah Lurie.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Jason Zinoman, The New York Times: Just as theater is always dying, New York is perpetually over. Complaining about its demise, however, remains one of its wonderful traditions, and Colin Quinn, a comic alert to ritual, plants himself firmly in the middle of it in his new monologue, "The New York Story," a nostalgic lament that makes for a lovely summer evening..."All the characters are gone from New York," Mr. Quinn reports gloomily. Those looking for evidence to the contrary need only regard the man onstage, a shambling yarn spinner with a restless mind and such an affectionate way of describing and even stereotyping ethnic groups that it will offend only those looking to be outraged. He fidgets around the stage, gesticulating madly and repeatedly interrupting himself, his raspy, stuttering sentences building momentum before ending in a pointed fizzle...The show (directed, like "Long Story Short," by Jerry Seinfeld) zips along, leaping from topic to topic, sometimes randomly..."The New York Story" is a sloppy, disorderly show, but that's part of its charm. The theater needs more of the spontaneity and recklessness of the comedy club.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: Most New York City guidebooks include the obligatory capsule history of the city. But tourists wanting to get to the core of the Big Apple would be better served seeing Colin Quinn's new one-man show...The New York Story...is a breezily entertaining comedic lecture that makes him seem like the coolest university professor ever...He particularly concentrates on the uniquely feisty New York attitude ("It's the only city that has blue-collar snobs") which he laments is now disappearing...The raspy-voiced comedian...delivers his distinctive combination of killer one-liners and astute observations without stopping to take a breath, making the 75-minute show fly by. While it's difficult to exactly pinpoint Seinfeld's contribution as a director, the evening has a well-honed seamlessness that, combined with the unified themes, raises the stand-up routine to satisfying theater. This is one New York Story you want to hear.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: Colin Quinn is the quintessential New Yorker: rude, lippy, pushy, opinionated, pugnacious, and full of attitude -- the very qualities he celebrates in "Colin Quinn The New York Story"...Quinn isn't quite the buried treasure he used to be as a standup comic...But you get the feeling that these quirky one-man shows of his are what keep him sane. Or happily insane. The subtext of his new show, which Jerry Seinfeld has directed at the breakneck speed that defines the normal pace of the city, is that we should celebrate our polyglot heritage and lose the politically correct tendency to squeeze everyone into the same mold. And if that means unearthing all the old stereotypical tropes we tried to bury, well, he's got a million of them -- drawn from his "first and last book," "The Coloring Book"...-- and they're all hysterically offensive.

David Cote, Time Out NY: It's not exactly a golden age for ethnic jokes: gags about how black people are like this or Jewish folks always do that...and don't get me started on Asians! With homicidal cops and white supremacists on one hand and thought-policing PC scolds on the other, there's not much room for laughs about cultural difference. And should there be? Colin Quinn thinks so in The New York Story, his irreverent, ethnographic survey of the immigrants who helped form the classic New York personality (pushy, cocky, loud). If stereotypes can be woven into a nonhostile humanistic tapestry, Quinn does it.

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: Directed by Jerry Seinfeld, the show ostensibly offers an irreverent trip through the city's history...Quinn...begins by acknowledging, briefly, the Native Americans who first trod our soil. He proceeds to address other groups, in roughly chronological order of their arrival, more colorfully. The Dutch, English, Germans, Jews, Italians, Puerto Ricans, Koreans and others all receive good-natured jabs...As Quinn's observations shift to recollections of his youth and more recent experiences, and the contrast between them, his real target emerges. It is political correctness...Quinn delivers these lines...in a breathless rush, so that while individual words may get lost, the vibe doesn't...He's selling himself, primarily, on regular-guy chutzpah...In the end, the show works best as breezy entertainment -- a Story told with earthy charm and, naturally, with a little bit of attitude.

Linda Winer, Newsday: Colin Quinn is not trying to bring back the ethnic joke, is he? Please, he's much too deep and smart for that, right? And yet, there is a nostalgia -- better, an exasperated, irritated wistfulness -- in his shaggy, fast-moving new 65-minute solo show "Colin Quinn: The New York Story," which contends that false civility has led to "eggshell walking" and homogenized identities. Nationalities and races that have come to New York for the "authenticity" have been flattened into generics. If anyone can still shoot a little freshness into the well-known limitations of political correctness, this is the guy...For all the enjoyable low-key virtuosity, however, the examples eventually come perilously close to feeling like a list.

Robert Kahn, NBC New York: New Yorkers have become so wary of offending people that we're afraid to acknowledge our differences, Colin Quinn argues in "The New York Story," a sage and snappy stand-up outing now on the boards at the Cherry Lane Theatre...Performing on a stage gussied up to look like the stoop of a brownstone, Quinn...satirically riffs his way through the history of the city's settlers beginning with the Dutch...Jews, Germans, Puerto Ricans and more come up for examination, but "The New York Story" is no stream of takedowns: it's both an affectionate look at stereotypes that are funny because they're true, and a lament that we tiptoe around things that make us unique...Quinn's monologue is mostly lean and bracing...Overall, he makes a really strong point that -- who knows? -- could just embolden some to let down their guards a bit.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: So strong is the material that it doesn't need the few flourishes devised by Jerry Seinfeld...Why make Quinn awkwardly clamber down the side of the set's brownstone stoop when he's more at ease just pacing the stage?...Quinn grew up in Brooklyn -- in the show he wears a "Roode Hoek" T-shirt, the old Dutch name for Red Hook. He smartly takes the edge off potentially sensitive material by filtering it through personal reminiscences, as when he describes the black boys at his school swaggering in late...mostly the jokes here are new, and the recycled ones benefit from his gruff delivery. Detours are welcome, too...Quinn excels at balancing nostalgia and reality checks...Then again, his subject is New York, where equal opportunity knocks -- at least when it comes to laughs.

Greg Evans, Deadline: Narrowing his focus from the global history of 2010's Long Story Short to the "rise and fall" of his beloved New York, Quinn takes few liberties (and fewer breaths) with his well-honed formula of cantankerous street wisdom and affectionate ethnic observations. The subject matter suits Quinn and his froggy Brooklynese, as he recounts (and spot-on mimics) wave after wave of five-borough inhabitants, from Lanapes to gentrifiers, staking claim on the land and bequeathing themselves to the New York personality. No one gets overlooked in Quinn's exhaustive litany, and if his characterizations are familiar - smug Brits, churchy Irish, handy Mexicans, authority-challenging black kids - they're too generous-hearted and lacking vitriol to arouse real ire...It's all nostalgic hooey, of course, but Quinn's vision of old-school, neighborhood-crossing camaraderie is as endearing as it is well-parsed.

Matt Windman, AMNY: Who knows what Jerry Seinfeld did as the show's director, but Quinn's musings are full of Seinfeld's brand of observational humor. Quinn has a chummy rapport with his audience and brings plenty of laughs, but the show lacks the ingenuity of "Long Story Short" and the bite of "Unconstitutional." It's too bad he didn't delve deeper into New York history and culture, rather than just bring up generalized stereotypes. That being said, Quinn has a remarkable ability to employ racial humor without being the slightest bit offensive.

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Photo Credit: Mike Lavoie