The New York Times’s Neil Genzlingler said August’s Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is “100 times better than any bedtime story.” and Phoebe Hoban called August’s production of Two Gentlemen of Verona “a rollicking good time.”
Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times called Mr. August’s production of Two Gentleman of Verona at the Old Globe “inexhaustibly inventive” and “effervescent.” It was subsequently on the Los Angeles Times’ “Year’s End Top-Ten List.”
Regarding King Charles III, TheArizona Republic said “the keen direction of Matt August is deft and engaging, highlighting the past-within-the-present themes and eliciting engaging performances that bridge the centuries.”
The Tucson Daily Star said “Matt August directs [King Charles III] with wit and a sense of urgency. [He] makes it impossible not to care about these people, or the very real human emotions and important ideas this play shines a light on.”
The Salt Lake Tribune said “Two Dollar Bill’s” clash of conflicting ideas and Matt August’s taut direction often give it the tension of a thriller.”
Variety praised his Geffen Theatre production of Discord with “in such assured hands as helmer Matt August’s, [itis] catnip for regional-theater subscribers yearning for a little food for thought with their fun.”
The Los Angeles Times said Discord was “funny and thought provoking” and “finely tuned, with superb performances.” The Examiner described it as “a philosophical marvel under August’s direction.”
Utah’s Deseret News said his production of In the Heights “Sizzles…[It] is not to be missed.” and later that “August has made Shakespeare cool” about Much Ado About Nothing.
The San Francisco Chronicle described his work as “hilarious and moving…imaginatively staged” (Fourth Messenger) and “captivating and inventively eclectic” (Baby Taj).
Variety also said that August’s “fun quotient is sky high” (Time Flies) and that his work is “a Loony Toons extravaganza” of “good fun!” (Pig Farm);
The Hartford Courant called August’s professional debut, Sixteen Wounded staring Oscar-winner Martin Landau, “an incendiary world premier production.”
The New York Times’s Alvin Klein said “Some plays have the power to provoke. Sixteen Wounded, at the Long Wharf Theater, may well stun you into silence.”
But his favorite review is from The Chicago Tribune, who praised August’s production of A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre as being “as different from everything else that I’ve seen as the ‘Starship Enterprise’ is from the airplanes at O’Hare.”
Matt August 