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"Joey Parsons has become my favorite CATF actor, and that’s saying a lot. Parsons not only appears to have a limitless range, but an enormous ability to mine the nuances of each emotion. The rage she displayed as the wronged wife in Michael Weller’s Fifty Words nine years ago was rich and full; a plump rage, coming from someone certain of her entitlement. The rage she displays here — and she does display rage, believe me — comes from a bottomless emptiness, an emotional black hole. When she was enraged in Fifty Words you feared for her husband; when she is enraged in this play, you fear for yourself."

                                                        - DC Theatre Scene

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"(The quietly powerful) Joey Parsons also performs in Memoirs of a Forgotten Man on the Frank Center stage, in roles (as psychotherapist and busybody-spy) that are a marked contrast to the volcano that is Alexandra. It is Alexandra’s suffering that slowly comes into focus . . . Parsons’ slow burn as Alexandra tries to control her fury . . . is as unsettling as it is unforgettable, and her final explosion is as cathartic for us as it is for her."

                                                        - DC Metro Theatre Arts

 

"I cannot end without remarking on the sheer power of the two actors who play the leads. I have already commented in a review of (Memoirs of a Forgotten Man) about the range that Joey Parsons demonstrates between this role, which necessarily evokes a nearly volcanic release of emotion, and the very buttoned-down and circumspect character she is called upon to play in (Memoirs . . .)."

                                                         - Broadwayworld

 

"Parsons, meanwhile, is unrelenting in the hollowness behind her eyes, the emptiness in both her soul and a few bedrooms filling minds in exceptionally heartbreaking ways."

                                                         - The Frederick News Post


"Parsons – a superb actor –"

                                                    - DC Theatre Scene


"Joey Parsons’ interpretation of Natalya is memorable for its resolve tempered by discretion, her awareness that every word, every nuance of her delivery, could land her back in trouble."

                                                     - DC Metro Theatre Arts


"Joey Parsons and Lee Sellars by now also qualify as reliable. They have not only memorably acquitted themselves in previous seasons at CATF that I've witnessed, but each is holding down demanding roles in other plays in this season's Festival . . . these parts demanded and showcased these performers' range. Parsons, whose role in (The House on the Hill) calls for her to be living a life of quiet desperation that degenerates into explosively tearful noisy desperation, gives us here a Natalya trained by life in a repressive world to be always controlled, and to give little or nothing away."

                                                     - Broadwayworld

 

" . . . Catherine is played with affection and righteousness by Joey Parsons, giving strength and feminist empowerment to a role that Ibsen wrote as old-fashioned spousal subservience."

                                                   - Hartford Courant

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"Joey Parsons is riveting . . ." 

                                                   - New Haven Register

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"Parsons gives Catherine a shrewd intelligence . . ."

                                                  - New Haven Independent

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"Joey Parsons shines as Mrs. Catherine Stockmann"

                                                  - The Theatre Times

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"As for Ms. Parsons, one of my favorite New York-based actors, she has a genius for endowing seemingly thankless straight-man female parts with a warmth and emotional intensity that make them memorable. Her Amelia put me in mind of Olivia de Havilland, who showed us in “Gone With the Wind” and “The Heiress” that you can be good without being insipid."

                                                  - The Wall Street Journal

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" . . . just look to the self-denying Amelia, who mostly exists to be virtuous — and to show us that virtue is boring. This is not, by the way, a slight to Ms. Parsons, who shoulders this strangling conscientiousness bravely."

                                                  - The New York Times

 

"Best of all . . . Joey Parsons, who is vivid and true as Mash . . ."

                                                -T. Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

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". . . viscerally well-acted . . . Ms. Parsons captures (Mash's dryly funny boredom) with perfect goth-girl insouciance."

                                               - C. Isherwood, The New York Times

 

Joey Parsons finds delicious amusement in Mash's deadly appreciation of the fools around her -- yet the actress can turn on a dime, plunging us into her anguish.

                                              - Lighting & Sound America

Winner! San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critic’s Circle Award: Outstanding Principal Actress

“Parsons is an ever-evolving revelation in the comic resources of her elastic features, flexible long and lean physique, and surprising, even frightening vocal range.”

                                                  - San Francisco Chronicle

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“Joey Parsons, in particular, enacts a sort of sexy-librarian evolution in what appears to be the tallest, strongest, most emotionally labile and dangerous woman ever to hit a stage.”

                                                  - Phoenix New Times

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“All of the performances are fantastic, though Parsons tops the laugh meter with an angular physicality that’s barely contained by her straightjacket-tight dress."

                                                  - Arizona Republic

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“When she takes center stage, you can’t take your eyes off her.”

                                                  - KEZ

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“The surprise of the night is Joey Parsons’ Annette, who hilariously transforms from ramrod figurine into a comedic rag doll.”

                                                  - Sierra Vista Herald

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“Parsons, as the uptight financial manager, uses her facility with physical comedy to steal the most outrageous laughs of the evening.”

                                                  - Tucson Weekly 

"Joey Parsons is such a superb actor, her performance can paper over a weak script. But she didn’t have to in Allison Gregory’s astonishing Not Medea, seen at CATF . . .  Joey Parsons gave the best performance by a female actor I saw all year."

                                                  - DC Theatre Scene

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"Joey Parsons is absolutely riveting; she charms the audience from the moment she enters . . . Parsons is vivid and passionate . . . this is a finely crafted piece with a truly stunning actress at its center, not to be missed."    

                                                  - MD Theatre Guide

 

"Parsons is a petite force of nature as the lead character, the Woman. With the constant poise and natural grace of a dancer, she displays an entire range of emotions, from witty and easy going to viscerally tormented in the depths of despair. Her entrance in the show is spectacular and the first portion of the show, where she does nothing but interact with audience members in the intricate theatrical space displays her improvisational skills and impressive instant rapport with a different audience each night."                 

                                                  - Broadway World

 

"The person offering up the bulk of these figments of wisdom is officially known as “Woman,” who for an hour an a half is played by an utterly mesmerizing Joey Parsons . . . from the second Parsons walks into the room, you can’t take your eyes off her."    

                                                  - The Frederick News Post

 

"Ms. Parsons is striking . . . She's the beautiful straight man who gets her laughs by reacting realistically to the lunacy that engulfs her.  Titania is just one of her parts, and you'll long remember the open-mouthed look of ecstasy that irradiates her face when she sees Bottom for the first time after Puck turns him into an ass."

                                                  - The Wall Street Journal

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"As Titania, balletic Joey Parsons combines willowy Margot Fonteyn arms, Agnes Moorhead eyes and a bray, when incensed, that would put Bottom the ass to shame."

                                                  - Time Out New York 

 

"Joey Parsons, lovely and lithe, gives us a Titania drunk with wonder."

                                                  - Financial Times

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"Occasionally there is an actor who is so suited for her role that you immediately suspect that the part was written for her. In the world premiere of Victor Lodato's Dear Sara Jane, the remarkable Joey Parsons inhabits every cubic inch of this anxious woman's fears, misgivings, fantasies and desperate desire to please.  It is a bravura performance.

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Most outstanding performer - The Contemporary American Theatre Festival: New York Actress Joey Parsons for both Fifty Words and her solo performance in Dear Sara Jane.

                                                  - Tim Treanor, DC Theatre Scene

"The brightest star of the show is Joey Parsons, the fascinating Ariel of Mr. O'Brien's Tempest, who is no less striking this time around as Rosalind.  Decked out in tight jeans and a red cowboy hat a la Annie Oakley, she plays the ardent lover-in-disguise of As You Like It with an eager, sexy zest that put me in mind of the young Annette Bening."

                                                  - The Wall Street Journal

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"Rosalind is front and center here, played with a perfect, jokey, faux masculinity by Joey Parsons."

                                                  - The New York Times

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" . . . Rosalind, a sharp shooting cowgirl played deftly by the remarkable Joey Parsons, an energetic actress who can change gears faster than a NASCAR pole-sitter."

                                                  - The Journal News

 

 

 

 

"Parsons and Walsh are two of the best actors you will ever see on stage together . . . to see them in this wonderful play is like having caviar on top of your lobster."

                                                  - DC Theatre Scene

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 ". . . the superbly tense Joey Parsons . . ."

                                                  - The Washington Post

 

 

 

"The role of Ruth is played in magnificent fashion by Joey Parsons.  Aided by Parsons’s past study of classical ballet and modern dance, Ruth carries herself across the stage with aristocratic grace, elegance — and effete snobbery befitting her superior breeding, privileged education and elevated British social status . . . Parsons’s performance as Ruth was as good as they come, and her transition

from a Dr. Jekyll to a Mr. Hyde was entirely believable."

                                                - CNY Cafe Monmus

". . . Ms. Parsons is a classically trained dancer, and she presents Ariel as an exercise in perpetual, poignantly expressive motion. Her arms pinned to her side by a corset-cum-straightjacket, Ms. Parsons brings to mind a restless bird with it's wings pinned . . . Ariel's climactic moment of liberation is a shocker that verges on tragedy."

                                                 - B. Brantley, The New York Times

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"The delicately built Ms. Parsons plays Ariel effectively as an exotic bird, constantly twitching, with just a dash of the tortured Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies."

                                                  - The New York Times

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" . . . the barefoot Ms. Parsons is an earthbound, sea-green sprite with unkempt hair who flutters like a mermaid, her forearms pinioned to her sides in a visible sign of the spell cast upon her . . . The result is outrageously sexy . . ."

                                              - T. Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

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" . . . played to near perfection by Joey Parsons . . ."

                                                  - The Record-Review

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" . . . the bewitching Parsons . . ."

                                                  - Backstage

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"Ariel is played by Joey Parsons as a flighty creature who is all angles and elbows, graceful yet distorted.  She is fascinating to watch . . ."

                                                  - Times Herald-Record

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" . . . the exquisitely flighty Countess Almaviva (Joey Parsons) . . .

                                                  - The New York Times

 

" Of particular note is Joey Parsons, who imbues what could have been the thankless role of the Countess with just the right balance of bewilderment and pride . . ."

                                                  - Stage & Cinema

"Joey Parsons is outstanding and remarkable in the nuances she sculpts in her performance as the eerie and strong-willed but shallow Evelyn."

                                             - Mark Bretz, Ladue News

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"Joey Parsons simply dominates as Evelyn and keeps us guessing throughout the evening."

                                             - Steve Allen, KFUO-FM

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"Parsons' powerful performance dominates the action.  All jutting hip and cool smiles, she maintains an aura of self-confidence that simultaneously snares poor Adam yet puts the audience on guard."

                                             - Judith Newmark, Post-Dispach

 

"Miss Joey Parsons is perfectly cast as the calmly, reasonably malicious sculptor Evelyn . . ."

                                             - Robert Boyd, Talkin' Broadway

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