The Washington Post
By Nelson Pressley,
“Mitchell Hebert is dapper and twinkly as Pete, the appealing patriarch who died too young”.
The Washingtonian
By Sophie Gilbert
Hébert, always a delight to watch, steals scenes in flashbacks as Bill’s charming, kindhearted father but also in multiple side roles as a doctor, a physical therapist, and a (female) hairdresser.
The Washington Post, Published: December 6, 2012
By Nelson Pressley,
“That counters the clichés of Klein’s plot and characters. Goldman casts appealing actors who help the old tropes go down easily, with the spotlight fixed most brightly on Mitchell Hebert’s stylishly evil sheriff. Stack garbs the character in spurs and furs; Hebert takes the cue and does the suave, heartless Bad Guy thing extremely well.”
![]()
Washington City Paper
Best Play Not About Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe That Was Totally About Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe
It’s all ancient history now, but Jose Carrasquillo’s November production of After the Fall at Theater J made it all feel like the nagging, insistent present, anchored by extraordinary performances by Mitchell Hébert as the straw-Miller and Gabriela Fernández-Coffey as the not-Marilyn. If we could hear Don Draper’s internal monologue, it’d probably sound a lot like this.
after the fall/theatre j
washington citypaper
By Chris Klimek • November 11, 2011

“While the entire company is strong, the enterprise rests squarely on the actor standing in Quentin’s Florsheims for every minute of this nearly three-hour ordeal. In this role, Mitchell Hébert tops his superb work in Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s recent reprisal of Clybourne Park. Running on from the wings to take his bow after last Saturday’s performance, Hébert looked relieved and exhausted. He flays himself open as fearlessly as any actor I’ve ever seen, implicating us all in his battle to purge hypocrisy from his heart. To watch him in this role is difficult, but just try to look away”.
The Washington Post, Published: November 2, 2011
By Nelson Pressley,
Mitchell Hebert, in a huge role, is appealingly wry as Quentin, which makes all the self-scolding go down easy.
“Geez,” Quentin mutters to us as he debates giving in to Maggie’s wiggly seductions, “I can’t even go to bed without a principle.” Hebert makes such revelations personable; he skillfully lures us in, rather than fulminating from on high.
Metro Weekly
By Jonathan Padget
Published on November 10, 2011
“Hebert is supremely cool and confident as he makes his way
through Miller’s dense thicket of words, ideas and
images. And he even has the panache and physique to
carry off a slim-fitting suit of the era (one of the smart,
spot-on costumes by Ivania Stack)”.
clybourne park/remount/july/august 2011 
By Peter Marks
Thursday, Jul 28, 2011
Washington Post Staff Writer
Mendenhall and Hebert, in the play’s opening scene, create a breathtaking synergy, as homeowners with far more on their minds than financial gain or convenience as a rationale for selling. And when Hebert’s broken and heartbroken Russ finally erupts, an audience does not care whether his fury is aimed at his neighbors’ pressure tactics or the unfairness of the universe. It’s all one. Letting go of the place, for him and for Bev, is a sort of downsizing of the heart.
“art”
Special to the Washington Post
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
“As Marc, Mitchell Hébert’s near-genius with angst is ideal: Hébert’s perpetually pained expression reads like cosmic heartburn, and each zinger about the art and the friendship is meticulously crafted, a smart bomb of intellectual and egotistical discontent”.
“art”
By Kate Wingfield
Metro Weekly, April 14
“Of course, with a cast of three confined to a set consisting of a modestly sized living room (which cleverly alternates between two of the men’s apartments via a change the wall art alone), the effectiveness of the players is paramount. Capturing his not-quite-as-confident-as-he-seems cynic with flair and flavor is a superb Mitchell Hébert as Marc”.
charming billy
By Celia Wren
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
“And in a brilliantly naturalistic turn that’s funny and moving, Mitchell Hébert plays the contrarian Dan Lynch, who plants a note of skepticism at the funeral meal (he drank side-by-side with Billy for years and his own liver turned out just fine, he announces) and yet later pays expansive tribute to Catholic priests and the way faith can alter the fabric of a life”.
around the world in 80 days 
By Nelson Pressley
Special to The Washington Post
“Mitchell Hébert’s Fogg is the calm at the center, delivering the character’s unflappable declarations with wry precision.”
clybourne park
By Peter Marks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 25, 2010
“Comedy of this accomplished order requires the casting of commensurate talent, and here Shalwitz’s instincts are impeccable. It’s tough to know whom to single out in an ensemble when all the actors save one are called on to portray two very distinct roles, so let’s spread the applause. As the slowly imploding Russ, the excellent, utterly convincing Hébert has one of his most rewarding parts in a long time.”
eurydice
By Celia Wren
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, February 13, 2009
“Delectably outlandish as the Stones are, they seem almost staid in comparison to the Nasty Interesting Man, who, it’s implied, is the Lord of the Underworld in disguise. Clad in funereal black and initially seen licking a blood-red lollipop, Hébert gives this figure a mesmerizing freakishness, his voice ranging crazily in pitch, his hands exaggeratedly gesturing to emphasize his words. The actor is equally riotous as the macabre Dennis the Menace-type who peddles his tricycle dressed in a red-velvet tuxedo jacket and knickers, now whining, now issuing bossy orders, now addressing Eurydice in a basso of stomach-churning lustfulness”.
peter pan
By Nelson Pressley
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, November 27, 2008
“A good deal of the early wonderment comes from Mitchell Hébert, whose charmingly grumpy turn as Mr. Darling forecasts the amiably mischievous Hook he delivers in the show’s long middle act.
If Hébert’s performance is a bit of a scene stealer, that’s okay; with Hook’s dandified vanity and appetite for menace, a little extra is the least an actor can do”.
Baltimore City Paper
John Barry
Posted 9/5/2007
Mrs. Farnsworth
“Mitchell Hébert is physically perfect for the role: Smartly attired, imposing, but not swaggering, he radiates confidence in his own social station. That smugness is also at the root of his politely dismissive attitude toward Gordon. Meanwhile, Gordon grows increasingly frantic as he tries to persuade Mrs. Farnsworth that he can rescue her from her husband and coach her with this tell-all book”.
Big Love/Woolly Mammoth Theatre
“Hébert pulls off a remarkable balancing act between repulsive male chauvinism and misunderstood masculinity. How wonderfully challenging it is for the audience to simultaneously despise and empathize with Constantine”.
Metro Weekly/ Jonathan Padget
Published on June 27, 2002
Uncle Vanya
By Anton Chekhov, translated by Brian Friel
At the Everyman Theatre through Oct. 17
It’s the end of summer on the Serebryakov estate. The air is getting cooler, and the summer romances, real and imagined, are coming to a close. People begin to wonder how they’re going to make it through another winter. There are two possible options for that: getting depressed or going crazy. Everyman’s version of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya leans, successfully, in the direction of the funny farm.
For 25 years, Vanya (Mitchell Hébert, pictured) and his niece Sonya (Maia DeSanti) have been laboring away on the estate, sending their earnings to its absentee owners, Professor Alexander Serebryakov (Dan Manning) and his young wife, Elena (Deborah Hazlett). Now, the owners have returned. Vanya is in love with Elena; the estate’s Dr. Astrov is in love with her as well; the professor thinks Elena wants him dead; Sonya is in love with Astrov; and Elena is unsure what she should do. Simply put, it’s a mess. They love one another, hate one another, want to kill one another, or want to marry one another. But the time and place seem to be permanently wrong.
Everyman isn’t the first theater company to find the humor in this grim scenario. Chekhov himself, though, might not get all the jokes. There’s some winking and nodding in Brian Friel’s modern translation, and there are a few insertions of over-the-top humor that challenge the slow buildup. But the occasional liberties taken in this production are worth it in the end.
Hébert’s fascinating portrayal of Vanya has a psychological complexity that isn’t usually associated with Chekhov. Arguing with his demons, he is helplessly, childishly enraged at his own loneliness. He’s in a desperate search for someone to blame, and eventually he turns on himself. Hébert’s performance lends Vanya an almost ecstatic, Dostoevskian dimension: As he puts on his spectacles at the end and returns to work, we know that he has truly run the spiritual gauntlet.
Vincent Lancisi’s artistic direction gives the play a lurching, sometimes arrhythmic quality that fascinates, though it sometimes disturbs the larger sweep. In an initial scene, for instance, Astrov and Vanya go on a wild bender that seems straight out of Animal House. So much for the slow buildup.
It’s difficult to believe that this is quite what Chekhov had in mind, but after a century of being lyrically melancholic this Uncle Vanya is manically depressed. So yes, this is Chekhov for the 21st century, minus the Prozac.
|
|

