Reviews & Honors

Multiple Award-Winning Performance: Francis (Lead) in One Man, Two Guvnors U.S. Regional Premiere at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

“Apparently made of rubber, the big comedian bounces through his role with physical elan and sly, sharp wit.” - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Award-Winning Performance: Jeffrey in Mrs. Mannerly, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati & TheaterWorks Hartford

“Using just the different eyeglasses worn by the two characters for props, McAnally manages to have a humorous makeout session with himself that leaves both the couple and the audience rolling on the floor.” - CT Arts

Award-Winning Performance: Ellard in The Foreigner, Cincinnati Playhouse

Ray McAnally, John Scherer, & Nell Geisslinger

“The four-person cast meld themselves into a flawless ensemble. Led by **Cariani**, himself, they find the humor and poignancy of their characters. **Raymond McAnally**, **Kathy McCafferty**, and **Samantha Rosentrater,** together with Cariani, form a quartet whose perfrct timing and very present performances make the evening meaningful.” - Broadwayworld, *Almost, Maine*

Award-Winning Cast: *Casa Valentina* West Coast Premiere, Pasadena Playhouse

“As the wise-cracking Albert/Bessie, Raymond McAnally radiates the joy of a man comfortable with his female side.” - San Gabriel Valley Times

Ray was asked to reprise his stage role as Trevor five years later in the feature film, *The Revival.*
“Bad boy past aside Raymond McAnally's Trevor is a Bush voter, hunter, man of the people, voice of the community, patient and ambitious… He knows the ropes, he's connected, he's personable, funny, down to earth, a big lovable Southern teddy bear. **Just don't cross his line.** He's also a dangerous revenge seeker, capable of anything in the name of his church and his God.” - NY Theatre Wire
“Raymond McAnally, in **a mesmerizing turn as Trevor,** the church’s financial director, tries to bring out the inner showman in Brother Eli to turn the fortunes of the church around. Raymond McAnally plays Trevor with a **deceptive simplicity**. Trevors good old boy veneer hides a businessman who sees the possibility of real money if Brother Eli performs at his capabilities and is managed correctly.” - MOMH, *The Revival*

Raymond McAnally & Ariel Shafir in *Mere Mortals* at Two River Theatre
"The evening resembles an extraordinary episode of Saturday Night Live, though director KJ Sanchez certainly chose players who are **more than ready for prime time.**" - NJ Star Ledger
“**Each of the actors rates star billing.** Ericka Kreutz is the lone female; she and Raymond McAnally, Glenn Peters and Ariel Shafir are as expressive physically as they are with Ives's words. Each has outstanding individual moments, but it's in various combinations of twos, threes and all four where they really show their stuff.” - Two River Times

Bottom in *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*
"Raymond McAnally delivering a superb performance as Bottom, the weaver who believes he's an actor, too, and **ripe for every part in "Pyramus and Thisbe**." His scene in which Pyramus dies is particularly delicious. Protracted death scenes can wear out their welcome on stage, but **McAnally dies in so many resourceful ways that he should go on even longer.**" - Newark Star Ledger

“Director Anne Kauffman keeps her **nonpareil cast** skating across Kris Stone’s clever, trapdoor-riddled set, and has everyone treading lightly in this odd, delicate play. **It’s a remarkable event, a rare piece of total theater.** Take it from my lips: Go to God’s Ear.” - World Premiere of *God’s Ear* at New Georges and Vineyard Theatre, Off-Broadway

“McAnally brings to mind a taller version of Lou Costello and his knack for finding trouble with the impish antics of Benny Hill and his brand of physical comedy.” - Ladue News, One Man, Two Guvnors

“Just as impressive is the ease with which Mr. McAnally switches between the clueless 10-year-old Jeffrey and the knowing adult narrator. Thanks to subtle changes in his facial expression and posture, and a slight assist from John Lasiter’s first-rate lighting, we are never in doubt about which of them is addressing us at any given moment.” - NY Times

“Newcomer Raymond McAnally is sly and on target as a waysmarter-than-he-seems handyman. He ignites the play’s funniest sequence when he thinks he’s teaching Charlie to read.” -Citybeat, The Foreigner

"The word gag is funny, but what makes it utterly endearing is that Ellard (delightfully embodied by McAnally), who is constantly shouted at and talked down to, finally gets to be the smart one" -The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Foreigner

“McAnally is often **the big guy with the big heart** that’s hard to hide.” - Press Herald, *Almost, Maine*

Raymond McAnally & John Cariani, *Almost, Maine* at Portland Stage

"The audience at the DECC, though, roared with laughter throughout Raymond McAnally’s roughly 100-minute solo routine.”

“… a first-rate standup comic’s sense of timing and talent for mimicry… having everybody else in the place hooting and shrieking with glee…” - Duluth News Tribune, Defending the Caveman

Trent Dawson & Ray McAnally in *The Revival*

Glenn Peters & Ray McAnally
"**McAnally's innocent face** makes his corrupting almost every exchange all the more hilarious." - NJ Star Ledger

Frank Harts, Mike Caban, Anna Gutto, & Raymond McAnally
“Frank Harts and Raymond McAnally, the two fine actors who play Henning and Johannes respectively, **generate a lot of laughs with their arch delivery** of passages like this. Their early repartee provides **a humorous counterfoil**” - NY BlogCritics.org

“This is no woe-is-me exercise in public psychotherapy… **Self-effacing and witty**, you can’t help but feel a **level sincerity** – even in his most difficult moments – that gives the show **enormous impact.**” - Cincinnati Enquirer

McAnally creates a bumbling, fearful and obedient servant, akin to Pseudolus in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”…” - Jennifer Margulis, NYU News

McAnally crammed his lines with all the shades of wit, anxiety, confusion, and defiance that his minor role could handle. He was easily the most natural performer of the bunch.” - The Burial at Thebes, La MaMa

“Two Guvnors spills chaotically into the theater, as McAnally, a huge stage presence, all roly-poly muscularity and lightning wit, makes quick work of the sacrosanct fourth wall. As Francis Henshall, McAnally, by turns hungry and horny, seems ever ready to go off script, plucking people from the crowd and keeping the audience off balance as they become participants in this riotous show — as flummoxed as their onstage counterparts.”

“McAnally, a protean physical comic who pushes the play's already frenetic pace into an electric storm of chaotic hilarity.”

- Riverfront Times, One Man, Two Guvnors

“Raymond McAnally plays not just the adult and prepubescent Jeffreys but also all of his squirmy, obnoxious classmates. What a bunch! Jamie has an inordinate interest in sex and (therefore?) despises Jeffrey. Kim’s twin passions are J. Edgar Hoover and arranging silverware. Ralph suffers from a dysfunctional sinus and an antipathy to handkerchiefs. Chucky is a sanctimonious toady.” - NY Times, Mrs. Mannerly

“In Mr. McAnally’s gleeful, cartoon impersonations, shaped under the go-for-it direction of Ed Stern, they are simply and hilariously gross (a word Mrs. Mannerly would probably frown on). Mr. McAnally’s finest comic moment comes in a burst of rapid-fire mimicry during Mrs. Mannerly’s class on “the art of dinnertime conversation,” when Jeffrey impersonates Jamie impersonating each member of her crude, boisterous family in open warfare over their TV dinners. The actor also has a fine time as an older, wilder girl named Patsy Lopresta, who greets young Jeffrey with the words, “Want to make out?” Aided by only a pair of pink eyeglasses, Mr. McAnally contrives to let us watch Patsy and Jeffrey in a hilarious grope-fest, followed by an even less decorous cha-cha.” - NY Times, Mrs. Mannerly by Jeffrey Hatcher

“Most delightful of all, McAnally's unstoppable drollery as Bessie **combine in marvelous ways to create** **a powerful human drama**.” - LA Times, Charles McNulty

Valerie Mahaffey, Raymond McAnally, James Snyder, & Christian Clemenson in the West Coast Premiere of *Casa Valentina.*

“Raymond McAnally earns the laughs as the robust class clown Bessie, who says cruel things about himself before anyone else has the chance. His scenes are touching as he wavers between self-respect and low self-esteem.” - TheatreMania, Casa Valentina