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Houston Press Review

Holy Cross Sucks! Rocks off-broadway! Winner, Prestigious Time Out Magazine's 2005, Top 10 Broadway/ Off Broadway Shows

'HOLY CROSS ... !' Rob Nash's infectious solo show, based on his years at a Jesuit high school in Texas, mines the 1980's for pop-culture references and for John Hughes-style narrative devices. But the nostalgia goes deeper than Izod and "Purple Rain" in this unexpectedly rich coming-of-age tale, made all the warmer by Mr. Nash's cool, unflappable demeanor.
-New York Times

Nash clearly loves his wannabe rebels. As a performer and writer,
his virtuosic peaks come when the boys share private moments, and
he flickers between them with impeccable precision. "Holy Cross Sucks" may be the perfect vehicle for Nash's undeniable acting talent… Nash… up there alone, displaying his prowess to the world.
- Variety

Technical tour de-force …characters with remarkable nuance, he musters concentration at lightning speed. Captures edgy, awkward spirit of coming of age…inventively delivers…material great…wonderful writer…accomplished comedian… this could certainly be a TV series.
- Roma Torre, NY1 On Stage

Rob Nash’s Holy Cross Sucks! is a truly inspired look at this pinnacle time in our lives. He switches back and forth from one character's voice and posture to another with the ease and skill of a carnival juggler. It is an absolutely stunning feat of focus and precision to behold. Nash’s story is brutally honest and raw at times. This makes for some moments that are so real that I felt as if I was reliving episodes of my own adolescence. Some of his depictions of teenage sex are particularly biting. Ultimately, Holy Cross Sucks! is about three teens who have made the “passionate choice to fearlessly be themselves.” Being ourselves is a goal we should all be reminded of whether we are teenagers or grown-ups. Nash not only deserves the highest praise for his flawless performance but also for offering us this important universal theme.
- Richard Hinojosa, nytheatre.com

Extremely entertaining… truly enjoyable theater… you are wowed by the performance of Nash as he effortlessly introduces you to an array of characters… seamlessly fluid that it leaves the audience in a strange combination of uproarious laughter and confusion, all the while being unable to hold back the applause the Nash so very much deserves… No matter how unlikely these scenarios may appear, you can appreciate them because they are so over dramatic – and that’s at least the way everything feels in high school, whether it’s really that way or not… Hilarious, over the top, yet extremely relatable in a laughable way, Holy Cross Sucks does the high school experience proud and gives you good reason to go home and flip open those dusty old yearbooks.
- broadwayworld.com

What's most remarkable is the daunting technical challenge Nash has set for himself, switching from one character to the next within the space of a single line--he even crosscuts between three locales at once, whipping in and out of character in nanoseconds. He's a one-man panorama, channeling his charming, troubled people and baring their souls with infinite charity and tact.
- Lighting and Sound America Review

Rob Nash becomes a one-man Brat Pack in his affectionate look back on four years in a Houston parochial school. A hip, cracker, gay-friendly version of Anna Deavere Smith, Nash brilliantly moves from one character to another. Along the way, he gives full-bodied dimension to types (”the Homo,” “the Punk,” “the Slut,” “the Nerd,” et al.). By the time Nash, who also scripted and is ably directed by Broadway veteran Jeff Calhoun, takes bows as each of his creations, the cross cutting has moved from merely dizzying into the realm of the hallucinogenic. Holy Cross is only the latest thorn in the crown of Ars Nova, which has established itself as the most indispensable experimental venue in town.
- NY Press/ Newsday AM New York

1-MAN COMEDIES
Rob Nash creates ground-breaking one-man comedies in the off-Broadway's Holy Cross Sucks! Holy Cross Sucks! is the final version of the quadrilogy that includes Freshman Year Sucks , Sophomore Slump, Junior Blues and Senioritis. You can program one, or like Colby-Sawyer, and Rutger's Camden, program all four!

Rob's latest solo serial, Holy Cross Sucks! was developed through the financial support of NYC's premiere regional theater, New York Theatre Workshop (Rent!,Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul).

Rob and director Jeff Calhoun (Tony nominated for Best Choreographer for Broadway's Grease starring Rosie O'Donnell and Megan Mullally and as Best Director for last season's Big River, and this season directed Brooklyn, The Musical ) participated in development residencies at Dartmouth College and Vassar College.

A multitude of male and female, gay and straight, young and older, and multi-ethic characters seamlessly form the "ensemble" Rob portrays in the tradition of Lily Tomlin and John Lequizamo. Rob is THE theatrical voice of youth and young adults.

Freshman Year Sucks! has been described as "an "80's high school flick on stage with 1 guy playing all 26 characters." Film techniques greatly inform how the drama unfolds on stage. sound and light cues seem to parallel "jump cuts" and "dissolves" and usher the audience through many more scenes and locations than traditional theatre affords. It's not a stretch to say that the sound and lights are additional actors.

Rob's first solo play series The Dysfunctional Family Saga (12 Steps to a More Dysfunctional You and 12 Steps to a More Dysfunctional Christmas and 12 Steps to a More Dysfunctional Family, Part III) is currently being developed into a screenplay: The Smiths. (Working title).

The Dysfunctional Family Saga has played The First International Fringe in New York, The Festival Fringe in Edinburgh Scotland, Los Angeles, San Francisco (Solo Performer of the Year from the Bay Area Critic's Circle), Seattle, Tampa, Durham, Houston, Austin and Palm Springs.

STAND-UP COMEDY
Fresh and intelligent, ROB NASH combines quick wit and magnetic charm with keen observation and wry social commentary to produce stand-up that critics have termed everything from "Tragi-comedy" to "laugh-out-loud, God-that's-me-funny."

Internationally, Rob Nash's comedy has been seen by audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, Montreal's "Just for Laughs", and "We're Funny That Way' in toronto, and throughout the Mediterranean aboard Atlantis Cruise Lines.

Nationally Rob's been featured on VH1's Standup Spotlight with Rosie O'Donnell, Comedy Central's Out There in Hollywood, and Rob emceed HBO's Bob Smith and Suzanne Westenhoeffer's specials.

Rob has worked with Jerry Seinfeld, Margaret Cho, Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Hicks, Paula Poundstone and Judy Gold.

Rob has performed at the Northeast GLBTQA Regional at "University of Maine-Orono, and at I.D.E.A., the first conference for LGBT students at the 28 Jesuit Colleges. He's also appeared at colleges including, Princeton, UC-Berkeley, Yale, UCLA, Emerson, Denison, Western Maryland, Wellesley, SUNY-Fredonia, U. of Southern Oregon, Gettysburg, Franklin Pierce, Williams, and Texas State.

In addition, Rob has done his stand-up at clubs including The Improv, the Laff Factory, Gotham Comedy Club, Catch a Rising Star, the Comedy Store, Capitol City comedy club, The Funny Bone, and at his home club, the Fabulous Velveeta Room.

Rob lives in Austin, TX. He's single.

"Among the most memorable solo shows of recent years. The best scenes are not only entertaining, they ring true. Convincing and likable, portraying kids finding themselves, Nash is a writer/performer to watch...I hope it's run can be extended. I like the tone of the piece, which captures without sentimentality or self-pity the difficulties of growing up.

"Rob Nash accurately captures, in his tight, and gently humorous one-man play, the awkwardness and inability to fit in. He's a dynamic performer, tackling, multiple male and female characters of various ages and nationalities with freshness and finesse.

"...it's a comic escapade, with a teeming cast of richly detailed, delightfully familiar, appealing characters engaged in a breakneck series of amusing rites of passage and affecting trials of life...Nash's surety in the piece as a whole- in the writing and the characterization and the delivery- is uncanny. He is at a level where he can create a cinematic montage, cutting from one scene to another and back again until both scenes climax, and it pays as smoothly and effectively as if it were filmed.

" It's no wonder that Nash has such a following. The writer-actor plays each and every one of the 30-plus characters in these one-man shows with a gleeful, energetic joy that is at once compassionate, ironic and richly textured. Not only is each character carefully drawn with nuance that manifests itself in the curve of Nash's spine, the smirk on his lips or twist of his wrists, but these characters also appear regularly on stage together, not in a series of monologues. Nash snaps with astonishing grace and speed from one to another as they bicker, tango, French-kiss and share bong hits, stomping their teenage way toward maturity.