The Bicyclemen

"The Bicycle Men: Liberty, equality, hilarity..."
"With influences from Monty Python to Marcel Marceau, and from French chanson to the theatre of the absurd, The Bicycle Men comes over like a delirious bad dream caused by too much onion soup and cheap red plonk. There were many moments when it reduced me to helpless hilarity."

Charles Spencer reviews The Bicycle Men at the King's Head, Islington - Telegraph (London)

Bicycle Men is an assured, wildly funny piece from four American TV sitcom writers, two of them alumni of Chicago's Second City troupe. Its tenuous story is about Steve (Dave Lewman), a naive Yank cycling through France. When he crashes his bike, he is stranded in a remote village where surly locals shrug, and stage surreal puppet shows.

Daily Telegraph (London) David Gritten

Pure delicacy, pure delight, pure undiluted madness. I can’t think back to this show without breaking into fits of laughter...should really be obligatory viewing everywhere from Bruxelles to DC., - but it is such an exquisitely funny and well-timed feel good piece that it literally caters for every possible cultural taste around.

Stage (online)

"'Le Comedie du Bicyclette,' a surreal, 75-minute melange of whacked-out characters, full-blown musical numbers, hysterical one-liners and dark comedy with a positively Beckettian appreciation for pain, is the single funniest little show to come anywhere near Chicago this year. Period. For those with a taste for offbeat comedy with a twisted soul, it's absolutely not to be missed.'"

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

"Put down that Prozac and cancel your vacation. Nothing could possibly lift your spirits as quickly as "The Bicycle Men," a gleefully funny exercise in Francophobia that even President Jacques Chirac would love. ...this proudly silly comedy has as many guilty laughs as any show in town."

Jason Zinoman, New York Times

"Comedy Pick of the Week...delicious souffle...the powerful cabaret piece packs a wallop. Four fabulous actors with commanding pipes strut and cavort like the Marx Brothers doing Theater of the Absurd on steroids...C'est magnifique!"

Hattie Matthey, L.A. Weekly

"For a moment you’re filled with dread..."
A man in a striped vest, second cousin to the late Marcel Marceau, starts doing fey things with bits of bicycle, pretending a wheel is a hat or handlebars are antlers. It looks as if a comic, ie, painfully unfunny, mime show is in the offing. But the four Americans onstage – Joe Liss, Mark Nutter and John Rubano, who created the musical, and Dan Castellaneta, who plays the main role – turn out to be genially spoofing everything, including mime. "

Benedict Nightingale at the King's Head, N1 Times Online

"A blissfully light-hearted musical comedy"
The Bicycle Men at the Underbelly makes moldy jokes about baguettes seem fresh as it pokes fun at the French and Americans alike... exquisitely silly moments. I loved Mark Nutter's poker-faced rendition of a song about romantic infatuation and plastic surgery that goes: "Your fake breasts haunt me, why? / I'm not a fake breast guy." And Dave Lewman is a delight as the hapless traveler - a perennial enthusiast with a toothy grin and a goofy jiggle to his walk.

Guardian (online)

4 STARS !
THERE'S lots of singing in Skullduggery Theatre Company's The Bicycle Men, a musical comedy about an American cyclist called Steve who finds himself stranded in "a small village in France" after a bike crash. With nothing to do until the cowboys at the local bike shop fix his wheels, the hapless Yank is forced to endure, among other things, a series of dire puppet shows in the town square and a night in a youth hostel with a Dutch backpacker who can only get to sleep by singing Japanese folk songs. Loudly. Dave Lewman plays Steve with just the right amount of wide-eyed gullibility, and the supporting cast bring the town's eccentric characters to life with manic energy. The songs are the real highlights, though - beautifully written, and so off-the-wall they're on the floor.

Roger Cox - The Scotsman

"Get ready for laughs...a brie-induced fever dream suffered by Lance Armstrong the night before the big race...unapologetically nonsensical."

Adam Tschorn, L.A. Times

"Highly recommended...One of the funniest, looniest shows to pass through town...a perfect bijou -- a meticulously scripted and scored musical farce...strange, smart, and surreal."

Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times