THESE PAPER BULLETS (Atlantic)
In one of the more clever bits of translation, the villain of the original, Don John, becomes Don Best (Adam O’Byrne), who was once in the band but has now been demoted to a sort of roadie and general assistant...and Mr. O'Byrne makes for a sexy, brooding baddie. -- Charles Isherwood, New York Times, December 16, 2015
Adam O'Byrne's Don Best, a jealous ex-drummer, is an inspired villain. -- The New Yorker
THESE PAPER BULLETS (Geffen)
The performances are energetic and roundly excellent, with special kudos to (...) O'Byrne, who imbues his Don with glowering intensity. -- Dash Finley, Living Out Loud Los Angeles, September 18 2015
THESE PAPER BULLETS (Yale Rep)
There are a number of remarkable performances in this show: Steven DeRosa’s delicious vamping as the happy father of a presumed bride-to-be; Adam O’Byrne as the seething scurrilous villain of the piece, here called Don Best –Christopher Arnott New Haven Independent March 21 2014
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Adam O’Byrne’s Mitch meets the challenge of playing awkwardness gracefully. As the most “sensitive” of Stanley’s friends, Mitch might be just what Blanche needs—and Streetcar is perhaps at its best in showing that illusion can only go so far in masking the hard line of reality. – Donald Brown September 30 2013 New Haven Review
The result: the supporting actors, Stella, as played by the talented Sarah Sokolovic (at left in photo, with Augesen), and Adam O’Byrne’s Mitch, Blanche’s last hope for a romantic redeemer, emerged for me as the more satisfying aspects of the production.
O’Byrne’s height and long, gangly-armed physique worthy of an NBA defensive guard embody his awkwardness perfectly. So when he proudly asks Blanche to guess his weight, your heart goes out to him. –Allan Appel New Haven Independent October 4 2013
THE HOMECOMING
The men who inhabit the old homestead bristle with fiercely or subtly stated individuality, reinforced by Alex Jaeger's preening costumes, and a shared feral opportunism.
Jack Willis' old butcher, Max, rules this roost as a monstrous patriarch of abrupt mood swings, veering from boastful or rosy nostalgia to angry recriminations in one speech - or from revering to reviling his late wife in a phrase. If his size, temper and roar won't enforce his alpha role, he's not above a sudden sucker punch. His rambling monologues become a concerted effort to goad any possible competition into showing its hand.
He needn't worry about his youngest son, Joey, expertly portrayed by Adam O'Byrne as a none-too-swift would-be boxer with no sense of keeping up his guard. –Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle, March 11 2011
LONDON ASSURANCE
As director Bedford has brought out the best in the entire cast. Adam O’Byrne is excellent as Charles Courtly, who deceives Sir Harcourt into thinking he is a timid scholar when in fact he is one of the best known rakes of London. – Christopher Hoile Stage-Door.com June 6 2006
I HENRY IV
Good classic juveniles don't come along every week, or even every year, and Adam O'Byrne, the gangling, impetuous youth who plays Hotspur, is a revelation. We laugh at him, sympathetically, in his first scene where the efforts of his elders to involve him in some serious conspiring are frustrated by his inability to keep his tongue off his own grievances. Everything they say sets him off on some new tangent. I've waited for decades to see the humour in this scene released; here it finally is, in torrents. We laugh with Hotspur when, with unflagging accuracy, he makes deflationary fun of his grandiloquent ally Glendower (Raymond O'Neill). There's a deadly point to the frivolity: We've just seen these men down on their hands and knees, poring over an outsized map of England, squabbling as to how they'll carve up the land. It's called counting your chickens. It's also called a terrible "look-out" for the country if they win. None of this makes O'Byrne's Hotspur any less gallant or, to those he loves, loving. Slain by Hal in single combat, he dies a great death; his adversary holds on to him so that he delivers his last words on his feet, a great improvement on the traditional speech from the floor. –Robert Cushman, National Post, June 7 2006