“Survival Skills”

Disappointment Media: Sean Boelman

Vayu O’Donnell’s performance as the “everyday” cop Jim is absolutely amazing, morphing from something charming into something haunting. The amount of range he is asked to show in the tonal shift moments alone is absurd, and is made even more impressive by the fact that this is his first starring role.

Nerdly: Phil Wheat

In fact it’s O’Donnell that is key to why Survival Skills‘ odd structure and playful fourth-wall breaking plotting work… His oh-so-earnest police officer is, honestly, too good to be true. From the get go O’Donnell’s performance gives Jim an edge; an edge that comes from O’Donnell’s portrayal as Jim being TOO impossibly good natured. You’re literally waiting for Jim to crack, waiting for him to breakdown and to see what the consequences of that will be. Yet at the same time you DON’T want that too happen, you want Jim to succeed at his job – its a beautiful dichotomy.

The Pop Break: George Heftler

O’Donnell does a great job of not only playing the robotic protagonist of a training video, he is excellent at creating the slow decline as well. The cracks start to appear and the stress takes its toll as Jim becomes more distressed and, eventually, jaded.

Our Culture Mag: Craig Ian Mann

And sympathising with Jim isn’t difficult; O’Donnell gives a purposely wooden performance (Jim is often called “RoboCop” by those around him) to create a picture of a man who has been brainwashed into perceiving the world as a battle between the forces of good and evil, and his slow realisation that justice does not always prevail is genuinely heart-breaking.

Signal Horizon: Tyler Unsell

O’Donnell does a wonderful job of walking the gambit between playing the absurd lead character while carving out space to be complex. He is both an artificial actor in a training video and a real person who has to make important decisions even when all the options are bad.

Simplistic Reviews: Justin Polizzi

The lead, rookie cop and gung-ho Jim, played by Vayu O’Donnell is the standout. He is optimistic and positive but isn’t ready for the dark world a cop will have to deal with day in, and day out.

Tilt: Christopher Cross

Armstrong manages to inject humor throughout with the help of O’Donnell’s charismatic and hopeful performance.

Mother of Movies: Vanessa Stewart

Survival Skills is a difficult film to capture the essence of, but the impact of Jim’s (Vayu O’Donnell) destruction will take you on a roller coaster of emotion. For all intents and purposes, Jim drives the story along and is brilliant while doing so. His bright-eyed and bushy tail slowly gets beaten down over the course of the film…You want Jim to win. In addition, you want to see him come out on top as the hero but, not everyone can be the hero they aspire to be. Jim is like a beacon of hope slowly burning against the darkness.

Nightmare on Film Street: Jonathan Decaan

And Vayu O’Donnell’s journey from a copy + paste policeman with a plastic smile to cynical doubting Thomas is a f*cking journey! His entire world is shattered, everything he’s come to understand is now meaningless, and laws that used to govern his actions have all been stripped away.

Mr. Will Wong: Amanda Gilmore

O’Donnell perfectly captures the far-fetched acting of those ’80s training videos while never becoming unbelievable. He has a natural charisma and charm that’s required to keep audiences rooting for in over his head Jim.

What to Watch: Amelia Emberwing

Keach and O’Donnell are unquestioningly the shining points of the film.

“Cherry Smoke”

The Huffington Post: David Finkle

If there’s a star turn, though, it’s O’Donnell as the fiery boxer forced when he was 9 to compete in a local match where he learned not only that he could prevail but also that authority, in the guise of his bullying father, was going to cut him no slack.

Incidentally, O’Donnell might be considered to have prepped for this part while appearing as one of the supporting players in the recent Golden Boy revival. He’s got the physique (his biceps look like oval rocks), and he knows how to access molten fury. He’s such a convincing Fish that his years as a Yale undergraduate where he was a Whiffenpoof and often performed in white tie and tails are something no onlooker would be likely to suss out.

NYTheaterNow: Monica Trausch

Through the skilled direction of Tamilla Woodard and the nuanced performances of the entire cast, particularly Vayu O’Donnell as Fish, this show is able to transcend simple, vernacular speech and truly move the audience.

Theater Pizzazz: Eric J. Grimm

Vayu O’Donnell conveys a consistent fury and passion as Cherry’s boxer boyfriend, Fish…

Theatre’s Leiter Side: Samuel L. Leiter

CHERRY SMOKE is in the highly capable directorial hands of Tamilla Woodard, and features an excellent ensemble with an especially potent performance by Vayu O’Donnell as Fish, a pugnacious, working-class amateur boxer from a small, poverty-riddled steel mill town in western Pennsylvania.

Vayu O’Donnell, a trimly muscular actor, demonstrates impressive boxing moves as he fights his invisible opponents. These scenes are well staged by fight director Rick Sordelet, who also creates a credible boxing lesson given by Fish.

CHERRY SMOKE is an expressive play about a neglected part of the national landscape, one that convincingly gives the fire of life to characters for whom the American dream is little more than blood, sweat, and tears without a meaningful payoff. It’s much more of a blow to the emotional solar plexus than a fantasy like ROCKY.

“Golden Boy”

The New York Times: Charles Isherwood

Throughout this blistering Lincoln Center Theater production, directed by Bartlett Sher and featuring a superb cast of almost 20 actors — a rare feast on Broadway these days — we watch in anguished anticipation as Joe struggles with a defining question..

The Wall Street Journal: Terry Teachout

“A cast as fine as any I’ve ever seen on Broadway!”

Newsday: Linda Winer

“An enormously satisfying revival with a huge, expert cast.”

Arts In NY: David Sheward

“The cast couldn’t be better. From Seth Numirch’s white-hot comet of a Joe to Vayu O’Donnell’s no-nonsense fight official who only appears for a few minutes, each performer is at the top of his game…”

“Jester’s Dead”

Best of New York Comedy

This show begins with a delightful concept—Top Gun performed as if written by William Shakespeare—and then executes it with the joyful craft only a sharp, tight theatrical ensemble can create. Everyone in the cast is terrific, but among the most memorable are Dan Hartley as Maverick, and Vayu O’Donnell who steals every scene he appears in with his hilariously deadpan delivery as Iceman.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray”

nytheater.com: Maura Kelley

The performance by Vayu O’Donnell, the actor playing Lord Henry, elevates this production in leaps and bounds. O’Donnell’s portrayal of the villainous aristocrat is multi-layered, well-crafted, and entertaining, and succeeds in driving the show forward.

MusicOMH.com: Scott Mitchell

The voice of detachment, amusement and hedonism is provided by Henry, wonderfully fleshed out by Vayu O’Donnell. Henry engages and influences the young Dorian to experience life fully but never seriously, as a game where the losers don’t count. Henry is the light, humorous and subversive voice of Oscar Wilde, readily familiar from his plays. And Mr. O’Donnell delivers the words with the panache that makes them irresistible.

“Tales from the Tunnel”

nytheater.com: Stephen Kalisky

After confidently hooking us, the play gently moves in more serious directions. We change from making fun of the homeless man to hearing the story from the homeless man himself. Vayu O’Donnell, a young Liev Schreiber with just as much understated ease, delivers a desolate and haunting monologue from a normal-guy-turned-crack-addict that virtually punches us in the face for laughing at such a person in the first place. Likewise, Farah Bala has a standout moment of her own as an Indian immigrant who experiences a racist assault in Brooklyn.

“Edward the Second”

metroweekly.com: Tom Avila

O’Donnell skillfully manages to have it both ways, playing Gaveston as rakish social climber one moment and devoted lover the next.

dctheaterscene.com: Tim Treanor

O’Donnell as Gaveston carries the weight of Edwards’ innovations, and does so very well.  When Edwards aims over the top – and she does so occasionally – it is generally O’Donnell who must make it work, and he does.  (When he appears in angel wings after his death to dance with Edward, it could be a comic moment in less skilled hands.  Here it is moving, and almost dignified.)

“Perfect Harmony”

nytheater.com: Jason S. Grossman

Vayu O’Donnell does a terrific turn as the group’s soul-searching leader unsatisfied with simply winning the Nationals competition year after year. His tortured pop ballad medley after leaving the group is hilarious.