Winner! 1996 Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Off Broadway Play
This long running Off Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. In his first comedy for the stage, the popular actor and screenwriter plays fast and loose with fact, fame, and fortune as these two geniuses muse on the century’s achievements and prospects, as well as other fanciful topics, with infectious dizziness. Bystanders, including Picasso’s agent, the bartender and his mistress, Picasso’s date, an elderly philosopher, Charles Dabernow Schmendiman, and an idiot inventor introduce additional flourishes of humor. The final surprise patron to join the merriment at the Lapin Agile is a charismatic dark-haired singer time warped in from a later era.
"It’s important to remember that the playwright of Picasso at the Lapin Agile is Steve Martin, stand-up comic, actor, writer, banjo player and something of a genius in his own right. So when big questions are being addressed, you can be sure that a layer of silliness is always in place (and, subversively, a layer of seriousness beneath that)." - The New York Times
"Highly credible and [...] very funny. The subject matter is daring [...] You get giggles in plenty [and] moments of enlightenment [...] The introduction of the final, exquisitely selected visitor from the future is a master stroke." - New York Post
"Consistently entertaining." - New York Daily News
"Very engaging [...] Martin sends ideas onstage in baggy pants, with a cigar [...] mix[ing] the sublime with the ridiculous [so] that they can't be easily disentangled [...] Very good fun." - The New York Times
"A major treat." - Newsday
"Steve Martin's enlightening play is equally smart and silly [...]" - Hartford Courant
