HomeAs You Like It (reviews)

"Joseph Millsonis the dashing Orlando. He gives a passionate performance throughout, but I was particularly taken with a moving passage he delivers concerning the frailty of his man servant when Orlando first comes upon the banished Duke and his men in the forest."

On Stage Boston by R.J. Donovan Nov 2003

 "Ms. Hall is well matched by Mr. Millson, a dashing British television star, who brings an enthusiastic, open-faced callowness to Orlando. Like Rosalind, this Orlando has already been exposed to the nastier side of human nature, in his case through his jealous, murderous older brother (Glenn Carter). He, too, boils with youthful indignation at injustice and perfidy. You believe that this Orlando is so morally overheated that he can indeed defeat a wrestler twice his size. Yet he melts at the first sign of kindness from a stranger, and you may find yourself melting with him. Orlando doesn't have Rosalind's quick wit (who does?), but Mr. Millson's achingly sincere performance makes it clear that he deserves to win her. Their first encounter is a rapturous study in ungainliness. Neither knows what to say to the other, precisely because on some gut level they know that the stakes have never been higher."

New York Times by Ben Brantley Dec 2003

The usurping Duke's court is minimally suggested, scarcely more than a frame for Joseph Millson's Orlando to defeat Charles the bully wrestler, for Rosalind and Celia to establish the closeness of their relationship before they seek freedom in the forest and for the principals to 'tangle eyes'. But this Orlando shows himself capable of passionate violence before he is put to the test; he expresses his anger against his brother's restrictions on his upbringing by pinning him furiously to the ground. Millson has the charm for a romantic hero but shows there is more to his Orlando than writing limp verse. Later he is a fit playfellow, and thus consort, for Rosalind - equally serious, equally quick-witted.

Reviews Gate by Heather Neil Aug 2003

She is also helped by Joseph Millson's Orlando, who, in place of the usual twerpish cipher, offers us a man both visibly smitten and angered by his peasant upbringing.p

The Guardian Michael Billington 2003

Add in the unusually sexy Orlando of Joseph Millson, and one had an "As You Like It" with a rare and real erotic heat alongside a pulsating melancholia.

Variety Matt Wolf Sept 2003

It is an interesting aspect of this As You Like It that its Rosalind, though declaring herself "fathom deep" in love with Orlando, actually seems happier in Celia’s company. Director Hall makes an engaging threesome of them, placing Rosalind and Joseph Millson’s Orlando in such physical proximity for their every exchange, whether raptly in each other’s faces or on their knees like Hansel and Gretel, that the magnetism is palpable — and painful.