Among the most compelling portrayals of the largely unlikable and entitled characters are...and Tracy Sallows in her dual roles as Pushkin’s socially-conscious mother-in-law, who opines that he isn’t good enough for her upwardly-mobile daughter, and his untrustworthy serving maid, whom he suspects of spying on him for the government (the excellent Sallows is unrecognizable in her switch from one character to the other).
Deb Miller, DC Metro
"In a deft bit of double casting, Tracy Sallows plays both Natalya’s ambitious mother and a serf who is spying on Pushkin and reporting back to Tsar Nicholas I (Gene Gillette). It is a tribute to Sallows’s skill that these women seem at once drastically different on the surface, because of their social standing, and somehow similar at the core, at least when it comes to motherhood and what they will do for their children."
Dan Callahan--THE VILLAGE VOICE
Playing Pushkin’s troublesome mother-in-law and a spying maid is Tracy Sallows who creates two striking characterizations that veer from amusing to poignant.
Darryl Reilly--TheatreScene.net "Tracy Sallows is also fine as Natalya’s mother–she doubles as a serf who spies on Pushkin for the Tsar."
Christopher Atamian--ScenesMedia
The rest of the cast is strong as well...Tracy Sallows (Angels in America, The Audience), who plays the Pushkins’ serving-maid, with two sons who are among Alexander’s serfs, and Madame Goncharova, Natalya’s mother who wants only the best for her three daughters, two roles that emphasize the difference between rich and poor, serfdom and the aristocracy, and even males and females in Russian society.
Mark Rifkin--This Week In New York
“Pushkin” is one of the best new plays to open in New York in recent memory, and this fabulously well-acted production, performed in an 80-seat black-box theater, puts you a heartbeat away from the action. Greatly aided by his masterly 11-person cast, Mr. Leaf has brought of the considerable feat of writing a play in blank iambic pentameter... If you didn’t know that the characters in “Pushkin” were speaking in verse, you could easily fail to realize it until well into the evening, so involving is the high-stakes plot and so good the acting.
Terry Teachout, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Strong story, lilting verse and a cast of well-credited, talented actors."
Wickham Boyle, EDGE MEDIA NETWORK
"Pushkin, the play, works as an elegant period melodrama with fabulous costumes...The amount of Broadway talent visible in the tiny Black Box theater of the Sheen Center is amazing." Mark Savitt--HiDrama
“A wonderful production, beautifully done"
Peter Filichia, BROADWAY RADIO
"Played on a powerful yet simple set, truly simplicity at its best, the production highlights not only a movable set in the snow landscaped epilogue, but all the rest as well, from the brilliant costumes to the craftsmanship of every artist on the set." Sylvia Baeza--STAGE BUDDY “An outlandishly talented ensemble" Hazen Cuyler--Theater Pizzazz