Love All, La Jolla Playhouse
“ The hilarious Bianca Amato steals scenes as Alice Marble, Billie Jean’s tough, chain-smoking coach, and she also plays Ilana Kloss, King’s wife and partner of more than 40 years.
San Diego Tribune
Stupid Fucking Bird, The Pearl Theatre
"Bianca Amato, who is daringly bold as Emma (Chekhov’s Irina), a great stage actress and sometime movie star who never succeeded in mastering the real-life role of mother to Conrad... Ms. Amato is so fine, in fact, that I occasionally found myself wishing that I were seeing her in “The Seagull” instead of “Stupid Fu**ing Bird.”
Wall street Journal.
“Bianca Amato, egotistic but human” New York Times, Charles Isherwood.
“Bianca Amato's Emma is the most take-charge Arkadina I've ever seen:” Lighting and Sound America.
"Terrific” Huffington Post.
"Amato turning her Emma into an Arkadina for the ages, a self-created monster who can’t help but display her humanity, even despite her strongest will (the “bandage scene” in particular is revelatory)."
Stage Buddy.
"Bianca Amato lights up the sky as Emma Arkadina, the famous actress. Playwright Posner has added to the character, making her far more understandable. (Chekhov would approve!)"
Theater Pizazz
"Bianca Amato taps into the assured sophistication of Emma Arkadina. She also injects a nice touch of humor into a hilarious soliloquy intended to justify her shortcomings as a mother."
Curtain up
"Amato speaks the text in brilliant living color, giving us everything from soup to nuts." Front Row Center.
The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, Signature Theatre
"Ms. Amato renders her character in strong strokes, Elmarie’s condescension having curdled into fear that seems to be etched into the lines of her face.” New York Times, Charles Isherwood.
"First rate...Bianca Amato effects an impressive transformation from the privileged, patronizing farmer’s wife of Act I to the tired, frightened survivor of Act II.” DC Theaterscene.
“Amato gives an incredible performance, aging two decades for the second act... Perfect Afrikaner accent...remarkably layered” Theatre Mania.
“Amato nails her portrayal of the subtly racist Elmarie, well-meaning and quick to pat herself on the back for showing the most basic of human kindnesses, yet desperate to maintain the status quo and entrenched in her denial of any personal culpability” Entertainment weekly.
“ Superbly rendered... Amato details the other side of the argument expertly, her Elmarie taking for granted just as much as Nukain does in the first act, before she's forced to experience it firsthand in the second; you can all but see the woman cripple under the weight of the realization of what's at stake for her and her neighbor” Talking Broadway.
“Fugard culls passionate and compelling performances from the actors, from Bianca Amato's steely but ultimately sympathetic Elmarie”.USA Today.
Bianca Amato is:
"Superb" Hollywood Reporter
"Outstanding" Curtain Up
"Excellent" Time Out
King Lear, Theatre For a New Audience.
"This production is unusually strong in suggesting the dysfunctional dynamics that operate among Lear’s daughters. The elder two, Goneril and Regan (Rachel Pickup and Bianca Amato, both superb), seem steeped in a history of sibling squabbles and power games." New York Times, Ben Brantley.
"And then there is the middle one, Regan. Pennington's Lear hardly knows who she is, so much has he apparently neglected her over the years, and this gnawing reality is the foundation of Bianca Amato's searing portrayal of Regan. When she expresses her love in the court pageant at the play's start, she barely contains her cynicism and is too glad to get the charade behind her." Shakespearances.com
"As second-born Regan, Bianca Amato’s clipped and exasperated speech and body language suggest a woman who’s up to her eyeballs in middle-child neglect. She’s Jan Brady in period clothes."NY Daily News
"Of particular interest are the three unloved children responsible for the devastation: Lear’s daughters Goneril and Regan (the splendid Rachel Pickup and Bianca Amato)..."Time Out
"Bianca Amato's Regan is softer and more feminine on the surface, but equally as cruel."Curtain Up
"Bianca Amato's Regan (is) wonderfully wicked.”The Village Voice
"Icily Alluring", Brooklyn Eagle
Neva, The Public Theatre.
“The three actors playing actors are terrifically good. Bianca Amato is captivating from the opening moments as Olga, speaking with anxiety at the thought that her artistry is evaporating. Her approaching performance in “The Cherry Orchard” has her gripped with fearful fantasies about the praise she will crave (“Like a wet puppy I will ask them, ‘Did you like it?’ ”) and the backbiting commentary she won’t hear (“We only came to see her because she is the widow of the genius,” she imagines her detractors saying). Ms. Amato manages to make Olga’s self-dramatizing histrionics absurdly funny, but also tinged with real pathos.” New York Times, Charles Isherwood.
"Yet, Olga, played often stunningly by Bianca Amato, is much more complex than a practitioner of simple self-absorption. She knows she's self-absorbed, and even that observation bores her, so we watch her analyze herself as if in a hall of mirrors." Curtain Up
"The actors are called upon to exercise their Stanislavski muscle until it burns, and all three succeed. Amato is particularly skilled at conjuring tears and then dashing them away at a moment's notice, laughing maniacally as if to say, "Ha! I fooled you!" Theatermania
"Operating in unabashed oversize tragedy mode, Amato conveys the complicated depths of a woman who lost her artist but is desperate to hang on to her art, and makes total sense of Olga's oscillating between dry disaffection, denial, and despair." Talking Broadway
"One of the high points of last year was the sight and sound of Bianca Amato swanning across the stage of the Huntington Theatre Company as the elegant, carefree, self-confident, and lethally witty Amanda in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,’’ tossing off bon mots like little hand grenades.
In Guillermo Calderón’s “Neva,’’ Amato cuts a considerably different figure. She portrays Olga Knipper, the actress and widow of Anton Chekhov, attired in black and steeped in angst." Boston globe
The speech is a tour-de-force, the kind of thing you'd normally find at a play's climax, but as far as Calderón is concerned, it is only a warm-up. Fortunately, he has the assistance of Bianca Amato, an actress with technique to spare: Her Olga is imperious, scathing, devastated, self-loathing, and incandescent with anger, and often blackly hilarious. More than once you'll be asking yourself if what you're seeing is a woman riven with emotion or an actress coolly practicing her technique" Lighting and Sound America
"She has a glorious monologue that begins this play and delves in to every actor’s nightmare about self worth, and the fickle nature of the actor’s life. Amato is spot on". New York Theater guide
Bianca Amato is:
"Pitch-Perfect" The Village Voice
"Mercurial" Time Out New York
"Fantastic" NYtheatre.com
"Memorable" Financial Times
Private Lives, The Huntington Theatre, and Shakespeare Theater
"Bianca Amato, where have you been all my life? And if you’re asking, “Who’s Bianca Amato?” then you haven’t seen “Private Lives” at the Huntington Theatre Company, where Amato is chewing up the magnificent scenery (through June 24) as Noel Coward’s feisty femme, Amanda.... All great performances transcend comparison and Amato’s is a great performance, whether vamping to a record, putting Elyot in his place with her prefeminist wit and wile, or merely gaping at the idiocy around her (when not contributing to it)" Ed Siegel, NPR
"Fantastic, hilarious, and delicious! So lush and beautiful! Bianca Amato is phenomenal." -- Jared Bowen, WGBH
"Though all of the cast members are quite good, the strongest performer is Bianca Amato. Her star shines. Not only elegantly beautiful, her magnetic energy transforms her character Amanda into the focus of attention. She is a talented comedic actress and a skilled physical comedienne. This is a star-turn. Just to see Amato is worth the price of admission." Berkshire Fine Arts.
"Bianca Amato most perfectly embraces Coward’s script and makes a terribly real Amanda, an impulsive woman who knows she is radioactive to lovers, but, like a romantic Cassandra, who can’t get men to listen to her warnings. Amato delivers her character’s complex and biting lines to perfection, making Amanda seem permanently a step ahead of the rest of the world." New England Theater Geek.
"Bianca Amato and James Waterston are just about perfect as Amanda and Elyot, a once-married couple who bump into each other while on honeymoons with their new spouses and impulsively rekindle their relationship. Amato and Waterston execute the ensuing game of romantic round robin with style, dexterity, subtlety, and sizzling chemistry."
"Amato cuts a regal, soignée figure — she can wring a laugh out of a single word, like “inveterate’’ — but she is also skilled at physical comedy. In his portrayal of Elyot, Waterston finds the balance between upper-class twit and reasonably dashing roué, a man to whom a woman like Amanda would plausibly be attracted. They expertly handle Coward’s stylized dialogue, managing to make us believe that this pair of insouciant, extravagantly outsized characters were indeed made for each other. Who else would have them?"
Boston Globe
" Amato is particularly dazzling, whether gouging her cohorts with stinging wit or absorbing their equally vicious retorts with stunned and wounded expressions. And she is a joy to watch move, especially when she's slinking sexily around in silk pajamas while dancing to phonograph records or Elyot's piano playing. Her appeal is extraordinary and explains why many men would take a chance even if she were a suspected serial killer." Boston Events Insider.
The Broken Heart, Theater for a New Audience
"Superb " The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Ms. Amato exudes imperial grandeur as Calantha, which comes in handy in the peculiar scene in which she is brought news of various deaths and yet keeps dancing at a steady pace."
Charles Isherwood, The New York Times.
"She’s portrayed with restraint and grace by Bianca Amato, who notably leads a lively wedding dance during which, beset with tragic news, she gives new meaning to the phrase “putting on a brave face.”'
San Francisco Chronicle, AP.
"TFANA’s version of The Broken Heart unfolds in a macabre fashion, but not without some moments of considerable subtlety. One of those, most notably, takes place during the wedding party of Euphrania and Prophilus, when Calantha receives calamitous news, but rather than offer a clichéd melodramatic reaction, Bianca Amato takes it all in with great, stoical restraint." World Socialist Website.
"The regal Amato is cool yet gracious as Calantha, whose broken heart is visually rendered in a gown imaginatively designed by Susan Hilferty to show black grief spreading through her veins." New Jersey Newsroom.
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The Taming of the Shrew, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
"Of course, The Taming of the Shrew is really Kate's show, and Bianca Amato's Katarina shines brilliantly. As Kate, she is unruly and virulently independent." Chicago Stage Review
"Amato, a spirited comedienne, who lands somewhere between Joanna Lumley and Tracey Ullman, is equal parts quirky and primal...
Amato's Kate (is) beautiful and intelligent and witty enough to better them all...
The famous concluding monologue by Amato is so lustfully complex, so full of the thoughts of a brilliant young woman born about 500 years too soon, the any "Shrew" detractors who bought a ticket will have to sit up and take notice. That's the way to deal with the Shrew problem: find the richness in the text." Chicago Tribune
"Amato gives Kate a rueful dignity" Time Out, Chicago.
"An uncompromising and white-hot-angry performance from Amato...
"And then there's that final glorious sentence by Amato. In less than 10 words, we get a perfect union of Amato's character as Kate and as the actor playing Kate. And it makes the whole, blessed hitherto misogynistic problem of a play finally come together" Examiner
Trumpery, Atlantic Theater Company
"Darwin's wife, Emma (the fine Bianca Amato), is dismayed by his loss of faith, and even more saddened by his apparent encouragement of atheistic tendencies in their children, particularly a terminally ill daughter, Annie." New York Times, Charles Isherwood.
"Bianca Amato is effective as Darwin's devout but devoted wife, drawn to spiritualism to help her in her grief" Theater Scene
"Bianca Amato's enchanting Emma perfectly conveys the interior battleground of spousal affection assaulted by adversarial beliefs." John Simon, Bloomberg
"Ms Amato manages to project firmness, spousalnes and strong interiority with the greatest possible straightforwardness and economy." John Simon, Favourite Performances, Broadway.com
The Coast of Utopia, The Lincoln Center Theater
" As his wife, Bianca Amato sharply and affectingly registers the toll of living with such a man" Ben Brantley, New York Times
"Bianca Amato is a minor revelation as Herwegh's wife, conveying the full sadness of a neglected spouse even in the way she breathes." New York Magazine
"Amy Irving, as Maria Ogarev, and Bianca Amato, as Emma Herwegh, are vivid as wives, one estranged, one devoted." The Daily News.
The Importance of Being Earnest, B.A.M. and Mark Taper Forum
"Bianca Amato finds new and amusingly self-assured shades in Gwendolen, a character who in this take will undoubtedly turn into lady Bracknell in 150 years..." Los Angeles Times
"Beautiful Bianca Amato is wonderfully sexy Gwedolen" Curtain Up
As You Like it, The Guthrie Theater.
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"Bianca Amato's enthusiastic portrayal of Rosalind/Ganymede is superb." Pulse Of The Twin Cities
"It doesn't hurt the Dowling has assembled some of the best comedic talents to work recently on Twin Cities stages...(Amato) plays to the audience without seeming to, and earns laughs with wise-ass pauses and burst of manic energy... Amato's playful smarts and Cortese's game appeal blend perfectly" City Pages
" Amato lends to her character an expressive face, excellent comic timing and a youthful energy, faithfully embodying the wit, vitality and exuberance of Rosalind" How Was The Show.com
Pygmalion, Guthrie Theater.
'' 'Bianca has this wonderful ability to convey honesty, openness, simplicity' , said Guthrie Artistic director Joe Dowling, 'There is something luminous about her when she comes on stage, something that compels you to watch. That's true of all great performers. It's something you're born with - that you don't learn - and she's got it in spades.' " Star Tribune, MN
" Bianca Amato was deliciously splendid as Eliza, credibly and creditably taking us through Eliza's changes from cockney girl to proper lady in a pitch perfect performance. Amato has a magnetism that can propel any spotlight." Star Tribune, MN
"Best of all, among an accomplished cast, Bianca Amato sparkles as Eliza Doolittle... hers is a first class performance" Talking Broadway
Pride and Prejudice, The Guthrie Theater.
"As the romantic leads, Bianca Amato ( recently seen in the Guthrie's Top Girls, in which she was similarly excellent) and Matthew Greer capture much of the book's intoxicating romance. Amato finds the wit, scepticism and thoughtfulness that makes her character, the flawed but noble self-governed Elizabeth Bennet, so enduringly appealing." City Pages
" In her second Guthrie appearance Bianca Amato continues to reveal her immense gifts" Star Tribune
"Dowling's casting is spot on. Bianca Amato ( who was first rate in the recent Guthrie Lab's Top Girls) plays spirited Elizabeth, a beautiful nineteen ear old and an independent thinker. Amato wears her character's persona as though it were her own" Talking Broadway
" Amato, who plays the intelligent, sensible Bennet daughter Elizabeth, is a breath of fresh - and sane - air. Her characterisation is grounded; it's of the kind of human proportion that allows us to sympathise with her and laugh with her instead of at her. It's a lovely and worthy performance in every respect. " Pioneer Press.
Top Girls, The Guthrie Theater.
" Bianca Amato, making her American stage debut, strikes just the right balance as Marlene. She's perfectly driven, perfectly feminine - and though the wrongness of marlene's philosophy is evident in her own flesh and blood - perfectly unrepentant." Pioneer Press.
" Self assured and with an accentuated swagger, Amato portrays ( Marlene) with a razor sharp edge and wit, only to show her vulnerability and guilt because she chose to give up her only child for her career. Her performance is extremely well nuanced and skilful on it's various levels." Star Tribune
" Young South African actress Bianca Amato emanates beautiful Marlene's cool sexuality and tough-minded authority, yet she also manages to tap the brittle girl who lurks within the assured woman" Talking Broadway.