Reviews

Disney's Beauty and the Beast - Broadway World

"Michael Breese Barbour as Maurice delivers a heartwarming "No Matter What" along with Stephanie Craven. Barbour is picture perfect for the role."

Disney's Beauty and the Beast - Syracuse Post-Standard

"Michael Breese Barbour plays Maurice to his full, befuddled glory, his splendid shock of white hair adding to his aging vulnerability."

Pirates of Penzance - Syracuse New Times

"All the fun of the daughters is a leadup to the entrance of their illustrious father, Major General Stanley (Michael Barbour). Yes, he sports all the braid and epaulets, but costumer Katie Rauch cuts him down a bit by putting him in a pith helmet and short pants, exposing bony knees. None of this diminishes what’s coming, which is the patter song “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General,” perhaps the most celebrated show-stopper in musical theater history.

"Not only is every syllable perfect, but Chiorini and Barbour taunt fate by introducing some feints, a pretense that Barbour is unsure of the next cue."

Pirates of Penzance - Syracuse Post-Standard

"Barbour's seamless rendition of the show’s difficult and convoluted signature number, “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General,” gets a tip of the hat for preparation and smooth delivery."

The Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards - Syracuse New Times

"The upstart of the evening was Michael Barbour’s win in the Best Professional Actor category for his magnificent King Lear. He had to beat the out-of-town professionals at Syracuse Stage and the Redhouse by representing Terry LaCasse’s CNY Shakespeare, one of the smallest companies in the area."

King Lear for CNY Skakespeare - Syracuse New Times

"Mike Barbour is not your King Lear from central casting. That’s only the first of myriad assets he brings to CNY Shakespeare’s production of King Lear.

"Long a Le Moyne College faculty member with Equity credentials, he’s been the go-to man for hard-to-cast roles in college productions as well as for the Gifford Family Theatre, resident at Le Moyne. Like a round-faced Alec Guinness, Barbour could be Obi-Wan Kenobi or Nick Bottom the weaver, if that was what was called for. And no role in western drama calls for more stature and depth than Lear.

"It is here where Barbour really comes into his own, delivering some of the supreme poetry of the language as if his life depended on it. [His] voice heads toward the upper register . . . and his tone is silvery rather than golden, easily cutting through the horrendous din in the storm on the heath.

"Barbour was [director] La Casse's teacher and also guided six members of the cast. His is a tide that raises all boats. "

King Lear - Syracuse Post-Standard

"The aged King Lear [is] majestically played with Olympic sturm und drang by Mike Barbour."

The Tempest - Syracuse Post-Standard

"As Prospero, veteran local actor Michael Barbour stands firmly in the role’s tradition, thundering mightily and wielding his magic with authority. In the later, more introspective scenes, Barbour brings a bittersweet clarity to Prospero’s regrets."

Lovers - Syracuse New Times

"There are families, and then there are dynasties. [To] embrace both genders and more than one generation, you have to look . . . to the Barbours. This household, we can see, verily teems with talent. . . .

"Impish, roguish Michael Barbour . . . wins the highest score, incidentally proving that it is not necessarily a mistake to direct one’s self in comedy."

Rounding Third - Syracuse New Times

"Michael Breese Barbour plays Michael as a guy with a Santa Claus twinkle in his eye that in a flash can become the startled look of a small animal caught in the headlights. Michael's transformation from comic foil to the embodiment of all the contradictions we embrace as parents and 21st-century Americans takes on just as much weight as this witty little comedy can bear."

Michael Breese Barbour

ACTOR