"Brendan McNab and Austin Ku, who've both demonstrated serious singing gifts elsewhere, here also draw on their great talents for comedy. ...Ku makes book writer Doug's thinly veiled crush on Bud feel like more than the running gag it's written as. ... As for their musical performances, Ku is delightfully, wackily sincere as Gutenberg and hysterically hysterical in his turn as the lovelorn Helvetica. ... And don't let the silliness fool you: These guys have to do some real singing here, and their ridiculous performances would not be half so funny if they weren't also highly skilled."
--LOUISE KENNEDY, BOSTON GLOBE (10/08/2008); full review here
"Gutenberg! is a charmer and garners likeability from the two leading men, Brendan McNab as Bud and Austin Ku as Doug... McNab and Ku have worked together before and it shows in their onstage chemistry. Their comic timing is spot on... Both men are also gifted with wonderful singing voices and make some of the songs better than they are."
--NANCY GROSSMAN, BROADWAYWORLD.COM (10/08/2008); full review here
"actors Austin Ku as Doug and Brendan McNab as Bud are an energetic delight. ...when Ku exclaims the musical's title with jazzy "Just Jack!" hands, it's a hoot."
--Jennifer Brubriski, EDGE Boston (10/09/2008); full review here
Read Jenna Scherer's review ("Brendan McNab and Austin Ku [are] gosh-darn cute as Bud and Doug") for the Boston Herald (10/07/2008) hereRead Carolyn Clay's review ("As enthusiastically and ingenuously embodied by paradoxically excellent singers Austin Ku and Brendan McNab, the two collaborators appear...") for The Boston Phoenix (10/08/2008) here
Read Beverly Creasey's review ("Ku and Brendan [McNab] are wildly inventive ... portraying all forty one roles with gusto") for TheaterMirror.com (10/2008) here
- May-June 2008: Bernstein Tribute with the Boston Pops Orchestra (Pangloss in "Best of All Possible Worlds" from Candide - Boston, MA
"'The Best of All Worlds' from Candide follows, receiving sprightly treatment by the Pops as well as from Austin Ku as Dr. Pangloss and David Vogel, Lindsey St. Onge, Caitlin Doonan and Joseph Kamay as his classroom of eager students."
--JAN NARGI, BROADWAYWORLD.COM (05/16/08); full review here
- January-February 2008: Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick's new musical Adrift in Macao (Tempura - principal) at The Lyric Stage - Boston, MA
"And then there's Rick's henchman Tempura - so named, as he mincingly explains, "because I have been battered by life." Boston Conservatory student Austin Ku delivers that line, along with a nonstop battery of exaggerated ethnic stereotypes, with an expert mix of knowingness and innocence. He's the funniest thing onstage, even before the big revelation near the end that takes the showbiz satire to a new level."
--LOUISE KENNEDY, BOSTON GLOBE (01/16/2008); full review here
"It is Austin Ku as the always smiling Tempura, however, who steals the show from his self-absorbed American interlopers. The seeming model of congeniality and subservience, Ku unleashes a devilishly sinister and gleeful laugh when least expected, suggesting that there's more beneath his impenetrable facade than meets the eye."
--JAN NARGI, BROADWAYWORLD.COM (01/20/2008); full review here
"But the biggest hit of the night is Ku, in a role that feels like it was written for him. Not only will his performance make you laugh in all the wrong places, but his big finish will keep you singing the ridiculously likable “Ticky Tocky Tock” all the way home"
--Nick Dussault, Boston Metro (01/18/2008); full review not available on-line
"The scene-stealer turns out to be Austin Ku, whose Tempura is an affectionate and quite funny send-up on Hollywood Asian stereotypes. He's also priceless in drag."
--Robert Nesti, EDGE Boston (01/16/2008); full review here
"Of particular interest, however, is one performer new to the area - a rubber-faced, sweet-singing comedian named Austin Ku - and one number he delivers late in the line-up about certain of his talents.... And that brings us to Austin Ku, whose credits include a long list of roles in San Francisco Bay area theaters. He is currently studying for a master’s degree in musical theater at the Boston Conservatory, a lucky find for this show. As Tempura, Ku embodies the old vaudeville actor who made a career out of transforming into many characters on stage in front of the audience. Ku does so with glee and sharp-edged turns of motive, despite his ‘‘chewing of the scenery’’ - a stage term for too, too, too much mugging. His big number at the end is performed with breathtaking skill and is one marvelous moment of the show, along with his final appearance, which is knock-out."
--Iris Fanger, The Patriot Ledger (01/15/2008); full review not available on-line
"... which brings me to my favorite character in Macao. It's about time someone held Hollywood's bound feet to the fire. Austin Ku is nothing short of hilarious as the "inscrutable" houseboy, groveling to his boss and cursing behind his back. When his real identity is revealed, in joyous song, of course, he brings down the house, or rather, J. Michael Griggs' wonderfully seedy bar."
