"In concert she commands the gamut of styles - from sophisticated cabaret to torch-song schmaltz - with superb musicianship and technique, as well as an imaginative attention to the text that many opera stars would do well to emulate."
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, Musical Theatre Recital, Cadogan Hall
"A whirlwind hit the stage in the form of Kim Criswell, and bringing a sackful of Times Square sass and stagecraft with her as the Old Lady from Rovno Gubernya, 'easily assimilated' into whatever hellhole Voltaire and Bernstein throw her. Suddenly words and drama began to matter and the ungentle satire of this work to take hold."
Robert Thicknesse, The Times, Candide, Royal Festival Hall
"Happily, Kim Criswell has inherited Merman’s punch but not her prudishness. ‘Blow Gabriel Blow’ takes on new connotations when she sings it. This red-haired Reno has plenty up top-and I’m not talking intellect. The neckline of her red velvet chapel-dress plunges as surely as her belt-voice soars. She lights up the stage whenever she’s on it."
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, Anything Goes, Grange Park Opera
"Things finally pick up when an overnight delivery courier…forcefully played by Kim Criswell…unleashes a hilarious stream of rapid-fire art babble before conking out…[then she] pops back up, this time bursting into a hearty, heartfelt rendition of U2’s hit song, “One,” beginning with that melodic, wafting hope, “Things are getting better.” And for a moment that is entirely Ms. Criswell’s, they are. The evening’s one instance of genuinely gripping art arrives at last, revising an age-old rule of the stage: it’s not over until the FedEx lady sings."
Roberta Smith, New York Times, Happy Days in the Art World, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
"It’s a real coup to have the magnetic Kim Criswell in the Ethel Merman role of the evangelist-entertainer Reno Sweeney. She brings authentic Broadway pizzazz and a raunchy chest register to the show’s best numbers, ‘Blow Gabriel Blow’ and ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’, and energises the entire cast with her charisma."
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, Anything Goes, Grange Park Opera
"This was not a concert of Weill and Brecht, but Weill and Broadway…this is Criswell’s world too. Some laughed, others blushed at her masterly delivery of the Ira Gershwin couplet, ‘I like a man who is silent, tall, strong and violent’. Her voice is strong, feline, and arresting. Soft, she is affectingly plaintive. I filled up during My Ship….Criswell sang two encores and had the hall roaring. Find her an empty West End theatre, fellas."
Evening Standard, Kurt Weill Recital, Purcell Rooms