PIRATES OF PENZANCE

Connecticut Repertory Theater

“Broadway star Sean Martin Hingston be a physical marvel as the Pirate King. The mizzen mast of the the production. Hingston leaps, taps, pirouettes, poses and preens as the jolliest of Jolly Rogers.”
– BroadwayWorld.com

“The Pirate King is written to be larger than life, and Hingston delivers, constantly striking heroic poses that are undercut by the equal number of pratfalls. He sneers, he grins, he prances. He also calls his band of pirates together by shouting Day-O, one of the many running jokes Terrence Mann has knitted into the production.”
– Geary Danihy, CT Theater News and Reviews

Sean Marin Hingston does it all. To say that he can act, sing and dance would be to undersell his talents. For all the charisma he still fits into the larger ensemble. He is an exceptional performer but he uses his considerable talents to serve the larger show.”
– Edmond Chibeau, CT Theater Blog

KISS ME, KATE

UCLA’s Frued Playhouse

“It’s entertaining, vivacious and calculated to appeal to the discriminating theatergoer.” So declares one of the thugs who invade the leading man’s dressing room to collect on a gambling debt during a the play-within-the play in “Kiss Me, Kate.”

I could use the same line to describe Reprise Theatre Company’s revival of the musical, by Cole Porter, William Shakespeare, and Sam and Bella Spewack, which opened Wednesday at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. Except that critique is too subdued to convey the nonstop delights of this production.

Seán Martin Hingston as Lucentio/ne’er-do-well hoofer Bill Calhoun until Act II… pulled out a jaw-dropping Gene Kelly-esque dance solo.”
– Margaret Gray L.A. Times. May 12, 2011

“The Reprise Theater Company fulfills its artistic mandate admirably with its production of “Kiss Me, Kate,” polishing up a classic tuner to reveal its virtues anew. If the dance numbers seem long and only tenuously related to the main plot, so what? They’re gloriously performed and choreographed. Director Michael Michetti pulls all of the disparate elements together with aplomb, and the result is a rich confection musical lovers will savor…Meg Gillentine and Sean Martin Hingston both demonstrate superb singing and dancing skills in “Always True to You in My Fashion” and “Bianca,” respectively.”
– Terry Morgan, Variety

Kristin Chenoweth: Live at the Met
Metropolitan Opera House, New York City

“To help relive Kristin’s high school days in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, David Elder and Seán Martin Hingston joined in as a pair of dancing cowboys for Goin’ To The Dance With You. Hingston returned as her good-for-nothing boyfriend in a hilariously staged presentation of If, where his freshly murdered limp body was flopped about as she vented her lyrical rage. The two fellas competed for her attention in Irving Berlin’s You’re Easy To Dance With in a clever arrangement that nearly transpired into a rumble of West Side Story proportions.”
– BroadwayWorld.com – January 21, 2007

THE PIRATE

Prince Theater, Philadelphia, PA

“But the show’s true revelation is Hingston. A highly athletic dancer who has proved his terpsichorean prowess in such shows as Contact, he truly comes into his own here as a fine comedian and singer. Like a good pirate, he steals everything in sight and gets away with it.”
– Theatermania

“Hingston, easily the strongest performer in the talented cast, is an ingratiating, acrobatic ham whose commanding tenor is well suited to Nina, You Do Something to Me and I Concentrate on You.”
– Kevin Riordan, Courier Post – Philadelphia May 2006

BROADWAY BY THE YEAR: 1930

Town Hall, New York City

“Choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler offered an especially neat treat, putting Seán Martin Hingston and Shannon Lewis in a flirty acrobatic tango that brought the house down.”
– Robert L. Daniels VARIETY

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

Fifth Avenue Theater, Seattle, WA

“Hingston’s performance as Cohan is inspired, maybe even evangelical. He has all the charm of a prototypical Broadway wheeler dealer and could sell a song to a tone deaf man. Best of all he’s an old school tap dancer-swaggering, nearly pugilistic- and this act is propelled by the kind of vintage hoofing (choreographed by Jamie Rocco ) that built Broadway.”
– Lynn Jacobson VARIETY May 2004

“The arrival of young George, and, as played by the multi-talented Seán Martin Hingston, it is an arrival that says a star is born. Hingston, a charismatic triple threat talent if there ever was one, gives us a Cohan who is fiery, funny and a man of mercurial mood shifts. That his great love affair was with the theatre is clearly stated in Armstrong’s book, and interpreted as such by Hingston who deftly depicts Cohan’s failures in his marriages, and with his daughter Georgette, as well as his one true emotional connection with producer Sam Harris.

Hingston dances up a storm with some of the most acrobatic dancing I’ve seen since Gene Kelly in his heyday, and sings with a brassy, powerful voice which proclaims the title song, “Over There”, and “Give My Regards to Broadway”, yet also soften enough to a caressing croon for a lullaby version of “Mary” to his baby daughter.”
– Talkin’ Broadway Seattle Review

“Also irresistible: the dazzling dancing and tireless dynamism of Seán Martin Hingston, the Aussie actor who plays Cohan with all the fleet footwork and audacious confidence demanded. That’s when Hingston’s dancing prowess first wows you. Muscular and compact, yet so light on his feet even his tap volleys seem airborne,

Hingston masters the classic Cohan moves (the winging arms, strutting tapping, high kicks and sharply angled Cohan walk) with lithe finesse. He’s in total sync with Gene Kelly’s take on Cohan’s dancing: “It’s an Irish thing, a jaw-jutting, up-on-the-toes cockiness.” Hingston exudes Cohan’s magnetism & also his ruthless drive and familial loyalty.”
– Misha Berson, SeattleTimes

“Seán Martin Hingston makes the role of George M.Cohan a tour de force. This Oz-born hoofer who was featured on Broadway in the Tony award winning Contact projects an intense macho energy as he dances with some of the dame stiff-legged forward tilting grace that was Cohan’s trademark.”
– Lawson Taite, Dallas Morning News

THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME

Trinity Rep, Providence, RI

“…There is genuine wonder as Ms. Vogel, Mr. Eustis and the production’s technical team summon moments in which time seems to stop and reconfigure itself. These scenes include an enchanting Christmas reverie in which the puppet children rise into the air and an extraordinary dance of resurrection, performed by Seán Martin Hingston (”Contact”) and choreographed by Donna Uchizono.”
– BEN BRANTLEY, New York Times

“…Toward the end, as the dead Stephen explains the presence of ” the ancestors ” breathing among us, there is also an Asian-influenced dance sequence by electrifying actor-dancer Seán Martin Hingston. Vogel’s Ride is well worth taking.”
– CAROLYN CLAY, The Boston Phoenix

“Seán Martin Hingston is strong in a variety of roles, and quite amazing in a dance solo that climaxes the piece.”
– Robert Nesti, Bay Windows, Boston

A CONNECTICUT YANKEE

NY City Center Encores!

“Mr. Ashford has come up with two saucy pas de deux for Seán Martin Hingston and Nancy Lemenager, who play the virtuous Sir Galahad and the vixenish Dame Evelyn. In them, these agile young singer-dancers get a chance to make like a sexed-up Fred and Ginger, and you can feel the buzz of their exhilaration from doing so. ”Yankee” could use much more of that.”
– Ben Brantley, New York Times

“But stop right there and write the name Seán Martin Hingston on a piece of paper and pin it to your bulletin board. You’ll be one of the first to recognize a dancer/performer who is about to become a major star and sex symbol. Hingston who plays Sir Galahad is already turning heads for his virile and athletic dancing in CONTACT (he’s the guy in the grey tee shirt in the show’s poster.)

The best way to describe him would be that he is a better looking, taller, and more macho guy than Gene Kelly but has the same combination of strength and airiness. He has three numbers, in two of which he danced with Nancy Lemenager, whose own combination of sexiness and humor make their dances the hit of the show.

At curtain call Hingston received the most bravos- and that says something considering the competition he from such a fun and talented troupe including Judith Blazer ,Christine Ebersole, Peter Bartlett and Henry Gibson.”
– Chelsea Plemmons, News-Times theater critic

“The audience wisely saved its biggest hand for Nancy Lemenager and Seán Martin Hingston partnered in two dances of of blazing sensuality and oodles of humor. This could be Hingston’s breakout.”
– David A. Rosenberg-Backstage

“Outstanding in this production are Seán Martin Hingston and Nancy Lemenager.”
– Liz Smith Newsday

CONTACT

Lincoln Center Theater

“Inhabiting Mr. Lynch’s and Mr. Long’s sumptuous re-creation of Fragonard’s painting ”The Swing,” an aristocratic young man and woman (Scott Taylor and Stephanie Michels) and a studly servant (Seán Martin Hingston) perform a rococo mating ritual in which all involved would seem to know their respective moves in advance.

Or do they? Without breaking the tempo set by the swing of the title, variations do occur, including one startling role reversal. ”Swing,” which is both the evening’s iciest and most erotically explicit episode, is more of a gimmick than the others, but it is executed to sly perfection by its trio of dancers.”
– Ben Brantley, New York Times

STARS IN THE OFF-BROADWAY GALAXY

By Peter Marks
The New York Times
November 26th, 1999

Seán Martin Hingston

Everyone makes a fuss about the Girl in the Yellow Dress. But what about the Guy in the Hairnet? Mr. Hingston is one of only two members of the 22-person ensemble who appear in all three of the dance plays that make up ”Contact,” the hit evening of dance-driven narrative at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (and moving to the Beaumont in March).

Can you spot him in all three? In the first, ”Swinging,” a teasing curtain-raiser inspired by an 18th-century painting, ”The Swing,” Mr. Hingston is the hunky, poker-faced servant, pushing a sexually available young maid on a swing at her afternoon tryst with another man. In the third piece, ”Contact,” he plays one of the virile young swing dancers rejected again and again by the woman in yellow (Deborah Yates).

The inside joke is apparent in the second piece, ”Did You Move?,” in which Mr. Hingston is disguised as a cretinous restaurant employee, in glasses and hairnet, dragging Italian foodstuffs across the floor of the Queens restaurant in which Karen Ziemba dances her whimsical dream ballet. The gamut he runs in ”Contact,” from desirable to repulsive, is in both choreographic and dramatic terms, a leap of imagination.