Performance Reviews - Daina Michelle Griffith

Daina Michelle Griffith

MAYBE THIS TIME Review

Richard Rodger's Awards Performance Honoring Rob and Kathleen Marshall REVIEW

"Point Park grad and Playhouse and Public Theater veteran Daina Michelle Griffith was charismatic in "Maybe This Time."

Pittsburgh Post Gazette by Christopher Rawson

CABARET Review

Among the busy, energetic Kit Kat Girls is Daina Michelle Griffith, who in 2002 played both Sally in a Point Park "Cabaret" and Polly in Playhouse Rep's "Threepenny Opera" by Brecht and Weill, who are Kander and Ebb's chief inspiration. Let that suggest the experience and savvy of the other girls...

Pittsburgh Post Gazette By Christopher Rawson

OLIVER! Reviews

And so that leaves the starring role to Nancy, and Daina Michelle Griffith takes the role and runs with it, pouring into it all the intensity and heartbreak and pent up energy that the role demands, and then some. Given a role that simply wouldn’t be written today and a song that’s a statement all in itself of the distance in time travel from what would be acceptable to women in a 1962 audience to what would be even tolerated by a 2006 female audience, Ms. Griffith erases the difference.

She plunges in and delivers such a transfixing version of the show’s one ballad, “As Long as He Needs Me,” (all about Bill Sykes, who has just beaten her up) that the number’s place in the show transcends its contemporarily self-destructive content and emerges as a heartrending cry of pain and missed happiness. And Ms. Griffith doesn’t end there. She ignites the bawdy earthiness of “It’s a Fine Life,” bounces gently into a sweetly affecting duet with the Dodger in “I’d Do Anything,” and runs through a gamut of advancing emotions in her protective relationship with Oliver. It’s a true star turn.

The Southampton Press By Lee Davis

Flame-haired Daina Michelle Griffith, as Nancy, the bargirl who rescues the orphaned Oliver from a den of thieves, torches us with "I'd Do Anything" and rouses us with a mug-thumping "Oom-Pah-Pah." And we see in her desperate exuberance that she's just whistling past the graveyard.

Newsday.com By Steve Parks

But the major accolades should rightfully go to yet another first-timer under the Gateway’s lights. With just the right amount of cockney moxie and spirit and a take-your-breath-away voice, Daina Michelle Griffith wows everybody in the pivotal role of “Nancy.” Leading spirited ensemble songs for the most part, her star shines most brightly in a sad solo “As Long As He Needs Me,” an emotional song which can be taken many different ways.

The Long Island Advance By Brian Curry

Stealing the show, vocally speaking, was the talented Daina Michelle Griffith, making her debut on the Gateway stage with a bang. As Nancy, the thieving beauty with a killer secret, Griffith captivates the audience with her powerhouse vocals and awesome stage presence. Griffith sings her heart out in her performance of “As Long As He Needs Me” and the emotion emanating from her voice will leave you staring, mouth agape, wondering how so much voice could come out of a single being.

South Shore Press By Genevieve Salamone

JANE HO Reviews

Only the earthy Griffith consistently finds sure footing...

www.offoffonline.com By Marlon Hurt

But Griffith, who speaks with a Russian accent, creates the most affecting character.

www.nytheatre.com By Martin Denton

JAMES JOYCES' THE DEAD Review

Griffith makes us feel the weight of her past in her plaintive songs. Her Gretta has an old soul.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette By Christopher Rawson

THE LAST FIVE YEARS Reviews

Which brings us to the performers: Daina Michelle Griffith and Marcus Stevens. Even if you’ve seen their monumental work in various Point Park shows you are still not prepared for what these two do here, displaying talent without equal and the skill to rocket those gifts straight up to the theatrical heavens. You are not likely to see performances of this magnitude in, at least, the next five years.
Perfection.

Pittsburgh City Paper By Ted Hoover

Griffith's and Stevens' vivid acting proves the general soundness of his direction. Although both have strong, flexible voices, their real accomplishment is in acting their songs, adding personality, event and drama.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette By Christopher Rawson

PEER GYNT *THE MUSICAL Review

The two Peers, young and old, are matched by two Solveigs, played by Daina Michelle Griffith and Lenora Nemetz. Like the Peers, they are convincing versions of each other. Solveig's epic patience may offend a feminist age, but Griffith and Nemetz make her shine with purpose, enunciated in Griffith's very un-Ibsen-like rock lament at the end of Act 1 and Nemetz's assertive dancing. Also playing the Troll King's wife and daughter (12 actors play about three dozen roles), Nemetz and Griffiths do an Act 1 dance that's especially remarkable given that rough plank flooring.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette By Christopher Rawson