Rating: 
Summary: "Picasso" is Martin at His Best
Review: Not only is "Picasso" a hilarious romp into Steve Martin's genius imagination, the play also tackles the "Big Issues" that make our culture tick. While discussing Art (capital "A") and Existence (capital "E"), the characters also hum with humanity and integrity. Leave it to Martin to bring Einstein to the masses.
Rating:
Summary: See it staged!
Review: Picasso and Einstein meet for coffee. I saw this produced at Cambridge's American Repertory Theater and returned twice in order to get my fill. To date, this is Martin at his finest. His theme, the dependant and invisible relationship between the seemingly disparate worlds of art and mathematical science, is deftly explored with the whimsy of his previously published short stories. Please, do not be swayed by previous reviewers who are thrown by effects based on simple theatrical devices such as asides or sotto voces. These forays into the audience (to me) represented the Theory of Relativity's elastic concept of time and space as applied to the artistic presentation of story. Without having to bow to the box-office-numbers God of film, Martin is free to run with his wonderful intellect. I suggest you come along for the ride.
Rating:
Summary: e-shaped pie
Review: Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a very funny play. The other pieces are good, too, but Picasso is the best of the bunch. It combines high concept and absurd humor for uniquely theatrical piece.
Rating: 
Summary: No title, jus funny plays
Review: Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a very funny play. The other pieces are good, too, but Picasso is the best of the bunch. It combines high concept and absurd humor for uniquely theatrical piece.
Rating:
Summary: 1 good, 1 OK, and 2 Ugly
Review: Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a wonderful play, with a great deal of tongue-in-cheek humor, dry wit, and intelligent riddles. In this play, Martin has set out a very amusing treatise on some very important aspects of the 20th century, especially regarding art and science.There are, however, three other plays in this collection. Two of them, Zig-Zag Woman and Patter for a Floating Lady, can hardly be called plays. They're not even one-acts. They have the appearance of just being filler that Martin wrote to pass the time. Wasp, the fourth play in the collection, has many high points, including an hilarious monologue the father delivers to the son. It contains enough dark humor and sarcasm to make it a good read. Picasso at the Lapin Agile alone is worth buying this collection, but don't expect the other plays to live up to Picasso's status. It is, though, a good collection for anyone interested in this type of humor or drama.
Rating:
Summary: e-shaped pie
Review: picasso has to be the wittiest play i've ever seen performed. Such intelligent humor. The jokes sometimes take awhile to get, but once you get them they're worth it. But the e-shaped pie joke- if anyone could explain it to me-i'd be eternaly grateful.
Rating: 
Summary: Martin?
Review: Possessing a master's in philosophy, we've come to expect slight of hand, hidden theory in the works of Martin but I was left scratching my head. What's the point of this collection. Neither thought-provoking nor funny it seemed I merely achieved moving closer to death by reading this collection. Maybe I missed it.
Rating:
Summary: An extremely funny take on serious stuff
Review: Steve Martin has always been a "serious" writer, in that he is interested in using humor to make people think and to highlight ideas in new ways. "Picasso at the LapinAgile" is a delightful piece of theatrical slight of hand wherein he creates the meeting of the century that never happened between the most influential scientest and the most influential artist and, after a wonderful setup, does a quantum leap into the absurd. It's fun to read and on stage (I saw the production at Ford's Theater in D.C.) it is fantastic. Recently on a trip to Paris I climed Montmarte Butte to find the site of the Lapin Agile, the bistro in which Martin's play is set. It is still there and still in business, but alas, never saw nor will see a coming together of intelligence, talent and ego such as that envisioned by Steve Martin in this play.This is very smart comedy but funny enough in other ways to work for most audiences. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: An extremely funny take on serious stuff
Review: Steve Martin has always been a "serious" writer, in that he is interested in using humor to make people think and to highlight ideas in new ways. "Picasso at the LapinAgile" is a delightful piece of theatrical slight of hand wherein he creates the meeting of the century that never happened between the most influential scientest and the most influential artist and, after a wonderful setup, does a quantum leap into the absurd. It's fun to read and on stage (I saw the production at Ford's Theater in D.C.) it is fantastic. Recently on a trip to Paris I climed Montmarte Butte to find the site of the Lapin Agile, the bistro in which Martin's play is set. It is still there and still in business, but alas, never saw nor will see a coming together of intelligence, talent and ego such as that envisioned by Steve Martin in this play.This is very smart comedy but funny enough in other ways to work for most audiences. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Clever and surprisingly gentle...
Review: Steve Martin is not exactly known for the subtlety of his humor. With "Picasso at the Lapin Agile", the comedy is not physical or over the top, but subtle and often heart warming. It is an interesting look at invention and vision. I rarely laughed out loud when reading these scripts because of the obvious lack of comic timing involved in reading, but I smiled often, almost constantly while reading. These plays all deal with the future or bizarre onstage visuals, not to mention deeper issues like relationships. I'd really love to see "Picasso..." live... The book was great, but I'm willing to bet that a performance would be amazing.
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