Bert Bernardi

Zanna, Don't! (Theater Barn, Summer 2009)
	"Bernardi's production is spirited and stylish. His cast performs with engaging buoyance, pushing the show to a stylistic limit that is both serious and at times, able to make fun of itself...an admirable and appealing production under the knowing direction of Bernardi" Jeff Borak, Berkshire Eagle
"This is one of the best musicals this season. Bernardi, a man with a proven flair for staging off-beat musicals has assembled the perfect cast of talented young performers blessed with boundless energy and keeps them moving constantly." Gail Burns, Gailsez.org
	"Bernardi's direction keeps everyone moving almost all the time...his work is examplary" Peter Bergman, Edge Boston
"The don't in "Zanna Don't stands for "don't miss it."Director-Choreographer Bert Bernardi presents the material in a clever, fast-paced manner." Bob Goepfert, Troy Record

Forever Plaid (Cortland Repertory Theatre, Summer 2009)
"The Plaids are already dead, but that doesn't stop them from having a good time. And that's what is accentuated in director-choreographer Bert Bernardi's bouncy approach to this gentle parody." Bill DeLapp, Syracuse New Times
	"Bernardi's choreography pokes fun at the lock-step, stylized "dance" moves of guy groups. But his real choreography is in the way the four singers make small moves that help connect the audience with a song's depths of feeling." Neil Novelli, Post-Standard

Johnny Guitar (Cortland Repertory Theatre 2008)

"Under the direction of Bert Bernardi this musical send up is a hoot from start to finish. Bernardi picks apart the style of the original with pinpoint accuracy and exaggerates the source material to tremendous comic effect."
-CNY Theatre News 8/22/08

"Delightfully Silly! Deliciously conceived and acted send-up of 1950s Westerns. Directed and choreographed by Cortland Rep veteran Bert Bernardi and played by a jim-dandy company."
-Len Fonte, Syracuse New Times

"Director Bert Bernardi keeps it fresh, surprising and above all funny. This is probably the strongest performing ensemble I have seen anywhere in the area this year."
- Neil Novelli, Syracuse Post-Standard

The Musical of Musicals (Theatre Barn, Summer 2008)

"Each performer sings well, but this show is not about singing - it's about style and director Bert Bernardi is an expert with the spoof genre. Not only does he catch the idiosyncrasies of the shows, he also understands the individual performance styles of each work - and he nails them. Also integral to the success of the work is the way Bernardi mimics the dance flourishes of famed choreographers like Bob Fosse, Hal Prince and Agnes DeMille." --Bob Goepfert, Troy Record

"If you are a fan of the American musical theatre over the last 50-75 years, you will just LOVE “The Musical of Musicals: The Musical,” a 2003 off-Broadway hit being given the perfect production at the Theater Barn. It is roll-on-the-floor funny...... Director Bert Bernardi, who I assume also did the choreography, knows exactly what he’s doing". --Gail Sez

"...Director Bert Bernardi leads an amiable cast through the zaniness. Bernardi knows and appreciates musicals, allowing him to poke fun at the signature styles of singing, dancing and acting. Bernardi also embraces the cheekiness the material demands." -Jonathan Levine, Pittsfield Gazette

"...This show’s foursome is marvelously directed by Bert Bernardi who knows how to parody the work he has been doing for years...Bernardi keeps this show moving and his actors keep grimacing, grinning and glowing with graceful glee as they play every cliche for its full value, every witticism for its impact and every style the memory can muster for more than mere merriment." --J. Peter Bergman, Chatham Courier

The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Cortland Repertory Theatre)

"Director/Choreographer Bernardi excels at getting the greatest laughs from the material, and his choreography is simple and stylish."
-Chuck Klaus, Syracuse Post-Standard

"A zany, brash spectacle...Madcap Choreography...As tender as it is funny."
-Mark Tedeschi, Ithaca Journal

"Bernardi directs and choreographs the mayhem with perverse delight, each outrageous and cheesy song or stage device topping the last."
-Barbara Adams, Ithaca Times

"Director-choreographer Bert Bernardi hones sharp timing throughout
and never allows a line to misfire."
-James MacKillop, Syracuse New Times

Johnny Guitar (Theatre Barn)

"Best of the Berkshires Theatre Recap 2007!"

"Perhaps the biggest surprise was a delightfully guilty pleasure,
the inventively staged evening of camp, "Johnny Guitar, the Musical."
-- Jonathan Levine, The Pittsfield Gazette!

"Bert Bernardi has a way with quirky, offbeat material. Under Bernardi’s savvy direction, the youthful Theater Barn cast work the show’s tongue-in-cheek style to its limits, and then some.
“Johnny Guitar: The Musical” knows what it’s about. So does Bernardi."
--Jeff Borak, Berkshire Eagle

"Bernardi orchestrates a fast-paced blast of self-aware nostalgia...he keeps his principals on target and...creates a light, off-beat tone"
- Jonathan Levine, Pittsfield Gazette

"Bernardi does a wonderful job with his performers. There are wide eyes, heavy breathing and sensual pauses galore--but throughout the work there is a discipline that this cast knows the art form. Bernardi is great at adding looks, gestures and attidudes that add to the fun" - Bob Gephart, Troy Record

"Bert Bernardi, directing this delicate musical send-up, has established the style of the piece and maintained it perfectly right to the final moments. Without that sort of control the piece could easily have been banal and just odd, but under his fine direction it turns into a stylized, comedic masterpiece. Bernardi has a way of making the peculiar palatable and he was clearly the best choice for this company’s first musical of the season."
- J. Peter Bergman, Berkshire Bright Focus

"As directed by Bert Bernardi, JOHNNY GUITAR is relentless fun"
- Bruce Hallenbeck, The Independent

Cinderella Skeleton - World Premiere!
		"Delightful...Its all great fun staged with a high degree of professionalism and an understanding of what entices and delights a child...IT IS AN EXPERIENCE NO CHILD SHOULD BE DENIED" -Geary Danihy, Westport News

Urinetown (Theatre Barn)
	"When everything works to perfection, as it does in this musical, you know a strong, imaginative director such as Bert Bernardi is at work" - Bob Goepfert, Troy Record "URINETOWN is the hit of the Berkshire summer season! Director Bert Bernardi maybe have been born to direct this play. He seems to have fined-tuned it perfectly...His deft parodies of Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse are perfectly attuned to the theme and his superb cast. In just two weeks rehearsal, it oped a picture-perfect and rapturous show with precise momement, note-perfect singing and deeply felt perfect characterizations. Buy, steal or beg a ticket to the best show in the region this summer" - J. Peter Bergman, Berkshire Bright Focus
	"URINETOWN's tounge-in-cheek mamer is tricky but director Bert Bernardi and a very likable and talented cast get it. His choreography respects the intimacy of the small space without being intimidated by it....smooth, expert direction and choreogrphy by Bernardi" -Jeff Borak, Berkshire Eagle "Under Bert Bernardi's deft direction and terrifically talented cast, URINETOWN is the must-see musical of the season." - Gail Burns, Chatham Courier
	"Bernardi fills the tiny stage with action...the acting compay is among the deepest the Barn has hosted in recent years. The director plays to his company's strengths and pushes his cast to ensure that they, and the audience, revel in the show's wacky spirit" - Jonathan Levine, Pittsfield Gazette "Bernardi makes URINETOWN crackle, assembling an energetic cast who tackles the zaniness head on" - Michael Eck, Albany Times Union "Whiz-Bang direction from Bert Bernardi" - Paul Lamar, Schenectady Gazette "URINETOWN is briskly directed by Bert Bernardi. The slick pacing is of hurricane velocity...a to-be-praised seamless production." - Charles Kondek, The Independent

Annie Get Your Gun (Cortland Repertory Theatre)
	"This is a very good production with outstanding performances from the leads, the supporting players and terrific chorus. Bert Bernardi does fine work staging the play and keeping it sharp" --Tom Woods, Central New York Theatre News
"Bull's-eye! Cortland Repertory Theatre's "Annie Get Your Gun" is right on target! --Paul Hansom, Ithaca Time "Cortland Repertory's production hits the bull's-eye." --Leonard Fonte, Syracuse NewTimes

Over the River and Through the Woods (Cortland Repertory Theatre)
	"Under Bert Bernardi's brilliant direction, six fine actors bring out the play's latent power, filling it with zest and fire, and walking a fine line between comedy and poignancy" --Neil Novelli, Syracuse Post Standard
"Under the watchful eye of Bert Bernardi, there's an appropriately comic opera flavor to the production. Bernardi understands that the trick with a show like this is to keep up the breakneck pace while revealing the humanity of the characters behind the mounds of lasagna and cannoli." --Len Fonte, Syracuse New Times

Nine (TheatreWorks New Milford)
	"Director Bert Bernardi applies his flair for comedy to the play's deep-rooted darkness. The result is a darkness seeping through laughter as the play nods dramatically to Fellini" --Joanne Greco Rochman, Waterbury Republican
"Directed with flare by Bert Bernardi, NINE is rich, lyrical, exciting and haunting" --Fran Sikorski, Ridgefield Press

The Rocky Horror Show

“The ingenuousness of Rocky Horror is neatly captured by director Bert Bernardi who, perhaps not so incidentally has staged more than a dozen shows for Downtown Cabaret’s Children’s Company. In an inventive directorial stroke, the show starts with on-screen credits.”
-Alvin Klein, New York Times

Olympus on My Mind

"The credit is due to director Bert Bernardi who moves the evening along with mercurial swiftness, bringing his audience in quickly on the play’s conciets. He has squeezed a 41-hour day in the lives of disparate citizens of ancient Thebes onto a postage stamp stage, but the action never once trips over itself..."
-David Lampe Wilson, Fairfield Advocate

"Bernardi’s production shows a flair for farce and for feeling. It cuts right to the heart of the peice and for all its satirical targets--at the end, the show has heart and sweetly romantic soul... In Mr. Bernardi’s production,having a scene of balance and restraint, does not allow nonsense. Indeed the only nonsense here is perscribed by the script and Mr. Bernardi keeps that suspended, seeing that it alights somewhere between heaven and earth."
-Alvin Klein, New York Times

Trixie True, Teen Detective

"Bert Bernardi, know for his direction of outstanding musical productions has outdone himself with Trixie True which is flawless in its comedic qualities and inspired in its physicality."
-Gloria Cole, Fairpress

Sugar

"Bert Bernardi has orchestrated Sugar impeccably, with all segments working together in top form. Scenes glide smoothly one into the other with never a missed beat. He sustains the mood and beat consistently, getting top work from his performers and technicians."
-Irene Backalenick, Fairfield Citizen

Hollywood Pinafore

"Bert Bernardi director of Hollywood Pinafore has shown us what was and we can only mourn the loss of millions of theatregoers who never go tto experience all of the obvious delights of this show. Bernardi’s style and understanding of the humor in all of this is evident in his manipulation of bodies, minds and humor on stage. He is an excellent match for the merry making that Gilbert, and later Kaufman had in mind."
-J. Peter Bergman, The Independent

Have A Nice Day

"Bernardi has expertly cast Have A Nice Day...a brilliantly costumed and coiffed production that has been crafted for the Theater Barn. Good things really do come in small packages."
-Jeff Borak, Berkshire Eagle

Zombie Prom

"One thing that has not changed in Bert Bernardi’s first season as artistic director at the Theater Barn is his ability to surprise you. Zombie Prom is one of those serendipitous treats that catches you completely unaware and leave you feeling pretty good about that day, if not life. Bernardi has directed this with a shrewd balance, respect for the theater’s style and traditions and a complete absense of pretense...its very smart fun!"
-Jeff Borak, Berkshire Eagle

"Director Bert Bernardi makes Zombie Prom a winner. Its filled with great staging and sight jokes which take the script from absurdity
to a wittin sarcastic look at the nuclear fifties."
-Michael Menshing, Chatham Courier

Grease

"Director/Choreographer Bert Bernardi's production is particularly effective at capturing the camaraderie that binds the show’s central characters together. Bernardi’s musical staging is smartly conceived and stylishly executed."
-Jeff Borak, Berkshire Eagle

Nunsense II

"Bravo Bert Bernardi! Here’s a director with an imagination, who brings
something interesting to a show that is basically mediocre. Bernardi has a way of making the ordinary...extraordinary. In this production, magic is most welcome."
-Joanne Rochman, Trumbull Times

Oliver!

"For such a familiar piece of theatre like "Oliver," Bernardi's direction gives it a freshness and power that is simply astonishing."
-Joseph Mauro, York County Journal Tribune