“However, the star of the night was unquestionably Josh Aaron McCabe,
a 10 year veteran of the “Shakespeare & Company” group. He played a number of quirky characters, from a local limo driver to a Unitarian minister, to Matthew Shepard’s father at the sentencing hearing. All of these characters sounded and felt authentic, as if he did soul searching for each one to find out what their heart and motivation was during this whole incident. The speech he makes as his father in Act 3 on whether to call for the death penalty was so powerful, you could hear a tear drop. And I heard a couple. He captured the emotions of the scene instantly, and never let go throughout the monologue. I thought for a few moments I was actually watching Matthew Shepard’s father live on stage.”
-Greg Ehrhardt, ON STAGE
"Josh of All Trades" article
Shakespeare & Company
Highlights of Selected Reviews
EVERYTHING THAT'S BEAUTIFUL, Human Race Theatre
"Luke (the wonderful Josh Aaron McCabe) achieves a nearly impossible feat in the short two hours. The end of Act One brings Luke to a low point that easily could turn an audience against him, only to then feel compassion for him post-intermission – and repeat that same sequence again before the final curtain. Luke’s nuance in both the writing and McCabe’s stirring performance keep audiences engaged."
-David Brush, LEAGUE OF CINCINNATI THEATRES
"McCabe, a Wright State University acting professor who recently staged the quirky “Circle Mirror Transformation,” wonderfully exposes the uneasy complexities of a father uncomfortable with a new normal, especially seeing his son in a bathing suit. He also brings heartbreaking earnestness to Luke’s Act 2 confession that finds him torn between parental acceptance and public ridicule."
-Russell Florence, DAYTON.COM
PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, Wright State University (AEA Guest Artist)
“As Black Stache, Josh Aaron McCabe, WSU Professor and Guest Artist who skillfully directed The Liar, attacks his plum role with equal amounts of pompous swagger and egotistical goofiness, effectively swelling to a fantastic reveal concerning the character’s need for a certain hook.”
-Russell Florence, DAYTON MOST METRO
THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA?, Berkshire Theatre Group
*Top 10 Best Show on Berkshire Stages in 2019: #4 “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?”
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
“played with expressive flair by Josh Aaron McCabe…McCabe does a terrific job as one who is appalled by what he learns and then, later, misinterprets a kiss that has gone emotionally overboard. The role is thankless and the performance of it is superb”
-J Peter Bergman, THE BERKSHIRE EDGE
“Ross (Josh Aaron McCabe in a nicely calibrated performance that carries a finely tuned edge of sarcasm and cynicism)”
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
“Josh Aaron McCabe, as her husband’s louche and vulgar old friend Ross, provides a wonderful contrast in character and style to the well-bred WASP couple.”
-Helen Epstein, ARTS FUSE
“Longtime BTG artistic associate Eric Hill and his cast go for, and succeed at creating, epic emotions, and you may worry on the drive home about the psychological health of the actors after having to endure what they do during "The Goat ..." for several weeks”
-Steve Barnes, ALBANY TIMES UNION
THE ALMOST TRUE AND TRULY REMARKABLE ADVENTURES OF ISRAEL POTTER, Oldcastle Theatre
“Josh Aaron McCabe is a whiz at playing multiple characters and is adept at comedy and drama alike, but here he is the one cast member who plays only one role, the title role of Israel Potter, and Potter is a stolid individual who expresses neither joy nor much sorrow, despite living the most luckless and depressing life possible. McCabe anchors the show with a solid performance”
-Gail M. Burns, BERKSHIRE ON STAGE
“One actor, Josh Aaron McCabe, plays Israel Potter. In a play like this one, the actors rarely leave the stage except for a quick costume change, so it is McCabe’s difficult duty to age on stage as he grows from a young western Massachusetts farmer to an old man long away and forgotten in his neighborhood, crippled by injuries and long years of suffering. McCabe accomplishes this nicely: The transitions are subtle and the final effect superb.”
-J Peter Bergman, THE BERKSHIRE EDGE
CYMBELINE, Shakespeare & Company
“Another actor who gets better every year is Josh Aaron McCabe as the treacherous Iachimo. What a Iago he’ll be some year.”
-Ed Siegel, WBUR
“I greatly admired the smoothly calculating Iachimo of Josh Aaron McCabe. The scene where he sneaks into Imogen’s bedchamber in a plan to betray her to Posthumus could have been staged, and acted, with overflowing evil. Instead, Packer and McCabe turn it into a hilarious exercise in comic timing.”
-Chesley Plemmons, CURTAIN UP
THE TEMPEST, Shakespeare & Company
“the drunken butler Stephano (McCabe again) and the jester Trinculo (Bella Merlin)…
nimbly execute their comic assignments”
-Don Aucoin, THE BOSTON GLOBE
“played by Josh Aaron McCabe: the lowlife, drunken clown Stephano and the regal Alonso, the Italian king... McCabe carries them both off with his usual concern for character. He moves between the two men with excellent timing and facility.”
-J Peter Bergman, THE BERKSIRE EDGE
THE LARAMIE PROJECT, Connecticut Rep
“However, the star of the night was unquestionably Josh Aaron McCabe, a 10 year veteran of the “Shakespeare & Company” group. He played a number of quirky characters, from a local limo driver to a Unitarian minister, to Matthew Shepard’s father at the sentencing hearing. All of these characters sounded and felt authentic, as if he did soul searching for each one to find out what their heart and motivation was during this whole incident. The speech he makes as his father in Act 3 on whether to call for the death penalty was so powerful, you could hear a tear drop. And I heard a couple. He captured the emotions of the scene instantly, and never let go throughout the monologue. I thought for a few moments I was actually watching Matthew Shepard’s father live on stage.”
-Greg Ehrhardt, ON STAGE
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED), Shakespeare & Company
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Josh Aaron McCabe and Ryan Winkles are a brilliant comedy team. There will come a time when people will proudly say ‘I saw Winkles and McCabe in…’ they are unforgettable and unstoppable… it is the physical comedy that really shines. These men…are absolutely fearless”
-Gail M. Burns, BERKSHIRE ON STAGE
“Josh Aaron McCabe's Ophelia as a Valley Girl on speed is one of the show's antic highlights.”
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERSKHIRE EAGLE
“Hall, McCabe and Winkles rise to moments of comic sublimity”
-Peter Barnes, ALBANY TIMES UNION
“Jonathan Croy, Josh Aaron McCabe and Ryan Winkles have long been the go-to guys for rolling-in-the-aisles laughter at Shakespeare & Company, whether it be some ridiculous mystery spoof or last night's THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED).”
-Larry Murray, BROADWAY WORLD
MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, Shakespeare & Company
*Starring OLYMPIA DUKAKIS & JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON
“assets include… Josh Aaron McCabe as Mother Courage’s older son Eilif, a living illustration of the way a citizen-turned-soldier can be so consumed by bloodlust that he loses his humanity.”
-Don Aucoin, BOSTON GLOBE
PARASITE DRAG, Shakespeare & Company
*The Year’s Outstanding Stage Artists 2012: Josh Aaron McCabe, Parasite Drag
-Jeffrey Borak, Berkshire Eagle
*10 Best Productions of the Year: #2 "Parasite Drag" (Shakespeare & Company)
“A riveting, galvanic production of a play about family dysfunction performed to the hilt by a first-rate ensemble.”
-Jeffrey Borak, Berkshire Eagle
THE 39 STEPS, Shakespeare & Company
“A brilliant actor in his own right, his comedy side continues to develop the same complexity and depth he brings to his more serious roles at other times of the year. One of the privileges of a critic is to be able to see gifted actors like McCabe continue to develop their already considerable skills as the years go by.”
-Larry Murray, BERKSHIRE ON STAGE
“Josh Aaron McCabe and David Joseph, however, are tasked with dozens of characters, and they, in large part, are the comic engine of this piece.”
-Michael Eck, ALBANY TIMES UNION
“It's been only a matter of weeks since Jason Asprey, Elizabeth Aspenlieder and Josh Aaron McCabe… finished setting the stage at Shakespeare & Company's Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre on fire with their incendiary performances in Mark Roberts' explosive drama, "Parasite Drag." …Asprey, Aspenlieder and McCabe are back but the temper and temperament are anything but serious.”
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
A THOUSAND WORDS, joint production w/ Forward Theatre & Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
“The production… profits from a couple of superb acting performances. Playing photographer Evans and writer Hughes, Josh Aaron McCabe and Molly Rhode are deliciously tart and sharply funny as they banter and bicker their way through the Midwest.
You want them to never leave the stage.”
-Damien Jaques, ON MILWAUKEE
“McCabe stops short of swagger, but he's clearly the most confident voice in the play, a watcher of people in their unguarded moments.”
-Lindsay Christians, 77 SQUARE
“McCabe gives [Walker Evans] an engaging matinee idol charm”
-Paul Kosidowski, MILWAUKEE MAGAZINE
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Shakespeare & Company
“McCabe is wildly funny, whether as a sedate Holmes; a suspicious character bulleting across the stage on a crutch; a bearded troll-like creature who seems barely 3 feet high; or a seductive Spanish temptress who wields two noisy fans to emphasize her dramatic, but scarcely consequential remarks”.
-David Begelman, NEWSTIMES
“McCabe’s strong jawed, full-chinned Holmes is superb. He is not the classic Michael Hammond Holmes, but he brings a confidence to the role that allows even the silliest lines to seem exactly right. His household servants - husband and wife - are delicious and the funniest jokes about costume changes are his as he struggles back and forth between the two. As Cecile he manages to make obvious drag into serious romance and he handles fans better than Sally Rand (the stripper/fan dancer) would have done.”
-J Peter Bergman, BERKSHIRE BRIGHT FOCUS
“McCabe is always Sherlock Holmes - when he’s not playing the blind,
aloof butler of Baskerville Hall or the suspiciously helpful local “naturalist’’ Jack Stapleton or,
best of all, Stapleton’s “wi-wi-wi . . . wonderful sister,’’ the Hispanic spitfire Cecille (pronounced
“Thethille’’), she of the come-hither look and muscularly snapping fans.”
-Sandy MacDonald, THE BOSTON GLOBE
“Given the incredible timing of the hard-working actors and the terrific support from the equally talented crafts team, the jokes and all the clever physical business really work… McCabe's stint in Charles Ludlum's The Mystery of Irma Vep, another quick-change/small cast spoof, stands him in good stead.”
-Elyse Sommer, CURTAIN UP
AS YOU LIKE IT, Shakespeare & Company
*#1 Best Show of 2011
“Simotes has created a perfectly balanced ensemble”
-Jeffrey Borak, The Berkshire Eagle
"everyone is exemplary, including Josh Aaron McCabe as Orlando’s murderously envious elder brother, Oliver”
-Sandy MacDonald, THEATRE NEWS
“Fortunately, Shakespeare and Company brings along its collection of extraordinary actors… Supporting actor stand-outs are…Josh Aaron McCabe as Oliver”
-Marion Hunter, THE COLUMBIA PAPER
THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, Shakespeare & Company
“Shakespeare & Company has found its secret weapons in Josh Aaron McCabe and Ryan Winkles. The duo has appeared in a number of comedies on the troupe's Lenox, Mass., campus…McCabe and Winkles have developed a genuine rapport. If they were a couple they could finish each other's sentences. As a comedy team, they do virtually the same, instinctively knowing how long to milk a beat or stretch a scene. And the like the best comedy teams, they crack each other up.”
-Michael Eck, ALBANY TIMES UNION
“Two of the hardest working—and funniest—actors in The Berkshires, Josh Aaron McCabe and Ryan Winkles, flounce, growl and simper through eight roles, both human and other worldly… McCabe and Winkles are a marvel to watch.”
-Lesley Ann Beck, BERSKHIRE LIVING MAGAZINE
“the two funniest men in the company take on the multiple roles with their usual manic energy…
You can not ask for better actors than McCabe and Winkles…
The finale is a work of genius.”
-Larry Murray, IBERKSHIRES.COM
“Josh Aaron McCabe (Lady Enid, et al) and Ryan Winkles (Lord Edgar, etc.) are the acting duo who carry it all off while changing costumes in seconds. Fine actors in solo roles, put the two together on stage, and their quickly timed banter, movement, and expressions are priceless.”
-Shera Cohen, IN THE SPOTLIGHT
THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND, Shakespeare & Company
*Noteworthy Artists of Distinction in Regional Productions 2010: Josh Aaron McCabe
“Birdboot (perfectly, and then some, played by Josh Aaron McCabe)”
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
“Enrico Spada as Moon and Josh Aaron McCabe as Birdboot are splendid. Birdboot’s entrance, for example, is expanded from the simple description in Stoppard’s play in order to engage us for nearly five minutes with side-splitting hilarity. Their banter is delicious in tone and leaves the audience contemplating their intelligence and their forbearance; their physical interplay is both terrorizing and sweet.”
-J Peter Bergman, BERKSHIRE BRIGHT FOCUS
“Birdboot, played by Josh Aaron McCabe, and his colleague Moon, performed by Enrico Spada… are wonderfully spot on”
-Charles Giuliano, BERKSHIRE FINE ARTS
“cast includes some Berkshire ‘greats’ like Josh Aaron McCabe (lecherous critic)”
-Shera Cohen, IN THE SPOTLIGHT
“The eight actors who thread through this maze of delight are delights in themselves. The zest into which they throw themselves is not only praiseworthy but almost beyond the call of duty. They not only move furniture with alacrity but at times hurl themselves down upon it, or under it or leap over it with such gusto that one feels that perhaps Stoppard should have included in his cast the call for “is there a doctor in the house?”
-Frances Benn Hall, BERKSHIRE LINKS
THE WINTER’S TALE, Shakespeare & Company
“a stalwart, Josh Aaron McCabe”
-James Yeara, METROLAND
“this production consistently plays to its strengths …Josh Aaron McCabe's considered Camillo”
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
“The star-studded cast is mainly of Shakespeare and Co. actors… Outstanding character interpretations include those of… Josh Aaron McCabe and Kelly Galvin are outstanding in supporting roles”
-Frances Benn Hall, BERKSHIRE LINKS
RICHARD III, Shakespeare & Company
*Starring JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON
“Best among the men in the show are Nigel Gore as Duke of Buckingham,
Josh Aaron McCabe as Catesby”
-J Peter Bergman, BERSKHIRE BRIGHT FOCUS
“an exhilarating Baynard’s Castle scene in which Josh Aaron McCabe, as Catesby, an exuberant Johnny Lee Davenport, as the Lord Mayor, and Nigel Gore, as Buckingham, brilliantly manipulated a mob (and the audience)… It was great theatre.”
-EMSWORTH
“Yet as overwhelming as Mr. Thompson is, he does not overwhelm the production, as so many Richards do. This is probably the most consistently acted production I have seen from Shakespeare & Company…Every character seems imbued with the same corrupting, restlessness-making infection.”
-Ben Brantley, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“I've long thought Shakespeare & Company to be this country's most satisfying summer theater festival—but "Richard III" and "The Winter's Tale" are exceptional even by the company's own high standards.”
-Terry Teachout, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, Shakespeare & Company
“Even if you already know what's going to happen to the Marquise de Merteuil (Elizabeth Aspenlieder) and her cold-hearted chum the Vicomte de Valmont (Josh Aaron McCabe) at play's end, you'll still be shocked when the trap is finally sprung… Mr. McCabe partners her with amused suavity”
-Terry Teachout, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Josh Aaron McCabe as Valmont is doing some exquisite work”
-J Peter Bergman, BERKSHIRE BRIGHT FOCUS
“There is a saucy, impudent air of dissolution around the edges of McCabe's audacious Valmont.”
-Jeffrey Borak, THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
“It is hard to believe that, when last seen at Shakespeare, Elizabeth Aspenlieder and Josh Aaron McCabe each starred in comedies. They were uproarious, throwing themselves (even physically) into their roles. While reserved in demeanor that befits "Liaison's" characters, the actors portray villains with capital "Vs"…McCabe has not appeared often to date, but one hopes he will.”
-Shera Cohen, IN THE SPOTLIGHT
THE NERD, Madison Repertory Theatre
“The most dynamic performance of the evening came from McCabe. He plays Axel with such a narcissistic outlook and pretentious personality that he makes the character an ideal outlet for a constant stream of well-timed, bitingly sarcastic remarks.”
-Tony Lewis, THE BADGER HERALD
MORE FUN THAN BOWLING, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati
“[McCabe] captures such facets of Jake as his charm and inner goodness, and a reserved but unmistakable sexuality all of which makes all these women love Jake so. Below the engaging veneer of Jake’s personality traits, McCabe captures Jake’s grief, depression over missed opportunity and relentless search for fulfillment”
-Jerry Stein, CINCINNATI POST
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Shakespeare & Company
“Indeed, this production is remarkable for its textual clarity. Shakespeare & Company has made its reputation in part through its emphasis on speaking Shakespeare's words in such a way that they make sense to modern audiences. That training pays off beautifully here, in a play that can be muddled by obsolete slang unless the actors find ways, through tone and gesture, to get the jokes across.…everyone involved is having a good time. Others include… the rakish Host, Josh McCabe”
-Louise Kennedy, THE BOSTON GLOBE
THE MOONLIGHT ROOM, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
“In a notably entertaining supporting appearance, Josh Aaron McCabe plays a relative of Josh's who is a doctor. Charmingly accurate neuro-psych and other medical jargon serves the role of novel comic relief as he discusses the effects of Ketamine with Sal. It's the closest "The Moonlight Room" comes to substance that is as fresh as its style.”
-Russ Bickerstaff, ON MILWAUKEE
RONNIE LARSON’S PEEP SHOW, Actor’s Playhouse
“And thanks to its flawless cast and the smooth direction of Mr. Larsen, his 90-minute intermissionless excursion behind the scenes of peep parlors that beckon in places like midtown Manhattan adds up to a good time. The characters in the show at Actors' Playhouse are engaging; the humor is winning; the conflicts are genuine”
-Lawrence Van Gelder, THE NEW YORK TIMES