Love makes a buffoon of many...and Mr. Earle’s Ferdinand has the awkwardness of a young man reduced to wide-eyed amazement by the sudden discovery of this overwhelming feeling. In its frolicsome use of traditional magic acts, this freewheeling "Tempest" awakens in the audience a similar sense of pleasurable, almost childlike wonder.
Charles Isherwood - NYTimes
Earle’s performance is a revelation because he doesn’t portray Ferdinand as just the "leading man." Earle doesn’t play it safe by playing Ferdinand as "the straight man" in the crazy world around him. He expertly captures the humorous and awkward moments within Shakespeare’s dialogue and runs with it full blast. By capturing the humorous qualities of Ferdinand, he makes a nice match to Miranda with his gullible naïveté, as well as adding his own courageous dignity.
Peter A. Balaskas - LA Splash
The other big surprises of the show include the two-man Caliban...and the realization of just how funny "The Tempest" can be, thanks to the edgy clowning of Eric Hissom’s Stephano and Jonathan M. Kim’s Trinculo and the fine screwball turn by Joby Earle as Ferdinand.
Bill Raden - LAWeekly
Fanciful, mysterious and full of cheerily broad comedy, this is a "Tempest" that will give equal pleasure to seasoned playgoers and novices who quake in their boots at the mention of iambic pentameter. It is—in a word—magical.
Terry Teachout - WSJ
...Joby Earle’s acting is splendid throughout...Earle plays Finkelbaum without self pity or complaint, instead expressing the few safe emotions he allows himself through his handmade puppets...For while he can distinguish intellectually between his delusions and reality, emotionally he is unable to let go of his fantasy, for in so doing, he would complete the job the Nazis botched in killing him by destroying what is left of his human spirit.
Larry Murray - Berkshire Onstage and screen
Joby Earle, who played Finkelbaum this summer, has returned and his yeoman's performance is indeed one of the reasons to see this play. On stage virtually for the entire two acts, actually from the half hour before the show when the theater first opens, his tall, lanky, occasionally awkward frame commands attention as he maneuvers about the confines of the narrow apartment and through the low arches between rooms.
Andrew Beck - Springfield Arts Examiner
The company is a blend of newcomers and original Broadway cast members, but they all feel as effortlessly a part of one constantly evolving troupe as if they had been together since day one. Two of the newcomers are exceptionally mesmerizing. As Sholem Asch, Joby Earle deftly moves from upstart revolutionary playwright determined to change the world to a man jaded by the atrocities against his people. And he also gets a delightful diversion as a drunken, cynical Eugene O’Neill that feels as if he stepped from the pages of the playwright’s biography.
Maureen Lee Lenker - Entertainment Weekly
...the Yale Rep production, directed by Evan Yionoulis, adds a bold theatrical touch to lend the play a more adventurous, Churchillian style.
Sylviane Gold - NYTimes
Under Evan Yionoulis' direction, the cast performs well, especially Meany's mad Marion and Earle as her quirky associate
Frank Rizzo - Hartford Courant
Joby Earle offers a disturbingly appropriate performance as the suicide-prone and aptly-named Worsely...Earle does allow us to glimpse the glimmer of a conscience inside his character that allows him to take some unexpected action before falling back into his terrified, obedient ways with his employer.
Andrew Beck - The Hartford Examiner
