The 39 Steps Richard Hannay
Milesquare Theater, director Mark Shanahan
"You won't mind Hannay, played by Joe Delafield, being the center of your attention for 90 minutes or so. He plays the character with dashing English charm. It takes some serious skill to carry the pace and storyline of a show and keep the audience on your side throughout. Delafield takes you with him through the ups, the downs, the literal bridges, and of course his quest for the truth...and love."
Hobokengirl.com
"Our everyman is played perfectly by Joe Delafield. Gosh, how can you not be on his side? He is the man every girl needs to marry: smart, funny, well off, savvy and good looking, too. In Hitchcock's time, Delafield would have certainly been up for the Cary Grant role in North by Northwest."
Margaretha Heidel, HMag
"Ingenious. Captivating. Hysterical. Thoroughly entertaining. Delafield is an affable lead - he preens, he postures, and grows into a credible hero."
Adam Cohen, Broadwayworld.com
Fashions for Men Peter Juhasz
The Mint Theater, director Davis McCallum
with Annie Purcell
The Seagull Konstantin Treplev
Antaeus, director Andrew Traister
"Mr. Delafield gives an intelligently understated performance as Juhasz, portraying him not as a sap but as a man who would vastly rather give others the benefit of hte doubt than risk causing any pain."
Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times
"A delightful revival...Delafield projects a confidence turning to confusion, resignation, and bitterness that is truly touching."
The New Yorker
"A near-flawless production...Delafield gives a wonderfully frustrating performance, charming everyone with his Jimmy Stewart likability, until his unshakable naivete makes us want to give him a Cher slap and scream 'Snap out of it!'"
Pete Hempstead, Theatermania.com
"It is Joe Delafield as Treplev that propels this production into uncharted waters in terms of emotion and depth. Delafield IS Treplev. His moods and passions give away a young man on the brink of self-inflicted madness."
Radomir Luza, Patch.com
"Delafield projects vulnerability and volatility, making Treplev's initial suicide attempt - and ultimate suicide - believable."
Les Spindle, Backstage
Journey's End Raleigh
Alley Theater, director Gregory Boyd
"2nd Lieutenant Raleigh (Joe Delafield) is 'frightfully keen' with enthusiasm and naivete...the scene in which Raleigh and Osborne make small talk in the tense minutes before the raid is a masterpiece of apparently banal dialogue played with extraordinary sensitivity by both actors."
Mary Koenig, Houston Press
"Director Gregory Boyd has done a sterling job marshaling strong actors into a finely tuned ensemble...Joe Delafield vividly conveys young Raleigh's innocence and eagerness."
Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle
The School for Husbands Valere
Westport Playhouse, director Doug Hughes
"This production is unabashedly un-serious theater. Joe Delafield's Valere is a sort of dim-witted 17th century metrosexual."
The New York Times
"The cast is particularly outstanding...Joe Delafield, tall yet graceful, almost steals the show as Valere, the young suitor in gold locks."
Rosalind Friedman, WMNR Fine Arts Radio
"Joe Delafield's Valere, it should be noted, looks like a cross between Little Bo Peep and Goldilocks, with a wig of blonde ringlets, a hat of pink feathers, and a girlish beauty mark. He's a sap, not too smart, and the perfect extreme counterpart to the dowdy Sganarelle. When Isabelle and Valere face one another, their eyes seem to literally reach out and grab one another."
Fairfield County Weekly
with Andrew Weems and Maggie Lacey
The Glass Menagerie Tom
Ensemble Theater Company, director Jonathan Fox
"As the narrator and Amanda's son, Tom, fresh-faced Joe Delafield gives a commanding performance. Here is a gruff, cigarette-smoking young man working long shifts at the factory to provide for his family. Delafield makes Tom's desperation palpable and his situation classically tragic."
Elizabeth Schwyzer, The Santa Barbara Independent
"An excellent cast courses through Mr. Williams' work with strong intensity...Mr. Delafield is fabulous: churning, sparking, smoldering."
Alex Henteloff, CASA Magazine
Romeo and Juliet Romeo
Virginia Stage Company, director Patrick Mullins
"Brilliant! A wonderful example of what live theater can be...Joe Delafield, as Romeo, has a perfect sense of the young man's impulsive nature, his wild emotional swings, and his impetuous behavior."
Montague Gammon III, VEER Magazine
"Joe Delafield is a likeably boyish and vulnerable Romeo. He manages all the physical dashes of the assignment with never muffing a line or getting out of breath."
The Virginia Pilot
The Subject Was Roses Timmy Cleary
Pittsburgh Public Theater, director Rob Ruggiero
"But it is Joe Delafield's role of Timmy that deserves the praise. His youthful charm and drunken gibberish are humorous, yet meaningful...'The Subject Was Roses' combines great acting with an intelligent script."
Justin Kadtke, The Pitt News
"Joe Delafield brings an increasing awareness and clear-headed understanding to Timmy. Delafield has a pleasant and gentle way of turning lines that might sound insolent or presumptuous into evidence of Timmy's dawning maturity and independence."
Alice T. Carter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Daddy, Mommy, and Junior (Joe Delafield) play with and against each other with ruthless precision. There's intelligence in these performances and a great deal of compassion."
Gordon Spencer, Pulp Magazine
The Hound of the Baskervilles Henry Baskerville, etc.
Hudson Stage Company, director Mark Shanahan
White Heron Theatre, director Mark Shanahan
"A delightful romp expertly executed by three actors of the highest Broadway caliber. Delafield, who portrays nearly all members of the Baskerville brood, revels in his cavalcade of facial expressions. He has a firm grasp on the zany one-liners and multiple costume changes...It's really exciting when the skills of these three masterminds collide and blend into each other, each one taking a piece from the other two."
Matt Smith, The Inside Press
"The script demands perfect comedic timing and physicality from all of the actors, something that is delivered from the moment the show begins. Delafield draws laughs as the nervous, twitchy Sir Henry."
Catherine Macallister, Yesterday's Island
"Extraordinarily gifted actors take on all the roles in the play in a dizzying succession of costume changes and personality resets. Delafield brings to life not only the endearingly bemused Sir Henry, but also the peculiar Dr. Mortimer, as well as a host of minor characters including a gruff London cabby. He generates winsome, sometimes offbeat humor with his remarkably mobile facial features."
Jim Sulzer, The Inquirer and Mirror
Ah, Wilderness! Richard Miller
The Guthrie Theater, director Doug Wager
"An unusually talented, well-trained actor, Joe Delafield, acquitted himself extraordinarily well as Richard Miller...in every conceivable way, Delafield portrayed a young man wanting to be a mature man, from downing sloe gin as if it were lemonade to pretending to be without feelings of love. His range was astonsishing. He could be the courtly lover one minute, taking to his sick bed; and then, almost instantly he could, with considerable skill in movement, metamorphose into a 'radical' intellectual...He was hilarious...he was lovable."
The Eugene O'Neill Review
"Joe Delafield is every inch the tragic hero in training, hitting 'Pieta' poses in any available chair and searching his family member of signs of concern out of the corner of his eye while begging them, 'You mustn't worry about me.' At the same time, his portrayal is utterly sincere."
The South Bend Tribune
"Delafield has an impeccable sense of comedic timing, often relying on his ability to make himself at once as precocious and as naive as possible. His waxing philosophical remarks on lofty ideals bring down the house."
The Notre Dame Observer
"Anyone would recognize the wonderful authenticity of Joe Delafield's portrayal of Richard. He hits all the chords: cynicism, melodrama, arrogance, romanticism, awkwardness, bravado, and idealism. The scene in which Richard gets roaring drunk is a classic."
Duluth News Tribune
And more...
For Keen Company's Outward Bound:
"Joe Delafield and Kathleen Early make the strongest impressions: they have the most challenging roles as young people who think they have it all figured out, but truly understand very little. Weaker performances here could sink the play's true meaning: with Delafield and Early, it floats effortlessly."
Matthew Murray, Talkin'Broadway.com
For Keen Company's The Breadwinner:
"There is a hilarious bit of tableturning midway through...Mr. Delafield has a prticularly fine time being flabbergasted."
Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times
"Joe Delafield more than earns his laughs as young Patrick."
The Boston Globe
For Keen Company's Theophilus North:
"A remarkably versatile cast of seven...Joe Delafield is adorably childish as Charles..."
Anita Gate, The New York Times
For La Mirada's Noises Off:
"Joe Delafield's overworked and innocent carpenter/stage manager adds particularly to the backstage mayhem...I was laughing until tears ran down my face."
Frances Baum Nicholson, Stage Struck Review
"A cast that's nothing short of heroic in their efforts....throughout the cast is in excellent form, and formidable in their execution of the daring deeds required in Frayn's demanding play. Joe Delafield earns his laughs."
Ben Miles, Long Beach Beachcomber
For Antaeus's The Crucible:
"Joe Delafield's Reverend Parris was achingly accurate in his self-promotion and in his need to have power, however minute, over his parishioners."
Dale Reynolds, Stage Happenings
"There were several standout performances, including Joe Delafield as Reverend Parris, that were truly fantastic."
Kat Michels, Culver City News