Rosie O'Donnell has returned to Broadway for a run in "No No Nanette" and her reviews have been terrific - better than those for the overall show,

New York Times: Ms. O'Donnell, of whom you may have heard, scores a personal triumph as the Smiths' grumpy, bossy maid. With only minimal changes in vocal and facial expressions, she projects more comic authority than anyone around her (and more, I might add, than she ever has before in her various outings on Broadway).

Newsday:: ...Most fun involves Rosie O'Donnell, as the second-banana wisecracking maid, doing a few minutes of sweetly capable tap at the end,

TheaterMania.com: Then there's O'Donnell, who has the script's drollest lines and knows precisely how to land them. For much of the time she's pushing a recalcitrant Hoover around, and it becomes a metaphor for her ability to hoover up the yuks. Plus, she taps like a demon. (Eat your heart, Barbara Walters!)

Washington Post: And then there is Rosie O'Donnell as a wisecracking maid. O'Donnell may not be much of a singer, but she's a game tapper and wins most of her laughs playing off a recalcitrant vacuum cleaner, not the easiest of tasks.

Variety: And while she could stand to loosen up a little more, Rosie O'Donnell deadpans enjoyably as the Smiths' put-upon maid Pauline, even muscling in on the dance action with a brief but capable tap solo.

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rosie O'Donnell doesn't seem to miss being on "The View" but that doesn't stop her from talking about the show that she left nearly a year ago.

"Passion on that show was not number one," Rosie said on the Today show Monday. "Some people confuse passion for rage. I have a lot of passion about things I believe in."

Rosie said she never set out to cause controversy but "when somebody would say something that I found insane, I would say, 'That's insane.'"

She and Barbara Walters are still friends, attending plays together and exchanging emails. She also touches base occasionally with Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

She wants to make clear that neither Hasselbeck or anyone else on the panel were the reason she left nearly a month before her one-year contract was up: "It was not the people on the stage. It was the director and the executive producer. You have a choice, do you want to choose to fight for a living...they made it into Hardball."

Here is a clip from Rosie's appearance:

Posted by Greg Hernandez at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)