Tomlin's Broadway show ["Appearing Nitely"] may well be a crossroads in one of the most extraordinary careers in our popular culture…. [Tomlin] has chosen to challenge herself and her audiences, to move beyond the Pavlovian reflex called laughter toward a total assault on her audiences' sensibility—their minds, their hearts, their funny bones. (p. 63)

There was always that extra dimension to Lily Tomlin's comedy. But watching her put the new show together, it's clear that she's reached the point where laughter is simply the final confirmation of the penetration of her insights. Without the costumes and props of her TV specials—Edith Ann lost in her giant chair, Ernestine's sausage-rolled hair and platform shoes—Tomlin gives a burning life to all her characters with just her marvelously mobile face, expressively graceful body and flexible voice. The result is like a one-woman "Canterbury Tales," a rich and savory collage...