"The youth Ganymede, self-appointed amatory tutor to her own (i.e., Rosalind's) ardent suitor, Orlando, played here by the splendid and strapping Joseph Millson. "

Theatre Mania by Sandy MacDonald Nov 2003

"Thankfully, Joseph Millson does not play Orlando as a hunky dumbo: this is a rigorous, vital performance"

Wbur.org/arts by Bill Marx Nov 2003

"Joseph Millsonis the dashing Orlando. He gives a passionate performance throughout, but I was particularly taken with a moving passage he delivers concerning the frailty of his man servant when Orlando first comes upon the banished Duke and his men in the forest."

On Stage Boston by R.J. Donovan Nov 2003

He, too, boils with youthful indignation at injustice and perfidy. You believe that this Orlando is so morally overheated that he can indeed defeat a wrestler twice his size. Yet he melts at the first sign of kindness from a stranger, and you may find yourself melting with him.

Orlando doesn't have Rosalind's quick wit (who does?), but Mr. Millson's achingly sincere performance makes it clear that he deserves to win her. Their first encounter is a rapturous study in ungainliness. Neither knows what to say to the other, precisely because on some gut level they know that the stakes have never been higher."

New York Times by Ben Brantley Dec 2003

The usurping Duke's court is minimally suggested, scarcely more than a frame for Joseph Millson's Orlando to defeat Charles the bully wrestler, for Rosalind and Celia to establish the closeness of their relationship before they seek freedom in the forest and for the principals to 'tangle eyes'. But this Orlando shows himself capable of passionate violence before he is put to the test; he expresses his anger against his brother's restrictions on his upbringing by pinning him furiously to the ground. Millson has the charm for a romantic hero but shows there is more to his Orlando than writing limp verse. Later he is a fit playfellow, and thus consort, for Rosalind - equally serious, equally quick-witted.

Reviews Gate by Heather Neil Aug 2003

She is also helped by Joseph Millson's Orlando, who, in place of the usual twerpish cipher, offers us a man both visibly smitten and angered by his peasant upbringing.

Add in the unusually sexy Orlando of Joseph Millson, and one had an "As You Like It" with a rare and real erotic heat alongside a pulsating melancholia.

Variety Matt Wolf Sept 2003

It is an interesting aspect of this As You Like It that its Rosalind, though declaring herself "fathom deep" in love with Orlando, actually seems happier in Celia’s company. Director Hall makes an engaging threesome of them, placing Rosalind and Joseph Millson’s Orlando in such physical proximity for their every exchange, whether raptly in each other’s faces or on their knees like Hansel and Gretel, that the magnetism is palpable — and painful.

And Millson is a terrific Orlando, not just a sighing "Signior Love" but also a rightly angry young man. Not only does the handsome actor sport the most fetchingly flopping hair since Hugh Grant’s, he also embodies the dichotomies of As You Like It, both posturing and seething with passion. When he declares, with authority as well as ardor, that "I can no longer live by thinking," we know it’s time to set the alarm clock on this idyll and get on with life in all its un-Arcadian complication.

Carolyn Clay Boston Phoenix Nov 2003