Aimed at a broad readership, the book offers short biographies of "great Shakespeare actors" from Shakespeare's time to our own ... the book will very likely prove a helpful and entertaining resource for many.
Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
Great Shakespeare Actors is most impressive when quarrying the more remote past, and, although it is suitable for dipping into, reading it straight through conveys a sense of how acting styles and actors' careers have changed.
Henry Hitchings, Spectator
[A] fascinating book.
Benedict Nightingale, New Statesman
Stanley Wells has his work cut out in Great Shakespeare Actors as he assesses around forty performers over the past four centuries, from Richard Burbage to Simon Russell Beale, offering brisk career summaries with a dash of scholarship and plenty of anecdote ... There's no shortage of excellent stories.
David Collard, The Times Literary Supplement
... Wells' passion is infectious.
New Republic, Charles Shafaieh
This collection is not only a useful source in itself, but opens up many other routes into theatre commentary, both historical and contemporary.
Heather Neill, Around the Globe
What could easily have been a repetitive book, as a series of actors is connected to a limited number of distinguished roles, is so well written that this never becomes the case. The writing is assured and never flags in an unexpected volume that is well worth dipping into.
British Theatre Guide, Philip Fisher
There's so much more in this fascinating book that I haven't been able to cover, so I can only urge you, if this kind of thing interests you, to go out and get a copy soon. You won't regret it.
Shiny New Books, Harriet Devine
Stanley Wells has written a book which is a total delight... unputdownable.
The Journal (Newcastle), Richard Edmonds
There is deep research here, lightly worn but nevertheless offering clear pointers for those who wish to study individual performers more closely, and for the great majority of the book there is also an engaging tone
Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University, Times Higher Education
a brisk, fascinating theatrical voyage through more than four centuries
The Independent, Nicholas De Jongh
There is deep research here, lightly worn Wells is judicious and restrained and has a dry, crisp style.
Times Higher Education, Lisa Hopkins
Stanley Wells - Shakespeare's brightest and best champion for decades - has produced an absolutely wonderful and wildly readable survey of Shakespearean acting. With tremendous flashes of insight, Wells illuminates not just the staging and the modes of acting that predominated over the centuries, but also the true nature of Shakespeare as a provider of play scripts for actors and audiences. Superbly researched, this is a book that I shall revisit time and time again.
Stephen Fry
This astonishing book fills a vital gap on the shelves. Stanley Wells combines the detailed knowledge of a Shakespeare scholar with the sharp eye of a dramatic critic in a book that makes great performances come resonantly alive. If future generations want to know what Olivier or Dench really were like in Shakespeare, it is to this book that they will turn.
Michael Billington
In his own day, and ever since, Shakespeare's plays have been staged by some of the worlds most extraordinary actors. Stanley Wells, who knows these plays and their fascinating histories as well as anyone, offers here incisive portraits of exceptional actors who have performed Shakespeare over the past 400 years, from Burbage and Kemp up through Olivier, Dench, McKellen, and Beale. It's a thrilling and captivating account.
James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
Stanley Wells's Great Shakespeare Actors is a companionable tour through the encyclopaedic knowledge of our greatest Shakespeare scholar, full of anecdote, erudition, and intimate firsthand observation. It's a tribute to a life of devotion to the theatre, on the page and on stage, informed by a living sense of what actors do, and who they are, and how they work. There are many classic lives here, but also, to me, some enjoyable surprises.
Margaret Drabble
a highly enjoyable book, clearly and pungently written. ... it will be of great help to the general reader, to Shakespeare students and to theatre historians alike as it allows us to reflect on the very essence of theatre
Sophie Chiari, Cercles
As well as drawing effectively on significant written accounts by actors and critics, Wells is particularly persuasive in analyses of visual and aural evidence
Russell Jackson, The Year's Contribution to Shakespeare Studies