"Barkhimer and Plum achieve something remarkable: they manage to show us this couple’s love and passion for each other, twisted and buried as it is beneath the rubble of so much contempt."

"As Willy Loman, Ken Baltin in the opening scene shuffles wearily into the kitchen, a man zero-to-the-bone, dropping his suitcases if they were blocks of cement. But it is Paula Plum’s Linda who supplies the startling complimentary image. After she bucks Willy up he leaves the bedroom and, in this moment of solitude, the actress’ face sinks and sags, her soul drooping out of sheer fatigue. Her reaction is a reminder that Miller’s play is not only about how much futile energy it takes to dream away a life as a salesman …it is also about how much life is drained from others to make a man who is no longer (perhaps never was) well liked feel well liked.

That brilliantly nuanced moment from Plum provides the key to the strengths and the weaknesses of the production, which is firmly anchored in two powerful performances.

Plum’s Linda is no wilting helpmate, but tigerish when she needs to be, as when she orders sons Happy and Biff out of the house after they have abandoned their father. You sense that she is torn apart, but Plum suggests that Linda also finds release in the confrontation – she revels in a rare moment of telling the truth and acting on her repugnance. Linda’s final speech over Willy’s grave is filled with a wondering tone that not only questions why her husband committed suicide, but seems to ask, wistfully, what 'free and clear' means in a society whose brutal wheels are greased by false promises and endless competition. Men and women encouraged to dream big but forced to settle for so little."

-Bill Marx

"Rudnick runs right to the goalpost with this spoof and Paula Plum scores a ninety-nine yard touchdown as the self-proclaimed 'best mother' in the world."

-Beverly Creasy

"The opening sequence with Helene is bright and blatant as the Jewish Mom from Massapequa dishes with the best of them. Rudnick has written what could almost be called a stand-up routine. It's very tight, and thanks to Paula Plum's talents, it's expertly delivered, beautifully paced, and laugh-out-loud funny. And it's a great way to start the evening."

“Beloved local diva Paula Plum brings both vulnerability and a prizefighter’s punch to... the badgering but at least outraged and humane Abby.”

-Carolyn Clay

“For more than a decade, Plum has been one of Boston’s most versatile and hardest-working actresses and this is one of the best performances she has given. Plum’s performance as the 40-ish coolly analytical, icily ironic and sexually torrid Abby is a masterly example of making the difficult look easy.”

-Jon Lehnman

“Plum is one of the most accomplished actresses in Boston, and she brings real pain and a haggard decency to Abby…”

-Thomas Garvey

“Plum shows she’s a resourceful actress with a command for the withering one-liner.”

-Robert Nesti

“Amanda is played by one of Boston’s best actresses, Paula Plum.”

-Ed Siegel

“Plum sparkles in devilish comedy... Plum balances breezy with brittle and the sweetly sentimental with the smart and sharp. Whether her Amanda is peering up innocently to deliver a saucy retort, waving her swanlike arms to make a point or going full tilt in an argument with Elyot, Plum dominates the stage.”

-Terry Byrne

“This Private Lives… includes ... a side-splitting turn from the amazing Paula Plum.”

-Christopher Muther

“Solo Plum: Powerful, Funny, and Touching - What makes Plum so successful is than not only is she able to become totally different characters, but that she is able to bring across the humanity in each of them.”

“Paula Plum is a Boston Treasure.”

-Rudy Kikel

“...there is palpable greatness at work here, and her name is Paula Plum ...touches the fires of creation.”

-Arthur Friedman

“The proof is in the tasty ‘Plum Pudding’ - The final piece, ‘Sidekick’  gives us Plum’s most breathtaking transformation… she plays a male teenager… But Plum goes beyond our astonishment at how well she impersonates a guy... she creates an eccentric and endearing character.”

-Bill Marx

“Plum’s performance sharpens WIT - Paula Plum is perfect for this part and from her first moment on stage, she’s got us.”

-Catherine Foster

“Plum gives stunning performance in WIT -  what makes this production so moving is Plum’s beautifully modulated performance.”

-Robert Nesti

“Paula Plum has turned in so many rightly acclaimed performances over the years that it’s become a commonplace to call her one of Boston’s best actors… With ‘Memorial’, a haunting one-woman show ... she proves she’s a top-rate writer as well. ...As both writer and actor, Plum shows remarkable range…”

-Anne Marie Donahue

“A sold-out house on Saturday night held its collective breath at Paula Plum’s tour de force portrayal of all the roles in the her Holocaust vignette, ‘Memorial’ ...Plum adds convincing skill as a writer to her reputation as Boston theater’s leading lady.”

-Iris Fanger

“Faith Healer: A beautiful cast of Paul O’Brien, Paula Plum and Will LeBow footed Brian Friel’s modern-day Rashomon.”

-Carolyn Clay

“The Heiress: The happily ubiquitous Paula Plum gave a touching, heady reading of plain-Jane Catherine Sloper, who is stunted by her father’s contempt.”

-Carolyn Clay

“Paula Plum’s delightful turns in the Lyric Stage’s ‘Entertaining Mr. Sloane’ and ‘The Heiress’ as well as Gloucester Stage’s ‘Faith Healer’ and her own ‘Plum Pudding,’ make us wish she would appear so regularly every season.”

-Terry Byrne

“The terrifically talented Paula Plum demonstrated her uncommon virtuosity in three disparate pieces performed together as ‘Plum Pudding.’”

-Skip Ascheim and Bill Marx

“The showpiece performance is delivered by Paula Plum as Bella, simply stunning in her sensitivity and passion…”

-Iris Fanger

“It is Plum...with her brilliantly flighty and intensely human performance.... who makes this production something special.”

-Jon Lehman

“...with Plum taking the stage (Miss Price) is a delicious mix of comedy and heartbreak. ...Paula Plum is a consummate actress and entertainer.”

“The cast at the Nora Theatre is anchored by a tour de force performance by Paula Plum. Using myriad voices and strikingly varied physicality, she makes the Quija Board Lady, The Seasoned Whore, Minerva the Poetess, and the Chinese Woman who dies childless come alive with passion and profundity. The choices she makes are so strong we are never at a loss as to why these people are driven to unburden the details of their lives and their deaths.”

-Jon Lipsky

“Plum fills Marvin’s Room with resonance… Plum has the gift of two-facedness her well-textured expressions play contrapuntal tunes. A forlorn gaze havers just beyond a loving glance; vacant contentment and aching loneliness seep from the same hangdog look. Comic takes morph into pathos.”

-Skip Ascheim

“Plum shines in Lyric Stage Production - Plum’s insanely uninhibited performance is the main reason theatergoers should scramble to see this play. Plum shows again that she can and will do just about anything onstage, and with delicious aplomb.”

-Michael Pevzner

“From the moment the inimitable Paula Plum flounces onto the Lyric Stage, we know we’re in for a treat… Plum’s riotous performance... creates such a marvelous Kath... who is by turns flirtatious, fearful, childish, charming, fussy and fragile... you can’t help but be entertained.”

-Terry Byrne

"Plum, an award-winning actress herself, knows the only way to make Harling’s Hallmark card lines work is to cast actresses who can inhabit this crowd of Southern belles and make them their own. 'Steel Magnolias’' is a cliche, but Plum and company find the essential bonds that connect these women."

-Terry Byrne

“'Out of Sterno,' which strode the Gloucester stage last summer,  was helmed with just the right light hand by local diva and director Paula Plum. Plum, again mistress of ceremonies, likewise balances disparate elements in “The Last Schwartz,” which is less whimsical and more earthbound than 'Sterno.'

…But where 'The Last Schwartz' shines is not as philosophy or prophecy but as screwball clan comedy with a serious underlayment. And as such, it is done up to the Freudian, Feydeau-ian nines in Plum’s staging…

This may be 'The Last Schwartz,' but let’s hope it’s not the last we hear from the team of Laufer and Plum."

-Carolyn Clay

"The Actors’ Shakespeare Project production of the play, staged at the Multicultural Arts Center through May 8, is a delight. Expertly acted, and fluidly directed by Paula Plum like a series of ballroom dances that occasionally burst into breakdancing, this centuries-old material becomes a bracing crowd-pleaser.

Plum and her actors cram the piece with funny business, finding moments to ham it up without detracting from the forward momentum."

-Jeremy D. Goodwin

"Laufer’s comic fable ventures into some tricky tonal territory, requiring a guide who is in synch with the playwright’s intriguingly off-kilter sensibility. Director Paula Plum proves to be just that, skillfully helming a Gloucester Stage Company production of 'Out of Sterno' that delivers on the play’s farcical humor and its deeper resonance."

-Don Aucoin