Top Photo by Gene Pittman

(from 'Must Don't Whip 'Um' at The Walker, January 2007; left to right: Ben Holmes, Karen Waltuch, Cynthia Hopkins, Susan Oetgen, Jeff Sugg, and Jim Findlay; on screens: Aleta Claire Findlay; and behind on riser: Kristin Mueller, Josh Stark, and Philippa Thompson)

Middle & Bottom Photos by Paula Court

(from 'Must Don't Whip 'Um' at St. Ann's Warehouse, January 2007; middle photo: Jim Findlay and Cynthia Hopkins; bottom photo: Cynthia Hopkins)

Praise for the show Must Don't Whip 'Um:

Must Don't Whip 'Um is a triumph of disciplined thinking, narrative fluidity and musical accomplishment. Ms. Hopkins' voice is both so delicate and emotionally forceful - part Natalie Merchant, part Madeline Peryroux - that it leaves you wondering why she has ever bothered to do anything else but deploy it. But she has done much else, and at the heart of the production's magic is her soulful exploration of maternal abandonment, the conflicts an artist's life presents, and the solipsism of spiritual quest. All the rest is wonderful confetti. (The New York Times)

Hopkins tucks immensely personal material among the piece's many folds: It may be a sparklingly high-tech play about layers, but she can't resist stripping her own issues disarmingly bare... She blurs the edges of confession and performance, concert and play, memory and creation... Hopkins' ethereal, demanding, exuberant rock, well, rocks. Backed by her genre-spanning, elastic band Gloria Deluxe, Hopkins pulls off the impossible: She makes postmodernism danceable once again. (Time Out New York)

Must Don't Whip 'Um is a prequel of sorts to Hopkins' earlier piece Accidental Nostalgia, and it's a work that combines Hopkins' songs, her band Gloria Deluxe, video, monologues and dance into a largely winning meditation on sanity, memory and, in moments that approach the sublime, the veracity of reality itself. (Variety)

Praise for the show Accidental Nostalgia:

Accidental Nostalgia offers a perverse delight of incongruities - first and foremost, a narrative of childhood molestation delivered via stoical Power Point presentation and 'alt-country' songs that range in tone from pensive to nonchalant. (The Village Voice)

Praise for the album Accidental Nostalgia:

Sporting a haunting voice like Aimee Curl of ThaMuseMeant, Gloria Deluxe hones in on a smoky troubadour hiss with a carnival twist. Creeping from dark country noir to wasted, whiskey-toned folk complete with crying fiddle, supported by trombones sliding in for comment, Accidental Nostalgia leads you through sad and gorgeous little heartache songs. There are fluttering images of a deserted mining town set against a backdrop of golden rolling hills to the local dive bar with its wafting cigar smoke. Delightfully eccentric and quirky, this is an album that you won't soon forget. (CD Baby)

General praise for the band Gloria Deluxe:

For those who like their alt-country heavy on the theatricality, Gloria Deluxe is a welcome arrival... Hopkins looks innocently waiflike, but from her bee-stung lips pours gruesomely Gothic storytelling, wrapped in a weary, country twang with a raspy undertone. Imagine Lotte Lenya's kid sister shacking up in a cheap Atlanta hotel with Tom Waits and spending her time slumming with visionaries,addicts, and murderers. (Time Out New York)

Hopkins is that rare bird that can blend intelligence and sincerity in offering something that is completely new but also terribly familiar. (Bitch Magazine)

Part alt-country, part Lou Reed, part Patti Smith, part performance artist... (The Washington Post)