My son has an overgrown Russelia equisetum and he wants to know if it could be cut back. Frankly I never encountered this as the charm is in its weeping habit. What do you think? I was going to tell him it will look ugly but should come back.

Hi Alice! I hope you are feeling better.
I have cut mine back, but selectively. I cut the dead stems off. I agree that the beauty of it is the weeping habit. But it can be aggressive here in Florida and have shoots that root to start new plants. I take out the new start ups and trim back any stems that are cutting off light from the surrounding plants. But I leave most of the flowering stalks.
Does he want to cut it all off? It will look ugly and will probably come back, but if he doesn't like the weeping habit maybe he should just pull it out and plant something else.
I love how they look and just trim mine about 2x a year.

Thanks, that is what I thought. It is apparently growing in a small bed beside a narrow walk and it is growing over the walk. I told him it will be too ugly if he cuts it back and it would be better to rip it out or transplant it where it can grow.

This plant has a great collection of pics in the DB:
Firecracker Plant (Russelia equisetiformis)

FWIW, I put some of this in the ground last year and it got zapped above-ground but did grow back. So I don't think cutting one that is vigorously growing would cause any harm, but, as said, it will soon be back to looking how it does now.