Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...The House Theatre's riveting "Death and Harry Houdini," which opened Sunday night at the Chopin Theatre, ends with a detailed re-creation of that very trick, performed by Dennis Watkins, a local actor and magician with an obsessive interest in Houdini and a man who has closely studied his greatest illusions and learned how to do them in homage to the master. But Houdini did that trick mostly in big, proscenium theaters. Watkins does it in sufficiently close proximity that the front rows can feel the splashes."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...“Death and Harry Houdini” — which soars on Dennis Watkins’ brilliance as a genuine magician and fearless stuntman — could not be a more apt title for this work in which The Grim Reaper (on stilts) makes recurrent visits, and the coffin of Houdini’s father morphs into the classic “body sawed in half” illusion."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...The folks at the House Theatre of Chicago are celebrating their tenth anniversary by remounting their first show—and it makes for a helluva party. Playwright-director Nathan Allen skillfully juxtaposes the mundane and the fantastic in this portrait of Houdini's death-defying life and art, putting special emphasis on his relationship with his manipulative widowed mother and his sweet but put-upon wife, Bess."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...Harry Houdini loved exposing frauds and debunking the supernatural. Despite being the most famous magician in the world, the last thing he believed in was magic. But if he were to come down to Chopin Theatre and see the House Theatre’s production of “Death and Harry Houdini,” I think that he would believe in magic. He would believe because this show achieves a strange kind of alchemy between actor and part, story and song, director and designer, spectacle and heart that leaves its audience utterly spellbound."
Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended
"... Harry Houdini wanted to cheat death. He succeeded at this on several occasions but not even the greatest of all escape artists was ultimately able to pull off this supreme trick. That doesn’t mean however that he is not immortal and the House Theatre of Chicago’s Death and Harry Houdini is bona fide proof that the spirit of this master of illusion lives on. Don’t miss this spectacular production!
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The latest remount, with the budget bumped up by an order of magnitude, makes an ideal refresher course on the elements that excited the House’s early audiences: high energy and lack of artifice in a loose, buzzy blend of traditional storytelling, music and spectacle. In this iteration, Allen’s script begins with a ringmaster (Johnny Arena) explicating the circumstances of Houdini’s early life before the man himself (Dennis Watkins) enters the space—hanging upside down from a winch in a straitjacket, from which he proceeds to extricate himself."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...With all its eye- and ear-catching special effects, the show still rides triumphantly on its intimacy. The audience sits in two sections facing each other. The performers are frequently within touching distance of the actor and a couple of patrons are selected from the audience to verify that the padlocks used in the Water Torture escape are legitimate. Death and Harry Houdini is not a David Copperfield extravaganza, but that can set you back at least $110. In this intimate setting, magic lovers get a very large bang for their buck."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"... Houdini’s death was random and ignoble for such a monument of a man. A blow to the stomach as a demonstration ofcore strengthruptured his appendix, leading to peritonitis. The real Houdini debunkedspiritualists who said there was a life after death,buthad a special code he would give Bess in a séance just in case. Magicians still gather around theworld to try and communicate with Houdini in the afterlife (such was the power of his legacy). As imagined by Allen, Houdini promisesDeath if there is a way to escape the afterlife, he will find the way out. Exiting Death and Harry Houdini, it’s easy to imagine if anyone could, he would."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...Playwright and director Nathan Allen anchors his biographical tribute around Houdini’s arrogance and determination to cheat death. The premise is a fascinating notion. Allen uses a vaudeville style showcase to chronicle Houdini’s life and tricks. The story is told with music, dancing, comedy and of course... magic! Dennis Watkins is Houdini! Sorcery aside, I’m impressed with Watkins‘ physicality. This isn’t a two bit magic show just about card tricks."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"... *Magic is in the air in the Chicago theater community! And the magician of the hour is none other than Harry Houdini ( now on two area stages), the greatest escape artists of our time! The House Theatre is celebrating their 10th year of operation with a revival of the very first production they presented, “Death and Harry Houdini, in a new venue with a retooled, re-imagined edition of the story of how Houdini found the love of the tricks he did as well as started creating the illusions and the escapes that made him famous. Written and directed by Nathan Allen with some fine choreography by Tommy Rapley and some original music by Kevin O’Donnell, this show could not be the show that it is without the key ingredint,Dennis Watkins, a talented actor with a winning personality and the ability to make the magic that makes this experience a magical one for the audience as well."
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"... Nathan Allen, Artistic Director at the House Theatre of Chicago, continues the 10th year anniversary season with a remount of its inaugural production, Death and Harry Houdini. This is no slapdash production; every aspect of the show has been well thought out and prepared, from the visually striking set that make ingenious use of the limited space available, to the musically and theatrically talented marching band, to the magic tricks that leave the audience gasping."
