Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...With the redoubtable Mike Nussbaum installed as Gaines' wry storyteller, everything clips along not only quickly but in directorial directions one does not anticipate. There are nods to the long production history of this play as a spectacle - Anne's coronation, thanks to some jaw-dropping scenic shifts, places her literally and uneasily on a pedestal. There is much sexiness, thanks in no small part to Verheyen's hot costumes, lush original music from Lindsay Jones, and even a weird, hellish, dumpsterlike thingy into which Wolsey (and Buckingham) are dispatched, along with Catholicism. But at the end, baby Princess Liz is represented by a doll-like puppet with a moving arm and, I swear, a little patch of red hair peeping out. This was either the dumbest prop ever, or, I prefer to think, a savvy little joke designed to rescue Shakespeare from expediency and point out that the women whose lives his Henry really controlled did not enjoy such florid verbosity and fake admiration. Well, not for long."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Surprisingly, we are far less familiar with Shakespeare's portrait of the man. Director Barbara Gaines' altogether stunning production of "Henry VIII" for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater - a Chicago premiere that has arrived here exactly 400 years after the play was first staged at London's Globe Theatre - changes all that. It is a true revelation."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Surrounded by the muscular performances of Chicago's foremost character actors-Scott Jaeck as the scheming Wolsey; Ora Jones as the matronly Katherine; the trio of Mike Nussbaum, David Lively and Nathan M. Hosner as a classical-tragedy chorus of lords-Gregory Wooddell's Henry comes off as a slackerly stripling who parrots his elders while thinking with his, um, Richard the Third. Ultimately, our sympathies are reserved, not for the potentate striving to retain the family property, but for the hapless subordinates whose fortunes are tied to so mercurial a seeker."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...The always compelling Jones wields an incomparable and righteous sneer as Katherine, who seems to mock her accusers when she identifies herself as a "simple woman" who refuses to be usurped by some little pisher who catches her husband's eye. Gaines's visually modest production-scenic designer James Noone mostly relies on conservative but occasionally enchanting draperies-preserves history as the focal point, largely unadorned with the kind of anachronistic commentary present in this season's Julius Caesar. The Tudors, it seems, have little difficulty speaking for themselves."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...“Henry VIII,” as it is now being done at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, with some roles combined and compressed, makes a good case not only for the play, but also for substantial Shakespearean authorship. Henry’s a fast learner; Katherine’s splendidly regal; Wolsey’s an outrageous villain and Shakespeare’s poetry is amazing no matter which character he serves."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...With a wizard Chicago cast, the history play gains immensely from Mike Nussbaum's curmudgeonly narrator, Andrew Long's doomed bravery as the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham, Lance Baker's predatory Bishop of Winchester, David Darlow's sardonic Cardinal Campeius, and stalwart Andrew Long as the righteous Archbishop of Canterbury. As much as a 16th century spectacle, it's a virtual inventory of the finest Chicago actors circa the spring of 2013."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Thus as full to the brim with sex and political intrigue as anything one may find in Wolf Hall or Bringing Up the Bodies, Chicago Shakespeare's ravishing new production of Henry VIII is nothing less than a regal triumph."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...Henry VIII is one of Shakespeare's most undervalued works. Its counterparts such as Macbeth and Julius Caesar end in passionate outbursts where everyone is quickly killed off in one epic flourish of violence and desire, delving deep into the imperfections of humanity with aspects of character that everyone can comprehend. This work, on the other hand, approaches its themes in other ways. It uses a medium we are all familiar with, the time of the Tudors, and uses a seemingly anticlimactic story of how Henry quickly moved from wife to the other. This piece was very contemporary for its time because it wasn't something made up, or fictional, and it isn't full of adventure. Shakespeare was taking a risk by using such a familiar story because he it could easily be taken the wrong way. He uses power hitters such as Wolsey to investigate the phenomena of lust, corruption, and betrayal."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...HENRY VIII is ongoing moments of pomp and circumstance. Although each extravaganza tries to outdo the last one, I'm certain the coronation has them all beat. The Ta-Da scenes continually finish like this-is-it. Regularly, we believe we've reached the play's conclusion. Then, we are surprised to see actors back on stage. So much so, when the show finally concludes after a few false endings, the audience hesitates to applaud. When we finally understand the show is over, we applaud heartily. The trip back in time has been an elegant, enthralling, erotic and sometimes erroneous history lesson."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...If one were to look at Chicago Shakespeare Theater as a stable where horses are prepared for championships, one would have to say that Artistic Director Barbara Gaines is by far the best breeder in the world, and each play she directs is pure thoroughbred ( Triple Crown Winners to use racing terms). She also, with her great understanding of the works of Shakespeare, finds the exact right actors to portray the characters in his plays. She is the master and all her players make taking the trip to Navy Pier a special event. The current production "Henry VIII" is indeed a masterpiece from start to finish and it is by far the "shortest" 2 1/2 hours of theater that I have spent in quite some time."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Director Barbara Gaines has injected some of her own ideas into the play and they all work. She has omitted a few minor characters and changed Catherine's dream scene late in the story into an erotic reunion with her now alienated husband. The play traditionally relies heavily on pageantry, which is lush to look at but slows down the action and can create considerable budgetary problems. Gaines foregoes the pageantry and interpolates several brief dance bits (choreographed by Harrison McEldowney) that illuminate emotional and narrative points along the way."