How To Be A Rock Critic at Steppenwolf Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...There are very few bio-dramas of arts critics and the challenges are obvious; they're much the same as the challenges facing solo shows about any writers known for expressions on paper. At this early juncture, "How to Be a Rock Critic" doesn't deeply lean into Bangs' remarkable prose as it must, nor does it sufficiently make the case for his cultural centrality, nor even his abilities to harness the prescient. As fun as his presence surely can be, Jensen also struggles to find the right balance between a character whose enthusiasm and analytical power are unbowed and a excessive-compulsive-neurotic who is about to suffer the same fate as many of those about whom he wrote. The emotional crises in this jumpy show do not feel earned. Not yet, anyway. It all needs more shape."

Chicago Reader - Recommended

"...The highlight of How to Be a Rock Critic is Jensen's performance-he conveys all the vulnerability and enthusiasm that infuse Bangs's words by way of a caterwauling delivery and expressive gesturing, though his sloppy costume and obvious wig feel more like an insult than an homage. But even his acting can't overcome the play's flawed conception. The beauty of Bangs's writing is its messiness-the musings, tangents, anecdotes, and epigrams that somehow end up addressing the main point of his essay, and the way all this ephemera congeals into a coherent body of work."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...Jensen inhabits Bangs’s alternately frenzied and frazzled persona as he struggles through writer’s block on some unnamed review, recounting bits of his personal history (a troubled childhood with a Jehovah’s Witness mom) and playing snippets of favorite albums—Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, the subject of one of Bangs’s best-known reviews, plays a significant role. While Jensen’s embodiment of Bangs’s shaggy mien is ingratiating, Jensen and Blank’s narrative is more shaggy-dog: an overlong collection of anecdotes and digressions that, while entertaining, ultimately doesn’t offer much insight into the urge to spread one’s opinions."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...Amidst a sea of beer cans, pill bottles, vodka bottles, cough syrup flasks and record albums, Erik Jensen becomes Lester Bangs, the iconic, profane, rapturous lover of rock and roll music (and hater of anything sappy or sentimental). The sensational new production of How to Be a Rock Critic (Based on the Writings of Lester Bangs) at Steppenwolf Theatre is directed by Jensen's collaborator and wife, Jessica Blank. Jensen and Blank co-authored the script."