Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Victory Gardens artistic director Dennis Zacek had the sense to hire playwright Claudia Allen to do the adaptation. Allen loves sentimental small-town stories and writes accessible comedy. But some of her solo plays have lacked narrative complexity. Here, Dybek's source material gives Allen both the frame she needs and a touch of the sour to leaven her proclivities for the sweet. In return, Allen reigns in Dybek's tendency to go off on whimsical tangents, centering her piece on a core family, and rendering the whole thing as clear, unpretentious theater."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Mike Tutaj's richly evocative projections and Jeff Bauer's lean set neatly showcase the pluses of Victory Gardens' new home. And though less poetic than Dybek's book, this "Magellan" easily suggests how the raw material for a lifetime of writing is indelibly etched in the experiences of youth and adolescence."
SouthtownStar - Recommended
"...It is a poignant coming-of-age play that has many heartfelt scenes, but also has many funny moments, beautifully captured by Sandy Shinner's impeccable direction."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Allen's script is remarkably sure-handed and often riotously funny, providing an elegy for a working-class, pre-Starbucks cityscape (well reflected by Jeff Bauer's clever multilevel set). Dispensing with narration, the episodic script cuts back and forth between the 1950s and '60s in Little Village as young Perry Katzek grows up with a penny-pinching father (played to perfection by Marc Grapey) and a sad-eyed wastrel musician uncle (an affecting Lance Baker) damaged by the Korean war."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Absorbing this sprawling collage of richly-detailed images in one sitting is no easy task, especially when its 50 or more roles are played by an ensemble of only nine actors, making for moments on opening night lost to necessary reorientation. But from the melange of affectionate and embittered memories, a number of linear narratives surface to etch themselves indelibly into our consciousness."
Chicago Free Press - Somewhat Recommended
"...Victory Gardens has fun with its new staging capabilities and Jeff Bauer’s innovative set, combined with Mike Tutaj’s projection design, and Andre Pluess’s sound design all help establish a strong sense location and era. Yet simply opening a window into another period isn’t enough. It would help if what we saw looking in had more heft and heart."
EpochTimes - Somewhat Recommended
"...While there are some wonderful characters in this play (many of the actors play several roles), I found the story lacking in a true story and the scenes very disjointed. Flashbacks seldom work in live theater and in this case we go back and forth so often it is hard to keep with the action."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Writing about writing is always a tough sell (Magellan’s central concern is a young scribe coming of age in a working-class household), and that proves true here as well. But in demonstrating how an environment shapes a writer, this show is all aces."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...Claudia Allen and director Sandy Shinner have aptly put a face on Dybek’s novel. The cast offers excellent performances. Lane Baker, Marc Grapey and Bubba Weiler with Justin Cholewa (as teen Perry) anchor the fine ensemble. I only wish the story was more concise and dramatically structured."
