Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...A handful of wooden crates and the wire-mesh walls of Patrick Iven's set, along with Iven's video displays capturing key 1990s historic and cultural moments, provide the back-alley backdrop for Rodriguez's sterling transformations. As we normalize relationships with Cuba, his portrayal of a middle-aged Cuban restaurateur in Phoenix who spent years in prison under Fidel Castro's oppression of gay people reminds us that notions of liberty and assimilation, as well as gender, are more complicated than we realize. Rodriguez's fluid and compassionate embodiment of these characters breaks down those complexities with wit and dollops of sorrow."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Under Sandra Marquez's fluid direction for Pride Films and Plays, these flawed, vivid characters are embodied by Nelson Rodriguez, a versatile and vocally deft performer who supplies the right mix of empathy and mischief. First performed in 1994, the play illustrates in its topical references how much has improved for gays and how little race relations have changed."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Whatever the documentary value of Reyes' time capsule in 2015, there is no denying the showcase it provides for the talents of company regular Nelson Rodriguez. Under the unhurried direction of Sandra Marquez and pinpoint-accurate dialect instruction of Sammi Grant, Rodriguez's impressive vocal range and body language conjure distinctive, vividly etched personalities that never spill into caricature. He does his own scene and costume changes, too, dance-choreographed to gay anthems of the period. How can you resist that?"
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...The play has aged well—the characters are often fey and flamboyant, but they aren’t stereotypes. Moments of pathos shine through. The show is slight—it thinks it has more to say than it actually does, but it’s very funny. And sadly, still quite timely."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Maybe Sandra Marquez chose to make this a more light-hearted production than it could have been, or Reyes preferred a campy aesthetic, but Rodriguez's comic talent makes his characters so likable, their struggles are all the more sympathetic. Though the specifics of most of the issues raised are dated, the spirit remains relevant. Reyes defines "His-panic breakdown" as transcultural shock, and finds amusement in taking the resulting absurdities to extremes. He doesn't directly advocate here for much in particular, but he does expose tensions and hypocrisies, including on the part of the United States in its foreign relations. Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown is a fun evening of theatre, and celebrates progress while pushing us on to the next struggles."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...As an assemblage of monologues from two decades ago, "Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown" succeeds in exploring the lives of gay Latinos before the current millennium, and yet it captures many of the current issues that confront us today. And, while it looks at some of the more negative sides of life, it somehow acts as a wonderful celebration, too. Which, it seems, is about as perfectly timed a production as one could hope for."
