Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...In the great Beckettian tradition of these things, "Music Hall" is very meta. It is about an actress, played by Binder (previous productions have cast a female in this role), who is on some kind of ungodly, depressing tour of the provinces with a couple of fellow performers, acolytes and foils (Doonan and Hill). It is one of the theater's great paradoxes, of course, that success means being trapped in a role for a long period, whereas to be released from such nightly purgatory represents failure."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...This continual, skewed repetition contributes to the thing I find most fascinating about Music Hall: the sense that the Artiste's life itself is undergoing the same process of crack-up and recombination, but in the opposite direction—further and further from clarity. It's like generation loss in IT, the idea that data gets more chaotic as it's copied. Each chorus boy is a paler version of the husband, each dance number a weaker variant on its predecessor, every gig a step away from love."
Gapers Block - Recommended
"...Wain Parham's music direction and Christian Gero's sound design create a moving musical rhythm to the performance. Josh Schmidt was music consultant. Natasha Djukic designed costumes and set and Keith Parham is responsible for lighting."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Staged by Zeljko Djukic on an unadorned dance-studio style set, and making nice use of its mirrored walls, Lagarce's tale of three pities plays a sometimes mystifying but quite charming tune-a paean, one suspects, to those compulsive performers for whom the show must always go on-devil may care."
Theatre By Numbers - Highly Recommended
"...I cannot recommend this show enough. It's unlike anything else playing in Chicago - so distinctly European (the playwright was French): a combination of language, movement, dance, song and music that forms a memory-moment told from multiple perspectives. It's funny, charming, sad, and thought-provoking all at once. Spend the time and experience a truly remarkable show."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Besides the riveting dramatic acting, Music Hall provides us with a few of the Artiste’s variety acts. She and her Boys do some amusing dancing to Aileen McGroddy’s choreography, and their singing and Doonan’s harmonica provide a folksy underscore to their memories. Binder is as graceful as ever doing a fan dance, and at one point there is a surprising genre-crossing musical remix. In the short time the show runs, it creates an emotional state that is melancholy, but not without humor. TUTA did a Lagarce play years ago, but for many this will likely be their first opportunity to see the playwright’s work. Don’t miss it. If these characters finally get the recognition they deserve, we may hope to see many more fine examples of this slightly unusual but deeply compelling theatre."
