Daily Herald - Recommended
"...The most striking thing about "Nelson Algren: For Keeps and a Single Day," Lookingglass Theatre's artful and absorbing multimedia homage to Chicago's not-quite-native son but one of its most compelling chroniclers, is the way it sounds."
SouthtownStar - Not Recommended
"...The show presents an ugly view of the city from the perspective of Algren (1909-1981), a Chicago novelist and short story writer. But there is little that is entertaining, edifying or thought-provoking. Indeed, at only 75 minutes, the continuous stream of pretentious, pompous sentences of little dramatic import soon puts one into the snore zone."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Lookingglass Theatre Company gets a lot of attention for its eye-popping approach to epic literature, but there's also a stripped-down side to the company, which comes through well in director John Musial's deft 2001 portrait of iconic Chicago writer Nelson Algren."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...The third major component to For Keeps and a Single Day—and on equally important as the orchestration and almost a crucial as the words—is Musial's videography. It's a silvery collage of narrative featurettes and atmospherics, a dreamlike, uncannily accurate portrait of the city from the coast to the interior and back again."
Chicago Free Press - Highly Recommended
"...Director John Musial, who has directed various versions of this piece over the past nine years, expertly balances Algren’s work. From the show’s beginning chorale hosanna to Chicago’s nightlife to its end, which finds an embittered, broken Algren leaving his home for New York state, Musial works with a snappy veracity."
Gay Chicago Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...This is an intimately melancholy, charmingly funny and uncompromisingly honest interpretation of Chicago’s literary legacy from Algren. Between gentrification and the citywide beautification and clean-ups to improve our chances of hosting international events, it is perhaps a little harder to spot the “nobodies nobody knows” that inhabit his gritty urban revelation. The hustlers, junkies and thugs are more and more tucked away, but the corrupt politicians are as bold and obvious as ever, making Nelson Algren’s writing as timelessly pertinent as it is exquisite."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...A rangy alley cat in rolled shirt sleeves, Cox takes on the poetry with such seeming plainness that he’s an hour in before you even begin to notice the concentrated technique and deliberate cadence he brings to recited verse. He strips already lean stanzas down to their bones and rattles them precisely to Algren’s pounding-typewriter rhythm. And the musicianship of O’Donnell and Lovecchio is equal to David Pavkovic’s moody score."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...Thomas J. Cox was marvelous as a presenter of Algren’s work. He personalizes the work as he connects the audience to Algren’s ode to Chicago. I believe fans of both Nelson Algren and multimedia performance art will enjoy this work better than I did."
