Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Regular attendees of this typically low-budget theater will be blown away by the size and quality of the cast, the presence of a full band and the production values. Better yet, they'll be impressed by Gary Powell's musical direction and director David Zak's staging, which manages to surround the audience with a musical attack on all that Springer represents. Thus we are indicted for his popularity, which surely is what the authors would have wanted for a production in Springer's hometown."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...The production, with a cast of 29, is a monumental undertaking for Bailiwick, and it is sensational in every sense of that word. Director David Zak, in collaboration with music director Gary Powell and choreographer Brenda Didier (who has a special gift for making non-dancers look terrific, and for endowing Broadway cliches with comic freshness), has found actors with formidable vocal gifts."
Daily Herald - Recommended
"...Thomas and Lee touch upon exploitation television and TV’s moral obligation to its viewers, but they don’t dwell on it. After all the gloriously outrageous “Jerry Springer — The Opera” isn’t about moralizing, it’s about entertaining the masses, something it does brilliantly."
SouthtownStar - Recommended
"...Well directed by David Zak, it features a chorus line of white-sheeted Ku Klux Klan members high-kicking across the stage, reminiscent of Mel Brooks' "Springtime for Hitler" in "The Producers." And there is a reference to the time Springer got caught paying a prostitute for sex with a check."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...True to the show that inspired it, Jerry Springer -- The Opera is sacrilegious, crude, and obscene. It's also thought provoking, often hilarious, and beautifully performed here by a young, talented 29-member ensemble under the guidance of director David Zak, choreographer Brenda Didier, and musical director Gary Powell. This show is certainly not for everyone, but its bold, entertaining take on a vulgar cultural phenomenon attains a high level of artistry."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Jerry Springer—The Opera is a tumultuous, musically difficult bear of a show melding musical theater with blasphemous satirical pageantry. Director David Zaks, musical director Gary Powell and choreographer Brenda Didier have tamed the bear and made it sing and dance a fine tune."
Chicago Free Press - Highly Recommended
"...It’s impossible to over-praise the hard work that’s poured into every vibrant minute of this two-hour triumph. Terrific as the leads are (especially Jeremy Rill’s needy Satan and Jeffrey A. Bouthiette’s baby-faced Jesus), the glory goes to the juiced-up, captivatingly committed chorus: Their crowd caricatures, diabolical dancing, ravishing singing, rapid-fire costume changes and “bread and circus” bravado reconfirm Chicago energy as much as any garbage-collecting in the NBC Building."
Gay Chicago Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...Considering the myriad of exemplary performances within the show, it is important to note that the biggest stars of the production are not the actors but instead rest with the production team itself: Specifically, director David Zak, gifted musical director Gary Powell, stage manager Deanna Cox, lighting designer Jared Moore, set designer Ryan Trump and projection designer Mike Tutaj."
EpochTimes - Highly Recommended
"...Don't let the title of Bailiwick Repertory's latest production fool you! Yes the title is "Jerry Springer- The Opera", but this sparkling production is just plain FUN ( with a capital everything). From what I have heard, no theater in Chicago wanted to be the host for the American Premiere of this London hit, but David Zak, Artistic Director of Bailiwick has no fears and if he is sold on a show, he does it! And from what I saw, this is a show that could be an open run so that everyone in Chicago gets an opportunity to laugh their A** off!"
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Zak has coached his cast past the point of shamelessness (which is where it could comfortably rest) to a place of blithe confidence with the outrageous material. Even when in slightly over their heads with the buttressed score or putrid scenarios, they march proudly through. Ryan Lanning’s unaffectedly foxy transvestite and Jennifer T. Grubbs’s spank-happy but sorrowful Baby Jane are just two of the standouts in this committed clan."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...No one can mount a large scale non-Equity musical with a small budget and still get a terrific production better than David Zak and his company at Bailiwick Repertory. Their latest success is the 29 member cast pop cultural musical: Jerry Springer – The Opera. It is a master work combining the highest forms of art and the lowest forms of cultural—opera and day time television. The result is a hilarious, raunchy opera that his a high energy, well sung spoof of Jerry Springer, TV and our penchant for low life characters."