Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...West’s show sits uneasily with “The Comedy of Errors.” That’s basically because all we need here are short excerpts from the Shakespeare—a la “Kiss Me Kate”—and not more than half the original play. If that former path had been taken, and somebody wrote a score to go with it, or put in some wartime standards, Chicago Shakes might really have something here. Really."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...For this time around the Bard must share significant authorial credit with Ron West, a veteran writer-director at the Second City. And frankly, while Shakespeare (whose twice-scrambled identity farce has never been one of my favorites) is fairly well eviscerated here, West comes off sounding pretty clever. It doesn't hurt, of course, that he's injected some Swing Era songs into the mix. (In fact, I wish there had been more of them, and a whole lot less screaming, shouting and slapstick.)"
SouthtownStar - Highly Recommended
"...The production, with additional writing by Ron West, a Second City writer, has been stylized for modern audiences with so much laugh-a-minute hilarity that I had to double check my playbill to assure myself that Barbara Gaines had indeed directed it."
The Wall Street Journal - Highly Recommended
"...The slapstick alone is worth the ticket - I've never seen a crazier food fight- and the performances are uniformly outstanding, with Kevin Gudahl earning top honors as the flamboyant Lord Brian Hallifax, who waltzes into the studio expecting to play Antipholus of Epheses, then finds out that he's been cast as one of the clowns instead."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Next to her own wild but always well grounded directing, Gaines's most significant contribution is the great collaborators she's assembled. West's script is witty fun, as are Ana Kuzmanic's costumes; the cast is smart, resourceful, energetic, and much sexier than it strictly has to be. And as the movie's director, veteran comic actor Ross Lehman continues a late flowering that's become one of the most stunning and delightful stories in Chicago theater."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Beneath the copious hi-jinks of the play-within and the play-without lies the comforting prospect of a diverse band of citizens—did I mention the flatulence-humor clown act that somehow ends up in the show?—triumphing over social disorder. Their up-and-at-em spirit is reflected in the performances of an all-star cast ( even the small roles filled by A-list players ) assembled for this Chicago Shakespeare Theatre production. Coming at the beginning of the tourist season, this lively take-off on a classic has all the potential to become an extended summer hit."
Chicago Free Press - Somewhat Recommended
"...Though the frame adds little and subtracts much from “Comedy,” it is awesomely authentic. Its ingratiating and elaborate studio story certainly pushes the message that bombs, rockets or showbiz egos notwithstanding, 'The film must go on.' What doesn’t come through, unfortunately, is the idea that 'The play’s the thing.'"
Gay Chicago Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...Mixing new characters with Shakespeare’s lot isn’t a new idea. It just actually works here; so well, in fact, that the work becomes brand new. Therein, as our friend has said, lies the rub. Truly, this is a fresh, new play that only has roots in the original. Why not present it as such, giving credit and expectation where it is due? Well, no matter. Keep on rolling, Mr. West. We’re right here, shamefully clothed but giggling like crazy, with you."
EpochTimes - Highly Recommended
"...Navy Pier is a destination for visitors to Chicago as well as our own suburban neighbors, and is known as an amusement center as well as home to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Well, right now, with its latest production of William Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" this theater has become an amusement center itself. From the very start of this marvelous production staged by Artistic Director Barbara Gaines, the entire theater is filled with laughter, almost three hours of continuous laughter and the audience didn't want it to be over."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"...Gaines has assembled a blue ribbon cast of CST regulars enhanced by old pros on the Chicagoland theater scene. First among equals are Ross Lehman and Kevin Gudahl. Lehman is this area’s premiere clown and he excels both as one of the Dromios and even more as the movie’s bitchy director."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...while we watch it play out, our right brain drowns out our left: Who can take issue with the realism of any version of a play in which two sets of separated twins are given the same names? This production is such a lark that our questions are mostly forgotten along the way. The performances are terrifically detailed, all the way from Lehman’s two-faced work as both the droll director and one of the confused slaves, to Kane and Krill’s dueling fops, to background Easter eggs like the off-camera flirtation of Angela Ingersoll and Dan Sanders-Joyce."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...The cast of 19 left it all out on stage as the sheer energy, spot-on timing and physicality garnered many belly laughs. Ron West and Barbara Gaines enhanced Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors in this pleasing production."
