Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...There are some exceptionally stimulating performances, including K. Todd Freeman’s rich Caliban and Lois Smith’s resonant Gonzalo. Craig Spidle’s Alonso has much complexity. And Hill’s performance is bravura. Some of the poetry gets original musical scoring from Josh Schmidt that is quite gorgeous (and, thanks to Hill, it is beautifully sung)."
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Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...Great gifts are worth waiting for. True, it has taken Steppenwolf Theatre a full generation (31 years) to gather its courage for an encounter with Shakespeare. But its production of "The Tempest" -- breathtakingly imagined by director Tina Landau, hypnotically performed by her remarkable cast and magically interpreted by her team of designers -- is a wholly wondrous achievement. It illuminates the play on every level and is bound to live on in the memories of all those lucky enough to see it for years to come."
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Examiner - Highly Recommended

"...Leading the ensemble is Tony Award-winning director Frank Galati as Prospero, returning to the stage as an actor for the first time in nearly a decade.With a shock wild white hair and a girth that’s more substantial than heavy, Galati has a presence steeped in gravitas and understated power that suits a wizard who can make the winds roar with a slight toss of the head and beguile people into trances with a flick of the finger."
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NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...This is a production overstuffed with spirits that perform aerial tricks on ropes (why?), a field of larger-than-life poppies that descend from the sky (why?) and a ridiculous array of pink and purple-hued suits (why?). More to the point, why is Steppenwolf doing this play? I’m afraid this production doesn’t even come close to answering that question."
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Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Director Tina Landau's framing devices encompass a wealth of special effects: IMAX-sized video projections, Magritte forests of flowers, actors flying on slide-of-life wires off balconies and boxes, exposed catwalks, trapdoors, winches and turntables on a constructivist set where the house lights burn as bright as those onstage for much of the action. But none of these gimcracks would hold our attention for more than an instant if they were not folded seamlessly into a fluid panorama of multisensory motifs that zip along like a waltzing roller-coaster, sweeping us—most comfortably—along with it for a vigorous two and a half hours while remaining firmly anchored in its text's intellectual integrity."
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Chicago Free Press - Somewhat Recommended

"...The sound and fury come through intact. But the uneven acting styles and strengths of this supposed ensemble serve the verse less dramatically and sometimes the poetry not at all. It’s one more attack of the “all dressed up and nowhere to go” phenomenon. Best of this breed—to no one’s surprise—Frank Galati’s magisterial Prospero brings purpose to the pageant, though he telegraphs the forgiveness well before its dramatic delivery."
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EpochTimes - Highly Recommended

"...Chicago is known for its love of Shakespeare and his works. Steppenwolf Theatre has put on stage a brilliant production of Shakespeare's last work , "The Tempest", a marvelous tale of Prospero ( an enchanting performance by Frank Galati) who has been exiled to an enchanted island by his brother. On this island he is able to master the powers of the spirits he controls awaiting the opportunity to get his revenge upon those who banished him from his former life of royalty."

Copley News Service - Highly Recommended

"...Tina Landau is the true hero of the event, coming up with endlessly inventive and revealing dramatic and comic touches. The ensemble clearly bought into her guidance and the result is a staging that is illuminating as well as entertaining."

Centerstage - Highly Recommended

"...Rarely is Shakespeare done so well that it feels both timely and timeless, but this production manages both – due in part to Landau's refusal to ground the story in a definitive time period. The Steppenwolf is centering its season around the concept of the imagination, and this one definitely caught mine."
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Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended

"...Tina Landau’s production of The Tempest is intentionally, wonderfully paradoxical: it is Spartan and it is lavish, it is brawny and it is lyrical, it is traditional and it is experimental. It is a spectacular, lucid Tempest for the twenty-first century."
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Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...Landau’s production is visually ambitious, if not terribly cohesive. Scenic designer Takeshi Kata strips the stage to bare walls; in this blank space, he deploys an ever-moving array of sheets and masts that suggest the nautical world while serving as canvases for Stephan Mazurek’s bizarrely inconsistent projections. His choices range from subtle and gorgeous, as with the simulated rush of water that accompanies Miranda’s first encounter with Ferdinand, to a jarring sequence illustrating Ariel’s recounting of the shipwreck that unaccountably recalls the video-art aesthetic of the 1980s."
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ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended

"...The Tempest moved from terrific spectacle and funny moments to slowly paced and mumbled speech. The show needed more experienced Shakespearian actors and smaller scale staging. Galati’s performance alone makes this Tempest worth seeing."
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Chicago Stage Standard - Highly Recommended

"...In its inaugural venture into the cannon of playwright William Shakespeare, Steppenwolf's "The Tempest" not only places itself on par with the best Bard that Chicago theater companies have to offer, but eclipses recent staged Shakespearean efforts by opening a whole new door. This quantum wormhole into the world of Shakespeare's classic tale envisions the story with beguiling imagination and something seldom accomplished. That is, a purely redemptive emotional connection."