Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Joe Leonardo’s Marriott production is beautifully sung and performed. In the case of Summer Smart’s pitch-perfect turn as Clara, the young woman trying to reconcile romance and insecurity, it is exquisitely sung and performed. It is not, however, exquisitely directed. It is adequately directed, but when you have a Chicago cast of this dazzling caliber and material this sublime, that is enough."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...As with many complex works, "The Light in the Piazza" proves to be even more fulfilling on a second or third viewing. And Chicago-area audiences have had excellent opportunities to be exposed to this radiant and unconventionally romantic musical by composer/lyricist Adam Guettel ("Floyd Collins") and playwright Craig Lucas ("Prelude to a Kiss")."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"... The potential for melodrama is high, but Guettel's complex score manages to balance elegance with longing. Joe Leonardo's well-sung, in-the-round staging throbs with feeling, and boasts a beautiful performance from Mary Ernster, who conveys the reservoirs of regret and yearning beneath the mother's surface bustle."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Bridging Broadway and opera, The Light in the Piazza requires three leads who can belt and/or soar and it certainly has them in popular Chicago veteran Mary Ernster as Margaret, and in gifted young pros Summer Smart and Max Quinlan as Clara and Fabrizio. Ernster is a fine dramatic actor who also imparts a necessary wryness to Margaret, who serves as both narrator and participant in the action. Smart is radiant and petulant by turns, never acting down to her character's emotional age."
Copley News Service - Recommended
"...It’s a moving, if improbable, story that is largely told through a melodious, semi operatic score by Adam Guettel, abetted by Craig Lucas’s book. The songs won’t send the audience into the night humming, but they deftly explore the states of mind of both Margaret and Clara and permit the principle performers to sing brilliantly. Guettel definitely knows how to make singers sound good."
Centerstage - Recommended
"...Joe Leonardo's production stumbles in places, but the emotional tug is still there. Since it also has a few excellent performances and some genuinely thrilling musical moments, the show is a must for those who care about musicals. Ernster's Margaret is the center of the production, and she is magnetic. She believably shows both the humor and pain of a woman for whom managing, fixing and avoiding have become a way of life, and the painful process that just might let joy back in. Add in her luscious alto, and her songs become simply heartbreaking."
Edge - Highly Recommended
"...I would venture to say Adam Guettel’s sweeping, sophisticated score is one of the most unapologetically gorgeous works to come along since West Side Story. It’s full of rich, twisting harmonies that send chills up your spine. And, as much as people might say the music is "too complex," it’s extremely accessible - and this cast serves the material wonderfully."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...The production’s emphasis on Lucas’s pedestrian humor doesn’t jibe with Guettel’s expressive score. The book seems to revel in midcentury clichés of Americans abroad, and Leonardo goes for the xenophobic gusto and easy laughs at every chance. But the sweeping, operatic music is one of the most ambitious scores to hit the mainstream in the last two decades."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...The Light in the Piazza contains enough romance, European charm and a compelling story where love can overcome handicaps to render a worthy evening of theatre. The audience liked the show more than I did. I guess the arcane oblique lyrics were too much for me. Broadway musical lovers will either hate this show or love it."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...This is a small cast in numbers, but large in talent. Unlike most Marriott productions, this one has no big chorus dance numbers. Marriott is known for the big numbers filling the small stage with dancers. Just two romantic dancers who appear from the start and continue to appear until the end remind us that love is everywhere in Italy. Dancers Peyton Royal and Sasha Vargas (who also handled the choreography) add the special touch of romance that makes one feel that love is in the air."
