Side Man at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre

Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended

"...Over the past few years, the theater community has seen a vast improvement in the quality of the offerings by the staff of The Metropolis, so I thank the board and the administration for learning what the public wants and then bringing it to their stage. This is a story about love, hope and growing up to fast and this production carries it off well. While many of you may not have a reason to go to Arlington Height other than the rare trip to the race track, I suggest you take the drive and take in a show that will take your breath away."

Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended

"...Little actual music features in this bittersweet play about musicians, though one moving scene, in Act II, sums up the jazzmen’s lives. Gene, Ziggy and Al have — to their disgust — been reduced to playing with Lester Lanin’s orchestra, a society band whose audiences "couldn’t’ swing if you hung them." As they’re packing up after their performance, Al brings out a rare recording, the final trumpet solo of the great Clifford Brown, for whom Clifford was named, and the three stop everything to listen, rapt, to the soulful notes."