Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather presented by Commedia Beauregard at The Greenhouse Theater Center

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...There's one bit in David Mann's Shakespeare-style retelling of The Godfather that opens a bright, hilarious window on what the rest of the play could've been like. The Corleone brothers are plotting the murder of drug boss Sollozzo and his police muscle, McCluskey (the revolver-behind-the-toilet scene in the classic 1972 movie by Francis Ford Coppola). In Mann's version, the Corleones spitball techniques made famous by the Bard—an asp, a poisoned pearl in the wine. "Use not ear poison," somebody advises. It's pure farce, and brilliant. But as directed by Christopher Kidder for Commedia Beauregard, the rest of the show falls flat."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...Despite the inevitable tendency of spectators to giggle at familiar references, whether Shakespeare or Hollywood, it is a mistake to dismiss the purpose of this literary experiment as simple spoofery. The goal of the Commedia Beauregard aesthetic, in its forging of cultural community, represents an attempt to bridge the isolation that divides societies today as surely as in 1946 Italy—or 1646 England. What's funny about that?"

Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended

"... "Godfather" fans will value the faithful depiction to the original film script, no mean feat when adapting a nearly three-hour movie for the stage. Though many of the deaths occur just behind the curtain, the practice seems more a theatrical device than an inability, say, to make Apollonia's car blow up before our eyes. A judicious use of memorable refrains from the film score had a synergistic effect. Shakespeare once advocated, "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts...Think when we talk of horses that you see them." This power of memory helped me see the play with the added force of the film. Sword wielding thugs in suits and fedoras seemed not only natural but fitting."