Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"... In the very best sections of this show, the central character and her daughter, both of whom love each other, come to realize that lives never end with all ends tied up, goodbyes said and periods placed. Spending time with loved ones, knowing not the hour of the final curtain, is the best and only finale for which most of us can hope."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Kaufman’s play is a bear of a work, bursting with ideas about the creative process, about the difference between the obsessive mind and the meandering mind, about illness and health, about friendship and love, about the interplay of past and present, about the vagaries of history, about ego and genius, about mothers and daughters, about the power of music, about the high-minded and the mediocre, about the nature of transfiguration."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"... Katherine's prickly relationship with her adult daughter is juxtaposed with the composer's turbulent friendships as Kaufman explores the fragility of life and the link between creativity and obsession. Nick Bowling's production for TimeLine Theatre features an ingenious multimedia design by Mike Tutaj, a first-rate supporting cast, and a brilliant performance by Janet Ulrich Brooks as Katherine."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"... Nick Bowling directs with his signature artistry and compassion, often juggling all seven actors and the past and present at once, allowing the play’s parallels to unfold as the plot thickens. Janet Ulrich Brooks’ Katherine is magnificent: articulate, driven and sometimes poignantly vulnerable, racing against time to complete her work before ALS ravages her body. Like Brooks, Jessie Fisher effortlessly creates a very natural and sympathetic Clara, and Terry Hamilton shines as Beethoven. But amidst all the drama, the real star of this play emerges through Beethoven’s piano music, expertly played center stage by master musician, George Lepauw."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...If Kaufman’s 2007 work feels a bit underwritten, Nick Bowling’s handsome production pulls out all the stops in filling it out, starting with Janet Ulrich Brooks’s nuanced, vanity-free portrayal of Katherine. Brooks captures every facet of the scholar’s hubris, frustration and fear, crafting an especially compelling relationship with Jessie Fisher’s equally complex Clara. Juliet Hart and Ian Paul Custer provide strong support as a fellow scholar and Clara’s suitor, respectively."
ShowBizChicago - Highly Recommended
"...The unexpected variation on life can be magical. Taking something basic then augmenting it where it becomes reborn is akin to a spiritual awakening. Pondering why Beethoven took what most would consider a mediocre waltz and spent the last years of his life obsessed with a commissioned assignment in making variations on that theme is, by itself, an intriguing storyline for a play. Add to that a current day Beethoven scholar who tries to find her own redemption in those same variations and you have the workings of a modern day masterpiece. That is just the case with Timeline Theater’s Chicago premiere of Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations, which was initially produced at the Arena Stage, then moved to Broadway with Jane Fonda making her first return to the New York stage in over 40 years. Under the direction of Nick Bowling, Timeline’s version is far superior to the Broadway outing in every way and, moreover, this is arguably the best production ever staged by Timeline."
Chicago On the Aisle - Recommended
"... Brooks’ performance is a knockout, with the sparest hint of Don Quixote in it. And her partner in this quest is the equally impressive Juliet Hart, as the über-spiky Bonn librarian Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger, whose acerbic practical assistance soon becomes guidance in matters other than musicological. (This librarian is hardly a Sancho Panza, although she does get in a few unforgettable sanchismos in one hilariously raunchy scene of comic relief.)"
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"... Credit director Nick Bowling with a sureness of touch that keeps the complex storytelling accessible and absorbing. The cast, in the usual TimeLine tradition, is flawless. Janet Ulrich Brooks is first among equals as Katherine Brandt, an academic relentless in her pursuit of the truth behind the variations who becomes a heartbreaking case history of a strong woman, her body destroyed by disease but not her spirit or dignity."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"... Janet Ulrich Brooks plays Katherina Brandt as the determined scholar with understated eloquence. Her depiction of the effects of ALS is honest and heart wrenching. Jessie Fisher plays the unfocused daughter nicely while Terry Hamilton presents Beethoven as a nasty, crude genius. Juliet Hart is winning as the German scholar. Matthew Krause was most effective as the secretary and companion to Beethoven. The entire cast nimbly moves through the work with nay a false note. This production has an unexpected emotional impact on audiences. Mike Tutaj’s impressive videos gave interesting background info to the piece. The tone is filled with hauntingly wonderful music and the atmosphere renders the human effects of frailty rendered mute by passion and obsession. You’d be hard pressed to find a finer ensemble than the dedicated talents that Nick Bowling has assembled for his triumphant production of 33 Variations. This is the first major hit of the new theatre season-don’t miss it."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"... Displaying an inspiration worthy of the variations, Nick Bowling orchestrates the results (employing fluid and supple projections by Mike Tutaj). George Lepauw, elegantly performing on a Steinway center stage (as the music deserves), illustrates them with supple excerpts scattered throughout this complicated confluence of past and present. Holding their own across the centuries, painfully human as they push their passions, Janet Ulrich Brooks as a crusading Dr. Brandt and Terry Hamilton as an equally intense Beethoven perfect embody their grand pursuits. Jessie Fisher brings poignance to the confused but caring daughter, with Ian Paul Custer suavely sympathetic as the male nurse who serves mother and daughter so very well."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...33 VARIATIONS is a powerful tale of a lifetime’s work. How much do you sacrifice for the anticipated outcome? And when do you say it’s finished? Is vanilla ever the right choice?"
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"...Like the best music, 33 Variations runs the gamut of emotions from frustration to glory, and leaves the listener deep in thought long after striking the final chord."
