Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...At times, like when the subjects of prayer, sin, and the Rapture come up, it risks becoming a play of ideas, with more speechifying than conversation. Fortunately, Geoffrey Nauffts's script leaves room for ambiguity and gives the characters personalities as well as points of view. The cast give them life and humor-particularly Ryan Hamlin and Mark Jacob Chaitin, who play Adam and Luke, and Lona Livingston and Jim Morley, who play Luke's parents. The result is charming, funny, and, ultimately, moving."
Centerstage
- Recommended
"...Bertelsen's economically-staged, beautifully-paced drama is not without humor and there are no pat answers. What hits home are six flesh-and-blood characters who generate new debates about some age-old issues."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Nauffts's non-chronological structure drops us in on the pair during different milestones of their relationship, but Derek Bertelson's AstonRep production feels stuck in its "meet cute" phase. We're informed, bluntly, of the progressing courtship via transitional video packages, but that doesn't save huge, core latter-day arguments from feeling like minor spats."
ShowBizChicago
- Recommended
"...Well, there is the rub. The actors save this show and at times, make it fly. Mr. Chaitin and Mr. Hamlin are both sensational in their roles as Luke and Adam. Not once do you ever question their sincerity, truth and passion for one another. By the time the end comes around, you cannot help but be moved by their journey. Jim Morley is perfectly cast as Luke's father who has a wonderful "Next To Normal" moment in the final scene, as does Lona Livingston as Luke's former pill popping mother, who (as Mothers are), is silently all knowing of her son's lifestyle. Aja Wiltshire's Holly keeps the friendships together and provides great emotional support to her best friend. But the breakout here is Curtis Jackson's brooding Brandon who is caught between the church and his sexuality. Mr. Jackson character study is intense; and through that intensity comes deep sadness, all done with just a shift of the eyes. When his final lines are spoken with Adam, his true pain and torture is released and therein you see the true breath of what the playwright was striving for."
ChicagoCritic
- Somewhat Recommended
"...This play casts a new light on how one's beliefs can affect a relationship, especially when a gay guy has so much built-in guilt that he prays for forgiveness after having sex with his partner. Luke and Adam just don't ring true. I don't buy that they would stay together for five years given that they each have so many polarizing differences. Much of Next Fall is too melodramatic and manipulative to be believable. The ending stretches credulity. The acting was fine especially from Ryan Hamlin as the self-doubting Adam. It's the story that I find contrived."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...Despite its flaws there is plenty of heart and plenty of food for thought in both the play and the production. Director Derek Bertelsen has assembled a strong ensemble and guided them through a clear, thoughtful production, which, for the most part, steers clear of the potential pitfalls of the script. Plan to go out for a drink afterwards and find out where you draw your moral lines."
