Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...This is a show that is about many things, and Fitzpatrick and adapter and director Ann Filmer mostly succeed at tying them together while allowing many of the smaller asides to stand on their own. The biggest subject, of course, is mortality - the "midnight city" of the title. There is a moving symmetry between Fitzpatrick's elegiac reminiscences of Lou Reed and Klein's memories of his mentor, the color-field painter Kenneth Noland. It's not just human mortality, though - Fitzpatrick is also mourning the death of the things that he loved about Chicago, from the old Cock Robin hamburger chain to the imminent demise of Hot Doug's. (He wears a T-shirt from the latter.)"
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...As Fitzpatrick, the Chicago artist known for his intricate collages, tells us, Stevens' spare, enigmatic poem is "about how to see," and when he reads it he thinks of that insurance man from Hartford, Connecticut who "secretly wrote poetry on his way to work." Fitzpatrick doesn't quote Kristofferson in the show, but when he recalls the childhood joy of the hamburgers and square-shaped ice cream cones dispensed at the now defunct Cock Robin chain, he might as well be channeling Proust's madeleines."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Fitzpatrick also has a mild-mannered sidekick in Stan Klein, who acts as a much-needed counterweight, providing his own semirelated recollections and making the very salient point that New Orleans has its fair share of gentrification, inequality, and political corruption too (though you do have to admit it's warmer). Klein comes across as the more realistic of the two, gently arguing in favor of the here and now rather than pining for the past or a promised land elsewhere. "Never trust too much good," he says-a quintessentially Chicago philosophy if I've ever heard one."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"..."I'd rather have a memory than a dream," Fitzpatrick says of his decision to move, noting that, at his age, "death has a finite shape" and invoking the inevitable call of the Midnight City train. It remains to be seen whether Gulf-coast summers will send the truculent colossus ( who "takes the weather personally" ) migrating northward alongside his birds after a year or two, but in the meantime, Chicago will be chillier without the hard gem-like flame generated by this urban Goliath with the heart as big as the Great Lakes."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Fitzpatrick ranges across the stage into tangents about sparring with snooty bird watchers, gut-busting suburban burger chains, his disdain for the climbers of the art world "scrotum pole," and heartfelt memories of his friend, Lou Reed. Just when it starts to sprawl, Midnight City is grounded by the drily observant Klein, who muses on the antics of his alter-egos in the Friendly Confines and in the art world."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...Both Fitzpatrick and Klein visit the ultimate midnight as they reflect on the loss of Lou Reed and painter Kenneth Noland; their own close calls; and the casualties in our city. Klein, who posits that the ultimate epitaph was Sonny Liston’s “A Man,” offers quiet presentations of multiple men—his personae artist “Vito de Salvo” and the friendly Cubs’ usher “Leo”—that provide the emotional anchor of the evening."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...This show is wildly entertaining as Tony explains how important painting birds has been to him. He quotes Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, " a meaningful poem to Tony. To visit several artists and urban personalities to get an unique view of their take on Chicago, birds and, of course, artistic mentors is well worth a trip to Steppenwolf Garage. Tony and Stan are folks worth getting to know. Their honesty, outspokenness and talent shines in this special show that easily makes us laugh and appreciate these characters. I guess Tony will always be a "Chicago legend" even if he leaves for the Big Easy. Spend 90 minutes with Tony and Stan to appreciate these 21st Century urban hippies. You'll be glad to did."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...Aimed at audiences who’ve survived into their middle years and are wondering, like Peggy Lee, “Is That All There Is?” this entertainment travels life’s highway. It takes theatergoers through two men’s laughter and sorrow, their dreams and disappointments, while touching on current events as well as private moments. While it best speaks to lifelong Chicagoans, much of what Tony and Stan have to share is universal. It’s in this global appeal that cause these two to men sparkle."