Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...So the mix of sketch revue and satirical sendup of the original story doesn't always gel. But ultimately, "Twist Your Dickens" feels like a sometimes-woozy but satisfying holiday office party with your favorite cynical wisecracking fellow wage slaves. You know how it's going to end up, but there are some nice surprises in the Secret Santa grab bag along the way."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...The break-out performance belongs to Barreca. Her Ghost of Christmas Present is a young, inebriated Cubs fan. Anyone who has ever been in Wrigleyville after the game will recognize who Barreca is playing. Her facial expressions and comedic timing hit the mark and her humor feels warm and less cynical. It’s the human equivalent of spiked eggnog – sweet and intoxicating."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...So it's no surprise my blackened heart grew three sizes when Jacob Marley's ghost first appeared in this Goodman/Second City Christmas Carol parody, and all Scrooge could blurt out was "Fuck you!" Granted, the two-hour show goes on far too long, putting not only Dickens but A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, the Rankin-Bass Rudolph, TV commercials, and Hollywood producers in the crosshairs. But the top-shelf improvisers provide a welcome antidote to all the unavoidable Christmassy bullshit around town."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...In the month of December, Goodman Theatre simply goes schizoid. On one end of its block-long Dearborn Street lobby is the Albert Theatre, where the sacred cash cow A Christmas Carol continues to attract traditional holiday lovers. (A smugly complacent look at a non-threatening Ebenezer, by now it's more a pretty Christmas pantomime than a faithful adaptation.) But, on the north end, now in its third season, the black-box Owen Theatre showcases an unsubtle and interactive subversion of Dickens's classic that's top heavy with topicality and anachronisms galore: The Second City's 120-minute, broad-based, take-no-prisoners parody, Twist Your Dickens lampoons, not just the beloved 1843 parable of miserliness redeemed, but assorted Christmas staples."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Yet, the cleverness and the spot-on performances led by the genius of Ron West and his six cast members was enough to make the Scrooge in you smile, even belly laugh! Once you have seen the main production of A Christmas Carol, come back and see the wildly funny Second City version. Both productions are marvelously entertaining. Scrooge You! may become a tradition like the classic production playing down the hall at the Goodman Theatre."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...It’s Back!!! Second City’s “Twist Your Dickens” or Scrooge You!, as the ticket says, is back in the intimacy of the Owen Theatre of The Goodman. This year, Second City alum, Ron West, brings his charm and comic with to the main role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Those of you who may have seen last year’s edition were treated to a dramatic actor taking on this task of irreverent and interactive seasonal satire. Yes, this play, which has the feeling of a Second City Revue, is a satire of the play that is just down the hall in The Albert, “A Christmas Carol”."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Offering an alternative version of A Christmas Carol to Goodman audiences, and bringing this hilarious show back home for holidays, Second City’s production is light, funny and festive. It’s an irreverent and interactive improv show that’s sure to stuff everyone’s stocking full of cheer."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Luckily for us, Second City has teamed up with the Goodman Theatre to create the perfect antidote-a ridiculous, rolling-on-the-floor-laughing send-up of A Christmas Carol known as Twist Your Dickens. Though the show, written by Peter Gwinn and Bobby Mort of Colbert Report fame, had its original run in Los Angeles, the Chicago show has been tailored to fit the Third Coast the most, with over 50% of the script rewritten for the new collaboration. The new show, while expertly lampooning Charles Dickens' classic, also finds time for seriously silly sidebars including radio shows, department store commercials and time travel interludes that include the audience for some Chicago-style improv fun."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...As is always the case with a sketch show, some of the scenes work better than others, but this is part of the joy of watching anything Second City does-they have a way of bringing the show right up to the edge, and then spitting off of it. There was an occasional danger of losing the Christmas Carol through-line in the giddiness of some of the sketch scenes, and some of the more delicious scenes, like a radio play featuring audience interaction, felt a bit rushed, while others, like an homage to A Charlie Brown Christmas seemed to start with a fun premise but then run out of gas before running out of scene. Still, this is why we love improv here in Chicago: its messy, unpredictable, a little rough around the edges, but with a great big heart, just like the city that put it on the map. And, just like Tiny Tim, that's exactly what Twist Your Dickens has in spades: heart."