Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"..."Water by the Spoonful" actually is part of a trilogy. You might have read my reviews of all three of them, but they've all been staged at different times in different Chicago theaters. The Goodman Theatre produced "The Happiest Song Plays Last," which is the sequel to this play (chronologically speaking, at least), during its 2012-13 season; it deals with Elliot's postwar career as an adviser to a Hollywood movie. The first, military part, "Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue," was produced at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company all the way back in 2006. What we now need in town is all three of these plays produced together with a common cast, allowing us to follow the thread of the characters we keep glimpsing."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...A gaping abyss is carved into the front of the ash-colored stage at Court Theatre, where “Water by the Spoonful,” Quiara Alegria Hudes’ play about a group of damaged, haunted, grief-struck souls opened this weekend. Nearly every one of Hudes’ characters looks deep into that abyss at one moment or the other. With so much agony, what hope?"
Centerstage - Recommended
"...Hudes' writing is gorgeous. The play makes some large statements about who we are as Americans, and provides a great amount of hope. Seeing a multiracial cast fighting their demons through the internet is a powerful device. But the set gets a bit too literal with a giant black hole at the front of the stage representing personal Hell. Scenes are interspersed with awkward movement sequences."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...John Boesche’s scenic design is dominated by a gaping hole downstage—the abyss of addiction, or of our past and present hurts. Water by the Spoonful reminds that recovery from any trauma requires constant effort to resist its pull."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...What is so remarkable and absorbing about “Water by the Spoonful,” deftly directed by Henry Godinez, is a combination of interlaced personal struggles, tightly wound dialogue and assorted characters we both believe in and care about. It is also a play of credible, indeed recognizable components: isolation and the ascendancy of conscience, despair and the triumph of self-discovery."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...While it sure was tragic how Odessa, play with haunting realism by Charin Alvarez, disintegrated physically and emotionally, again she ultimately came off as another pathetic addict. If this play is suppose to be about forgiveness and redemption (as the press note indicate), I sure didn’t get that from what I witnessed. The characters tended to aggravate me more that evoke any empathy. I left the play wondering what I missed to maybe make this worth seeing? I wanted to know more about Elliot."
Chicago Theatre Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...There is one aspect of “Spoonful,” though, which is beyond argument – it’s remarkable staging. Performing on a darkened stage with a dramatic fissure in the front, the actors also work around immense, blank tapestries that hang from the ceiling; on those tapestries, then, Court projects various images, from computer-related imagery during the chatroom sequences to a lush rain forest during an Act II trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico. But because the tapestries are spaced just so much apart, the images are always splintered, fragmented, apart – much like the reality of living with a drug addict. So, extensive kudos to scenic artists Scott Gerwitz and Julie Ruscitti; they certainly deserve it."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Recommended
"...“Water by the Spoonful” is the work of a promising new voice in American theater who obviously bears watching. She writes scenes of great emotional intensity and truth and shows honest compassion for her characters, however distasteful they may be. It would be interesting to see the “Elliot” trilogy in one long sitting (her final entry in the trilogy just closed in New York City after mixed reviews). The Court Theatre production is stocked with strong performances from actors who mainstream playgoers don’t normally encounter. The play isn’t perfect (especially in a first act that tends to be confusing), but it’s interesting even in its imperfections, and at its heightened emotional peaks it’s a grabber."