With Love and a Major Organ Reviews
Chicago Reader- Somewhat Recommended
"...Though Major Organ lasts only 60 minutes, it starts dragging somewhere around the 45th, when Lederer runs out of novelties and resorts to bigger and bigger dollops of cuteness to get by. But until then, as staged here by Thrisa Hodits, it's pretty charming. Abby Pierce is engagingly distraught as the woman, Melissa Riemer engagingly ditzy as the mom. Tom Murphy pushes the winsomeness too hard, however, as George."
ChicagoCritic- Somewhat Recommended
"...Besides that the main character's actions make no sense, Lederer wound up padding a show that's only an hour long with several scenes depicting the mother's dating life. Though Reimer has a strong comedic sense and is adaptable to surprises, her monologues are too similar to each other to justify there being so many of them. Tom Murphy, as her son, has enough boyish charm and wistfulness to make her behavior, at least, plausible within the surreal world of the play, and as his character grows, we finally, near the end, see a little in him of what the Blue Line Rider did."
Chicago Stage and Screen- Recommended
"...Frequently more adventurous than its Mainstage counterpart, Strawdog’s Hugen Hall never fails to impress on the grounds of pure invention. The space that was Captain Nemo’s submarine in last season’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea here is transformed into a blue line train, a living room, a bar and, most notably, a place of pure imagination. Fresh off All Our Tragic, director Thrisa Hodits knows a thing or two about pacing and staging in small spaces. Despite the fact that you could run With Love about a dozen times in place of The Hypocrites’ Grecian marathon, Hodits channels an intense and seemingly limitless energy intent on making the most out of Lederer’s fast-paced world. With Love and a Major Organ is a dead sprint and the end result is pure elation mixed with a bit of dry heaving."
NewCity Chicago- Highly Recommended
"...The lovers in this play never actually interact with each other, and yet they grow to understand each other better and more deeply than many can. This quirky tale of unusual people on a train rises to a rare level of universal truth, all while making us laugh. A lot."