Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Director Shana Cooper's production, which opened Friday night and also stars the skilled players Ora Jones, Mark Bedard, William Dick and Elizabeth Ledo is an elegant affair, richly designed by Andrew Boyce, with a classy set of costumes from Raquel Barreto. I've seen a spate of rehearsal-room Shakespeare, or other such deconstructions, and it's invigorating to see this show focus instead on a rich, fresh pallet, conceptually contemporary but not anachronistically so. It makes great use of fabric and music and a kind of gentle sway rolls over the whole evening, wherein the language feels fresh and crystal clear. Cooper is a conceptualistic and I thought this show worked immeasurably better than her recent "Lady From the Sea" at Court Theatre, mostly because the gestalt is less pretentious and the director's ideas better aligned with the text."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...So, is all well in this comedy? Despite oblique assurances throughout that all might become well, the play feels modern in that the resolution is defiantly unclear. All is clearly not well entirely, not for Bertram anyway. He has been tricked. The story is at an inflection point for the two lovers, one of them unwittingly trapped by a trick in the dark. Will all stay well? The answer is only yes for now. For a time. It's certainly no fairy tale."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...All's Well is decidedly not one of Shakespeare's more accessible plays, but the cast at Chicago Shakes-especially Escalante's ultra-relatable Helen and Jones's powerfully regal Countess-make the language piercing in its clarity. As Bertram, Jemmott has an aura of rebellious defiance that's easy to empathize with, even when Bertram's innate nobility is buried beneath outraged truculence."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...‘Tis neither fish nor fowl, Shakespeare’s comical-radical and highly problematical play “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Like its main characters, the plot is tormented. Small wonder “All’s Well” has been lumped together with “Measure for Measure,” “Timon of Athens,” “The Merchant of Venice” and a couple of others as “problem” plays. When the rhetorical dust settles and the curtain falls, we’re not quite sure what to feel. But Chicago Shakespeare’s production of “All’s Well” goes a long way toward focusing our ultimate reaction by sharpening the comedy."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...A rarely produced dark comedy from the annals of William Shakespeare’s folio is ushering in springtime at Navy Pier. All’s Well That Ends Well might not have the popularity or recognizability of titles like Romeo and Juliet or Othello, but the dark comedy is certainly high energy silliness. Director Shana Cooper keeps the pace light and fast as this story juggles a hoard of over a dozen characters, who on the surface have little in common, and milks out the fun. From royalty to commoners, the twist and turns of the narrative make sense by the story’s end, just stay with the journey. At the heart, ethical issues are not necessarily solved by simple solutions. For example, what length does one go to when the object of their affection doesn’t return the same feelings?"
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Recommended
"...Shakespeare's attempt to bring in comedy to cover obvious loopholes and rapid solutions with no apparent reasons or explanation seem to be shortsighted. Still, the play, which teeters between a comedy or tragedy, lacks substance. But as a testament to his brilliance, Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, fragmented description of how things can instantaneously change, is a product of everyday life and how even if it doesn't start well, the ending can still turn out well."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...While almost every character in this play has flaws, as the story unfolds and the secrets are revealed, we find that each has changed in some way. Helen fights for what she wanted and in the end is victorious. I must say that Escalante captures the character, the man she wanted and I would think most of the audience members fell in love with her strength."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...For most audiences, this fine, often delightful production will be the first time they’ve enjoyed this dark comedy. It’s not produced as often as some of Shakespeare’s other works because it’s considered one of his “problem plays.” The script provides several ethical dilemmas which can be a little challenging to most directors. But Shana Cooper, infusing her production with excellent actors and painting it with lightness and movement, music and choreography, seems to have found the perfect solution. The result is a rewarding evening of magical comedy and drama for adult audiences."
The Fourth Walsh - Recommended
"...It's believed Shakespeare penned this tale in 1603 around the time of Queen Elizabeth's death and during a plague that killed one-in-five Londoners. It is one of 18 plays printed seven years after the Bard's own death. The first record of it being performed is in 1741. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL is a lesser known work than Shakes' more popular comedies. These nuggets from the program support the play's complexity. Although the title sounds familiar, the story really is not."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Helen is a bright, attractive young woman, but, sad to say, she's not royal. So Bertram/Count of Rossillion, the man she loves for reasons not clear, scorns her. The daughter of a famous doctor, Helen is able to cure the ailing King of France and as a reward, gets to choose a husband. But instead of marrying Helen, Bertram goes off to war. Conspiracy ensues by three women and Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well manages to have a happy (although quite sudden) ending, thus ensuring its place as a "comedy" as well as one of the Bard's "problem plays." Part of the "problem" is that the plot is actually a lot more complicated than my brief summation."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...It’s a Shakespearean “comedy,” so of course, everything works out in the end (in such a lightning-fast scene that it’s hard to understand how it even happens: Shakespeare’s fault, not Cooper’s), but this is one case where the audience may well wish it had not. Still, at least we know that Helen and the Countess are such strong allies that there is no way for Bertram to hurt either one of them. There is so much strength in this production—I haven’t even touched on Andrew Boyce’s set, Raquel Barreto’s costumes, Adam Honore’s lighting, or Paul James Prendergast’s music and sound, not to mention wonderful, rich performances by William Dick and Elizabeth Ledo—that it would be a shame to deny it a recommendation for one flaw (albeit a significant one). In the end, then, I will indeed recommend it…with reservations."
PicksInSix - Recommended
"...Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well," rarely staged on the opulent scale of director Shana Cooper's production that opened Friday at Chicago Shakespeare's Courtyard Theater on Navy Pier, is deemed a problematic work, fused with a tapestry of uneven plot variations and equally flawed characters. Cooper's work, highlighted with interpretive dance, rises well above these challenges, thanks to a stellar cast and a fair bit of magic and imagery."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...In this play, female characters scheme together to counteract the actions of men, showing, in this writer’s opinion, that female empowerment runs alongside the play’s other themes. The conversation around sexual misconduct becomes clear, not just by Shakespeare’s words, but by the physical comedy of this show, expressed mostly through sexual innuendo. The characters of Lavatch and Parolles demonstrate such, undercutting the play’s dark moments with energetic bursts of comedy."
BroadwayWorld - Somewhat Recommended
"...While this production of ALL'S WELL doesn't emphasize the darker elements of the play, I didn't think this production was especially humorous or rife with merriment. The majority of the actors have great command over Shakespeare's text, but some of the performances felt overly formal and too finely rehearsed. As a result, I think some of the capacity for emotion in the material was lost. All told, I think this ALL'S WELL takes the play's theme of transitions a little too literally; Cooper's vision for the production remains murky, and I think there was yet more emotional probing of the character arcs."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...The climax of "All's Well" earns its problem play status, yet this production seems to treat it perhaps too lightly in order for the play to end happily. I won't argue that the production ought to have depicted the moment I allude to (given this is a lesser-known work, it seems reasonable to avoid spoilers). But given the ethical queasiness of Helena's actions, skirting so quickly past it in the final scene feels like an indirect endorsement. The ends really did justify the means. If we're meant to question how we justify sympathetic people doing horrible things for good reasons, as the play seems to indicate, it seems odd to put the audience's comfort first."
