Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Fischer is generous and ensemble-minded on stage and comes with the deadpan sense of humor her legion of fans admire. Fans of Chicago theater hardly need reminding of Guinan's quality as an actor, although I think his Pete, albeit moving, leans too much into sad and pitiable old man, replete with plaid shirt and suspenders, when the play actually seems to be describing a smart if profoundly manipulative Chicagoan who could still be a real player in all kinds of ways, personal and professional, if only the world had not made the mistake of changing."
Chicago Sun Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The play is directed by Goodman Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and stars Francis Guinan as Pete and Jenna Fischer (arguably best known as Pam Beesly in NBC's "The Office") as Pete's daughter Sam. "Ashland Avenue" delves into Pete's intractable inability to accept that superstores and the internet have irrevocably altered the retail landscape and the market for Zeniths and Magnavoxes is gone."
Daily Herald
- Somewhat Recommended
"...An examination of family, legacy and independence, “Ashland Avenue” is a familiar tale about the difficulty of letting go and the challenge of moving on. Writer/director Lee Kirk has crafted scenes that are both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny (especially in the superior second act), but the repetitive, overly long play needs tightening."
Talkin Broadway
- Highly Recommended
"...To open its Centennial Season, the Goodman Theatre is presenting the world premiere of Lee Kirk's Ashland Avenue. In the play, Kirk unveils the lives of people, a family, a neighborhood, and a city in transition. It's a deceptively quiet story that knows just when to be loud, funny, maddening, and heartwrenching. Directed by Goodman's Artistic Director Susan V. Booth, the stellar cast digs into the complexity and subtlety of the relationships and unfailingly hits all the right beats."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...I confess to some amount of trepidation as I settled into my seat at the Goodman Theatre, launching its centennial season with the world premiere of Lee Kirk's Ashland Avenue, directed by Susan V. Booth. For weeks I'd been inundated with promotional images of television star Jenna Fischer-which is fine as I am a fan of her work on The Office-and the fact that the playwright is her spouse did not help matters. Why? Star vehicles for TV and movie stars rarely work out well. Thankfully, while Ashland Avenue is definitely a star vehicle, it's not for the one you expect."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews
- Recommended
"...While I found Ashland Avenue to have its charm, it needs more dramatic flair and robustness, adding layers of compelling and captivating dialogue, so that you don't feel like you are looking at an old 60s sitcom. Chicagoians will enjoy it. Still, I'm not sure it has the legs to travel."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...I always like a play about Chicago. While they are not all perfect, and in many cases use other than real names to identify items or places, it still feels good to see a story involve other than New York or los Angeles ( although this one touches that L.A. part). "Ashland Avenue" in its World Premiere at the Goodman Theatre touches our city. During this two act play ( roughly 2 hours and 25 minutes with one intermission) we see and hear about the Bears, the Cubs, The Sox and even the Blackhawks. Of course, Ashland is a street name in town, roughly 1600 West and it runs from Howard Street, very far into the south side."
Chicago Theatre Review
- Highly Recommended
"...This is a play that seems headed for Broadway. Despite being a Chicago story, Lee Kirk's two-act play is universal. It boasts an honest, heartrending story about real families and the changes that take place over time. This is a warm, sometimes bitterly truthful tale about dreams, aging and acceptance. Staged on an extraordinarily realistic Scenic Design by the gifted, much-sought-after Kevin Depinet, Pete's store is stuffed to the gills with more props, paraphernalia and set decor than anyone could imagine. Susan V. Booth's incredibly moving production is a treasure, a story about how people decide about holding on or letting go, and how we all cope with this personal dilemma in our own lives."
Buzz Center Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...It can be tough to write a play about Chicago when you are not really from Chicago. Too often we see out-of-town writers jam in the words “bean” and “Sears Tower” but Ashland Avenue has perfectly captured the spirit of what it means to be a Chicagoan. Perhaps it’s the reliably earnest Guinan’s performance or Kirk’s brilliant script but Ashland Avenue might just be the best Chicago play since Bruce Norris’ 2011 Pulitzer winner Clybourn Park."
The Fourth Walsh
- Recommended
"...Playwright Lee Kirk explores an aging parent's desire to hold onto the past. A father wants to preserve and pass on his life's work to the next generation. It is a familiar theme. A daughter longing to leave home to step into her own adventure is also pretty conventional. Kirk repeats the essences of a story we've heard and maybe even lived. His likable characters don't want to hurt an old man's feelings. Their decency is thoughtful and admirable. It also dilutes any palpable tension. Kirk adds in a secondary plot about a a single mother and her kids living with Pete. The choice is perplexing. It adds length but not dramatic depth. The last fifteen minutes crawl to a conclusion waiting for popcorn to be microwaved. The show clocks in at 2 hours and forty-five minutes."
Third Coast Review
- Recommended
"...Goodman Theatre's new play, Ashland Avenue, is a love letter to 1980s Chicago. The character who epitomizes that era is Pete, proprietor of Pete's TV and Video, who founded and runs his TV store as if it we were still in the 1980s. Pete was one of those retailers who appeared in his own TV commercials, an avatar for the likes of auto dealer Bob-ROAR-man, the Empire carpet guy and Peter Francis Geraci, who made other lawyers wince."
Chicago Theater and Arts
- Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Lee Kirk seems to have insight or an uncanny ability to tap into the essence of Pete's entrepreneurial spirit. This ability is reflected to some degree in Kirk's film The Giant Mechanical Man which similarly explores the intersection of a person's private and commercial persona. The film also stars Fischer which is where the two met. They were married in 2010 and have two children."
PicksInSix
- Recommended
"...The story becomes a thought-provoking combination of sitcom and morality tale about change and how such elements affect someone facing retirement, let alone what to do next in life. Mr. Kirk's script is well considered and interesting. Goodman Artistic Director Susan V. Booth offers this story in intimate, loving strokes. The thick, yet simple set design by Kevin Depinet has both nostalgia and the reality of existence in it. Ms. Fischer is a delicate surprise, and her work with the marvelous Mr. Johnson is fun to watch. Ms. Dewdney inhabits an appropriately desperate Jess, while the ex-husband literally explodes on Pete in Charlie's scene at the end."
MaraTapp.org
- Recommended
"...If you are a fan of Fran Guinan - and who isn't? - or of Chicago, old and new, or just want to laugh a lot and get some insights on coping with aging parents, this is a play for you. See it and sit back and enjoy the tour."
Chicago Culture Authority
- Highly Recommended
"...The resulting drama plays out over the course of two days in which we see the three main players interact in ways familiar to any Chicagoan. They're comfortable together. We're comfortable with them. They talk sports. They watch sports. They complain about the freezing winter. They gossip about a former TV weatherman. They nose into each other's business. They annoy each other almost as much as they love each other."
Allie and the After Party
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Set in a realistic looking TV shop that hasn't left the 70s, Ashland Avenue explores the owner and father's stubbornness to change with the world and relationships to those around him. There's moments where we feel connected to these characters and other times we don't feel they are endearing, but at the end of the day the show captures the love of Chicago."
BroadwayWorld
- Recommended
"...ASHLAND AVENUE is a genial and charming play set in Chicago. Directed by Goodman Theatre's Artistic Director Susan Booth, the Chicago setting of Lee Kirk's world premiere certainly seems fitting for the opening of the theater's centennial season. But this isn't the kind of gritty, metaphorical "blood on the walls" kind of play often associated with Chicago-style theater. Instead, Kirk's story about a Chicago family-owned business is much gentler."
NewCity Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...Directed by Goodman Theatre artistic director Susan V. Booth, the play works because of the strength of the dialogue, strong pacing, good ensemble work and the deep commitment of all the actors to their parts. Guinan in particular creates a fully realized human being on stage—Pete is annoying and irascible in the way of an old man who was once famous and can’t handle the fading of his star. But he is never a cartoon or cliché—he is all of us, mourning the passage of time and the loss of community in the modern, web-based world. “It was my life, and I didn’t appreciate it,” he marvels. He gripes that Jeff Bezos would never sit down to watch a Bears game with his customers, as Pete would every autumn Sunday."
