Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Before I go any further, let me say this is admirably gutsy summer programming at the Drury Lane of Oakbrook Terrace, where the more usual fair-weather fare is farce, murder mystery or "On Golden Pond." These days, productions of Williams' work without the usual nonprofit protections from a marketplace privileging mediocrity and mendacity are rare. And there is nothing rote about this take on the story of the panicked marriage of stubborn Brick and sexually fired Maggie, a union so mutually incompatible that the latter is moved to remark, accurately: "Living with someone you love can be lonelier than living entirely alone, if the one you love doesn't ... love you.""
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...It's an intriguing conceit on the surface. Unfortunately, it has the unintended effect of lowering the stakes on a play that's fueled entirely by passionate arguments and salacious secrets. Even the actors seem to have internalized the message: The concerns that animate Williams' Southern belles and whistlers aren't so deep to us today, and so the production remains surface-level."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...Briskly paced and ferociously acted, Drury Lane's production soars in this 900-plus seat theater where large musical numbers typically supply the spectacle. Not this time. In Dodge's revival, it's the aria-like monologues performed by Chicago favorite Matt DeCaro and TV veteran Genevieve Angelson that stop the show."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Williams's script contains some of the richest characters and plot convolutions this side of King Lear. And under Marcia Milgrom Dodge's direction, on Kevin Depinet's evocative set, such cast members as Matt DeCaro (Big Daddy) and Anthony Bowden (Brick) take fascinating advantage. Cindy Gold, particularly, brings tragic gravitas to Big Daddy's much-abused wife, Big Mama. Which makes it all the more disappointing that Genevieve Angelson never quite latches on as Maggie. The explicitly acknowledged life force of the play, she comes off as merely plaintive."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...Tony nominee Director Marcia Milgrom Dodge does an excellent job of unraveling the lies and secrets of the Pollitt family living in ruins from the devastation of the 'Old South' where the emotional battle leaves every family trapped in disbelief regarding their issues in life."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The cast of players is strong and we as the audience become the proverbial “fly on the wall” learning about each of the family members and their pasts. The other cast members of note are Joe Bianco as the Reverend Tooker, who has come by to celebrate the birthday and Craig Spidle as Doctor Baugh, who during the second act takes us on a side trip into the future of Big Daddy. The house servants are played by Donica Lynn and Reginald Robinson Jr. In the program there are several children listed ( I guess they are the children of Gooper and Mae): Amir Henderson, Brooke Macdougal, Guinnevere Neville, Wyatt Robertson and Chloe Schueller. While we hear them and glimpse some offstage action, I am not sure they are important cogs in the wheel as far as this well told story being on the stage."
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...With that single sentence Dodge captures the essence of her scorching revival of this emotionally brutal play - a production that unlocks Williams' writing in a new way. She not only subtly suggests why the choice of this work as the single dramatic entry in the theater's annual lineup of musicals possesses a compelling "music" all its own. But as she demonstrated in her revelatory production of the musical revue "Smokey Joe's Cafe" last season, she reveals what a meticulous reader and interpreter she can be, and how she can tap into fresh aspects of even the most familiar material."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...A metaphor for the rot and disintegration within the Pollitt family, the decaying ruins of their formerly palatial plantation home becomes the backdrop for Tennessee Williams’ dramatic tale of greed, denial and shame. Reeking with mendacity and deception, and lurking in the shadow of Death’s doorway, Big Daddy’s birthday celebration ignites far more fireworks than those seen in the skies above. Uncontrolled avarice and overpowering jealousies rear their ugly heads as this magnificent production, a textbook example of class acting, in which an already dysfunctional family turns into cats on a hot tin roof."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Given the demographics of he Drury Lane audiences the theater will continue to deliver musicals, and with with typical creativity and professionalism. But after witnessing the brilliance of “Cat on a Hot in Roof” revival, it’s only natural to hope the theater reserves maybe one straight play slot per subscription season, preferably with Marcia Milgrom Dodge as director. High quality adult theater (in the best sense of this much abused term) doesn’t get any better than this."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Sixty-three years since the curtain rose on Tennessee Williams' masterpiece, and twenty-four years since his Glass Menagerie showed me what a play could be, Marcia Milgrom Dodge's impressive revival more than lives up to Atkinson's review. Drury Lane's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof reminds us of the power of a play and the spellbinding brilliance of a master craftsman when his script is in capable hands."
PicksInSix - Highly Recommended
"...A defining moment in Drury Lane's stirring production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof occurs when Big Mama, resigned to a certain future that she has heretofore denied, slowly climbs the sweeping staircase toward Big Daddy's bedroom. She is intent on working her way back into any personal space left in a man she has loved unconditionally, who is now terminally ill, bitter and stoked with avarice. The hopelessness of the situation is writ large throughout Cindy Gold's riveting performance of director Marcia Milgrom Dodge's captivating interpretation."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...The decaying antebellum columns dripping with Spanish Moss frame the dram unfolding around the dysfunctional Pollitt family in Drury Lane’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Under the direction of Marcia Milgrom Dodge, and a first rate cast including Chicago veteran Matt Decaro as Big Daddy, and Maggie “the cat” played by Genevieve Angelson with a purring sensuality, the “mendacity” infecting the entire Pollitt family, allowing them to live until they crack from the truth that can no longer be escaped, is as timely today as it was in 1955."
