Diamond Lil and The Pansy Craze at Berger Park Coach House

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...The show's delights aren't restricted to the all-hands-on-deck ensemble shebangs. wherein everyone sashays about like imps on absinthe at the Folies Bergere (there is a terrific cancan number, btw). On the awesome, growling "BD Women Blues," Carolyn Nelson sounds like she's got a choir of ancestors holding her up. "The Cabaret Boys" is a sly ode to chorus cuties. Orlando Shelly shows off some formidable clarinet chops on "Downhearted Blues." There are off-kilter oddities as well, including a ditty about a child who likely pushed his sister down a well and another about a toxic case of poison ivy. After Chicago mayor Anton Cermak was assassinated in 1933, his successor, Edward J. Kelly, shut down Diamond Lil's. In resurrecting her, Freeman and Smith have done us all a favor."