Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...As was the case last year, Butler offers a richly layered performance that is both welcoming to all people and highly entertaining. For those who know little about Hamer’s life, there is a willingness to inform. For those that do, there’s an impulse to celebrate the achievements of what turned out to be an extraordinary American life, even though it ended at age 59."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...What takes this beyond a more traditional one-person play is the frequent incorporation of music. As Hamer says early on, “Nothing like a song to find your truth in someone else’s story.” The songs take us beyond the facts of Hamer’s life into something deeper about what steeled her."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...As for Butler, there aren't enough adjectives to describe the nine-time Joseph Jefferson Award-winner's finely honed performance. From the jubilant "This Little Light of Mine," which evolves into an audience singalong, to the wrenching "I've Been Changed" -- where Butler's anguished growl comes from the depths of her soul to reveal Fannie's deep sorrow and even deeper resolve -- there is not one false note."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Fannie is essential viewing that should be witnessed by high school students, all adults—and especially anyone who finds themselves apathetic about our current political environment. Fannie stiffens our backbones with a double dose of vigor and hope, reminding us that even when we are “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” our vote and our voices matter."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...How does West and director Henry Godinez accomplish this dazzling transformation? To begin, our contentious mentor proclaims, "I always sing at my meetings. [There's] nothing like a song to find your truth in someone else's story." Channeling the power of what has been called the most emotional of the arts, the thematic backscore sustained by a three-piece orchestra stitches the dramatic action together into a continuous aural soundscape whose relentless progress ceases only in the moments when Hamer orders them to be silent."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...E. Faye Butler's one-woman performance as Fannie Lou Hamer, the daring and stalwart champion of Black voting rights in America's tumultuous 1960s, is rich in memorable vignettes, just as the song-laden show abounds in energy, wit and aspiration."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...E. Faye Bulter was a powerful force as Fannie Lou Hamer. Walking us back to the days of Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old African American lynched after being accused of offending a white woman. Singing songs like Mississippi John Hurt’s, I Shall Not Be More, as a picture of Rosa Parks sitting in the white section of the bus. We then see another historical tragedy of America not shared in history books of Medgar Evers, shot in the back. At the same time, his wife and children witnessed this tragic event as he returned home from an NAACP meeting and the bombing of Blacks Churches, where a fallen piece of churches everywhere could feel."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Watching this story unfold, and the pure majesty of E. Faye Butler bringing this ladies story to life was 78 minutes of pure art. Last Fall, during Covid, when outdoor functions of entertainment could be done, an abridged version of this show, ""Fannie Lou Hammer, Speak On It!" toured the Chicago Park District allowing people to get out of their homes, see some live entertainment and learn about this amazing lady. That was a free offering that the Goodman brought to the people. We have been active in Facing History and Ourselves over the years and knew something of this woman, but in Ms West's play, under the skillfull eye of Godinez and performed by Ms Butler, one could not ask for a better way to learn their history."
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...It also would be difficult to think of anyone more ideally suited to meeting this challenge than Chicago actress and singer E. Faye Butler, who has been a theatrical groundbreaker herself for many years. For proof, simply make your way to the Goodman Theatre's Owen stage where Butler (expertly backed by music director/guitarist Felton Offard, keyboardist Morgan E., and percussionist Deonte Brantley), is now giving a rip-roaring performance in playwright Cheryl L. West's "Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer," a 75-minute, one-woman show to which the actress brings all the grit, endurance, fiery spirit and vocal power that marked the indomitable Hamer herself."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Ms. Hamer’s efforts preceded the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the mid-60’s, which today remains as the basis for equal rights for everyone. E. Faye Butler, directed with great sensitivity by Henry Godinez, and supported by the musical talents of Morgan E., Deonte Brantley and Michael Ross, presents this beautiful one-act play as a history lesson for one and all. Told through Fanny Lou Hamer’s own words, as well as some of the moving Gospel hymns of her day, this is a performance that truly hits home and shouldn’t be missed. Today, as we watch the right to vote in certain states being challenged, this fearless warrior’s words and thoughts echo once again long and loud in our hearts."
Rescripted - Highly Recommended
"...If I was to liken this production to a very well oiled machine, it must be said that E. Faye Butler is the steady motor propelling it forward. Broad and bold in manner and speech, Butler is a titan of epic proportions. She holds her audience with the same firm grip that the likes of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks used as they defiantly walked hand in hand from Selma to Montgomery in protest. Butler wears the deep despair and bountiful joy of Hamer's life like a registered voter sticker displayed proudly upon the chest. Her voice reverberates to the back of the theatre and sends waves of raw emotion through the audience time and time again. Through her portrayal it is clear that black trauma is a continuum, and the strange fruits of the civil rights movement were watered by the tears of those gone too soon. Medgar Evers, Emmet Till, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner... we speak your names."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Henry Godinez directs her with a deft touch by allowing his star to do what she does best, while he makes sure that the various moments in Hamer’s life depicted here have both context and separation. He uses Collette Pollard’s set well, and his production makes excellent use of Resean Davonte Johnson’s projections. He also creates opportunities for Butler to interact with her musicians (Deonté Brantley, Morgan E., and Music Director Felton Offard), who often participate vocally (along with plenty of members of the audience) in the many preacherlike speeches she gives."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...Faye Butler as Fannie Lou Hamer bounds onto the stage with weighty purpose in her stride. We register her gait subliminally as both telegraphing more than average aches and pains of age AND way above average determination. There is flag bunting throughout the theater and vestiges of some red, white, and blue confetti throws on the floor that place us in the 1964 Democratic Convention. It is perhaps THE moment for which Hamer is most known. As head of the Mississippi’s Freedom Party Delegation, she is demanding that they be seated."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...Fannie Lou Hamer was an activist whose work in the fields of civil, voting, and women’s rights had an enormous impact, yet her story is far too rarely told. In Fannie: The Life and Music of Fannie Lou Hamer, playwright Cheryl L. West paints a vivid picture of the life of this remarkable woman. Currently in production at the Goodman Theatre, Fannie is a show that, like its namesake, is small but powerful."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Butler performs with so much energy and sings with such vigor you have to wonder how she does it every day. Opera singers, after all, get days off between performances to restore their vocal cords."
