For The Record: Dear John Hughes Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...In a theater, the audience has the right to expect more humor, far more detailed acting and much fuller musical performances. And, above all, this show needs stakes. As any teenager in a John Hughes movie can tell you, we're never that far from the end of the world. No wonder we all need a day off."

Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...But while “Dear John Hughes” is musically engaging enough — with an excellent onstage six-piece band, and a cast of nine actor-singers with strong pop voices — overall the show is scrappy, mindless and vapid. And it possesses considerably less charm and depth than Hughes’ films did as it homes in on the predictable adolescent cross-section of outcasts, good girls, rebels, jocks, nice boys and nerds, and their problems with parents, alienation, sex, love and social class tensions."

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...The show's charming, energetic performers (Olivia Harris, James Byous, and Rumer Willis are standouts) deliver the material with more gusto and inventiveness than it deserves. Too bad Hughes is the laureate of the spoiled white, upper-middle-class American teen (yay! my dad has a Jaguar XJ6; boohoo, he won’t let me drive it). This tribute is no better."

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...The cast can charm: Willis makes a decent Mary Stuart Masterson, channeling Some Kind of Wonderful's tomboy drummer Watts, and Michael Thomas Grant is thoroughly winning as the "brain," encompassing a variety of Matthew Broderick, Jon Cryer and Anthony Michael Hall roles. But with tickets here significantly pricier than For the Record's usual Los Angeles rate, many topping $100 with Ticketmaster fees, watching millennials do movieoke offers far too little bang for the buck-I know that much is true."

Around The Town Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"... Tonight I was at an opening of a show that I am unsure of as being a show. Let me explain this to you. There is a show entitled “For The Record presents Dear John Hughes”, probably one of the longest titles a two-hour production(there is a 15 minute intermission) could have. It is a combination of soundtracks from the films that Mr. Hughes brought to the silver screen, many of which were Chicago based. They call it a concert even or a review, but by doing some of the scenes, “live”, I feel we need to call it more. While there was some strong talent on the stage of the intimate Broadway Playhouse, I for one would have liked the story to follow closer to what Mr. Hughes created, and possibly a few actual shots from the movies themselves."

Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Recommended

"...“Dear John Hughes” has some of the anarchic energy of “The Rocky Horror Show,” though without the blatant erotic element (though the show does have its share of profanity, sexual references, and scantily clad females). The show caters to a younger audience, though there was a considerably sprinkling of senior citizens in the house, presumably enjoying what they were hearing and seeing. I left the theater knowing as little about John Hughes as when I entered the Broadway Playhouse. The show could just as easily be titled “Dear Millard Fillmore.” But when that much talent performs in a single production, attention must be paid."