Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...The 90-minute show moves at a firm pace, utilizing every rhyme for male genitalia and sex acts while both celebrating the freedom offered by the dating app and lamenting its downsides. These include the expression of male sexuality, gay or straight, through the metaphors of hunting and conquering, and the emotional impact of infidelity even amid rampant promiscuity."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...The most show-stopping moment of the show occurs when Broughton sings the heartfelt power ballad "Trick of the Mind"-arguably one of Erik Ransom's most touching and original songs. Yet love and lust in this brave, new, seemingly anonymous world of Grindr is not always what it promises to be, as our four characters come to discover."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...A charming Chicago premiere staged by John Cardone for Pride Films & Plays, this Pride Month presentation is, considering its subject, suitably explicit (as in terms like “cum dumpster”). It merrily chronicles the pandering ways of a drag queen/demi-deity named Grindr (counter-tenor Bruno Rivera). Awakened by the “siren song” of horny homosexuals, this born-again professional procuress from ancient Greece is accompanied by her back-up henchpersons Occulto (Andrew Flynn) and Dilectus (Brandon Krisko)."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Thou, this opera is called a parody, it touches some very serious issues that all of us have had to deal with in the dating world. And it touches some very serious issues that exist in the gay community and the easy acceptance of fast sex vs romance."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...Erik Ransom’s titillating homage to the world of opera, crossed with a notorious dating and hookup app, is everything the savvy theatergoer would expect. Directed with style by John Cardone, featuring expert musical direction by Tommy Ross, and spirited choreography by Assistant Director, Shawn Quinlan (whose costumes fill this production with flair and finesse), this revue has already become an international sensation. If theatergoers aren’t already believers, Eric Ransom’s spicy, spunky parody will convince audiences that, as they sing in “Avenue Q,” the internet is for porn!"
Rescripted - Recommended
"...Although some of the jokes get garbled and are hard to make out on occasion, overall, the performances are fun and engaging and smartly staged on such a small stage. The cast is having a ball, and that energy spills into the audience as the story weaves through several twists, turns, and more than a few surprises. The play flies by in a tight 90 minutes, making GRINDR THE OPERA a wonderful way to celebrate Pride month in Chicago."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Somewhat Recommended
"...The cast sings well and does their energetic best. The fault here is Erik Ransom’s book, music and lyrics for relying too heavily on the Grindr siren, which gets old fast. While the plot is largely unnecessary, the show brings out there’s a lot of universality."
BroadwayWorld - Recommended
"...The Pride Arts' production is a bit bare bones. Rivera's falsetto is so powerful, one expects the paint to be peeling in the back row of the cozy and intimate little theater where the show is currently playing. It also means that a little of the opera goes a long way. By the end of the 80 minute show, you might find yourself wishing he would forgo the operatic theatrics and sing in his normal register. An operatic voice like that is just not built for a small space."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...With themes of bareback sex and ready consequences, this pretty pageant will sit differently with gay men of varied ages. Those who survived the first wave of AIDS may find it disquieting at times. Having been born into a world where chemical combinations can assist those who want their sexual birthright-cake for the eating in having a long life while living at a time when the preventative formula of PrEP allows for safer, cross-pollinated sex between HIV-negative and -positive partners, a younger audience may be able to bop to Ransom’s sexy, allegorical beat with greater ease. It doesn’t matter that one generation may see a different play than another. Time to get your gay on and ogle the pretty singers!"
