Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...This latest Black Ensemble show has all the usual unsubtle elements—a light behind-the-music biography with an emphasis on the positive, the crack Jimmy Tillman band, glamorous wigs and dancers, and some very decent musical talent. What's a little unusual here is that much of the conflict revolves around Tex's desire to reconcile performing with his Muslim faith. This being Black Ensemble, all sides are treated with respect and sympathy. Still, showbiz always wins out here."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Written by Joe Plummer and David Barr and directed by Jackie Taylor with her usual panache, the show follows the traditional BET formula. This, of course, means tapping the talents of sensational, near uncanny replicators of the original singers, putting them together in a crisis situation that triggers the memory of things past, and galvanizing the audience in a giant love fest of toe-tapping hits from a golden age."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...The show focuses on Tex's struggle to reconcile his urges to funk and fuck with Elijah Muhammad's injunction that he sacrifice his gifts to Allah. It's easy to feel the heat from music director Jimmy Tillman's kick-ass re-creations of "Skinny Legs and All," "Stand by Me," and "Fever." Lyle Miller's Tex croons a score of jukebox gems. The message matters less than the music, but this script by David Barr III and Joe Plummer, set at a last-chance 1981 reunion, serves both better than Taylor's previous creations."
Windy City Times
- Highly Recommended
"...a program delivering plenty of communal hand-clapping, toe-tapping, shoulder-twitching, sing-along ( and at one point, dance-along ) exuberance. BET regular Lyle Miller wins our sympathies as the shyly ambivalent Tex, but is almost eclipsed by the floods of effusive warmth forthcoming from the trio of Daryl D. Brooks, Trinity P. Murdock and Magellan Watts, who replicate the vocals and—with amazing accuracy—the physical appearance of their respective personae, the aforementioned Burke, Pickett and King. Jimmy Tillman's orchestra is in top form, likewise, its sturdy brass section featuring the show-stopping Hank Ford on saxophone. The results are a joyful noise sufficient to bring this hard-working company's plans for a new theater facility a step closer to fulfillment."
EpochTimes
- Recommended
"...As usual, Black Ensemble takes us into the life of an entertainer through the music of the person and the time ,and as usual- this show rocks with talent. Directed by Jackie Taylor (who is brilliant at making her characters come alive) with a solid cast. "I Gotcha" is stronger than the script written by David Barr III and Joe Plummer. I found the script itself weaker than the overall experience, but the dynamics of the cast and the music (under the direction of Jimmy Tillman) outweighs the lack of strength of the script."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...You’ll have no problem enjoying this wicked soul revue, whose script offers only a thin glance into Tex’s life but also creates a broad contextual setting (the reunion that brought Tex out of the retirement forced by his conversion to Islam) and features a musical package from Black Ensemble’s curator/boss lady Jackie Taylor that’s possibly the company’s tightest yet."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...Black Ensemble Theater’s Season of Men continues with “I Gotcha” (The Story of Joe Tex and the Soul Clan). Written by Joe Plummer and David Barr III, “I Gotcha” uses the basic Black Ensemble formula: blending tidbits of biographical information with a character sketch of the principal person to that person’s music and those he/she associated with. These shows are high energy musical tributes that audiences love. This show has loads of soulful R & B tunes from the 60’s."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...The Story of Joe Tex, "I Gotcha," playing at the Black Ensemble is spectacular. No matter how subdued you may be walking in, you’re going to walk out clapping and swaying, and don’t even try to resist the urge to get up and dance, you’ll be in plenty of good company. Joe Tex was a singer, songwriter famous throughout the ‘60’s and ‘70’s for recording with Soul Clan members Ben E King, Solomon Burke and the infamous Wilson Pickett, that’s enough to get anyone up out of their seats."
