Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...The resulting “Illinoise,” it should be immediately understood, is not definitional of the Prairie State in a way that will be immediately recognizable to its denizens. The show’s trajectory will not attract the state’s tourist authority, especially given that one of the tracks is about the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. It does not attempt to sum up what it means to be a Chicagoan or an Illinoisan or even a Midwesterner. That is not its point."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...There's something very right about the fact that "Illinoise," an exuberant, highly emotional, and essentially exquisite work of dance theater from director-choreographer Justin Peck premiering at Chicago Shakespeare on its way to a March run in New York, begins with its main character putting on shoes."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Words and lyrics do the heavy lifting on the storytelling. Vocalists Elijah Lyons (also on keyboard), Nova (also on electric guitar), and Tasha Viets-VanLear (also on electric and acoustic guitars and percussion), whimsically winged like Puck, Ariel, and Oberon on acid, preside from the midlevels, and you have to listen carefully to follow the action, despite choreography that often feels pantomimic and literal. It feels like a lost opportunity that in a cast with so many strong dancers, with so many historic and narrative possibilities in Stevens’s music, the central plot revolves around an egocentric man who needs to be babied to tell his stories and then takes up all the space in the room when he does so."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...It’s an evening length ballet, a jukebox musical, a concert and an opera. Illinoise, conceived by Justin Peck as a way to reimagine Sufjan Stevens iconic 2005 album Illinois, is all that and more: it feels like a fitting future for live performance forms, and you need to see it before it heads to New York because I have a hunch it will be there for a while."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Since I knew absolutely nothing about Sufjan Stevens or his 2005 concept album Illinois, I didn’t know what to expect when I went to see Illinoise at Chicago Shakespeare. Judging by all the cheers from the audience, everyone else was in on the secret. Stevens’ music portrays Illinois – the people, the history, the geography – while throwing in zombies, killer wasps and UFOs. The company tells these stories completely in exquisite dance routines. I m in awe!"
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...It is not an easy production to describe, but it is fascinating to watch. "Illinoise," now onstage at Chicago Shakespeare's Yard Theater, is an altogether unique and extraordinarily brilliant interpretation of composer/singer/lyricist Sufjan Stevens' 2005 album (with its title a playful twist on the state of Illinois)."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...If you like unique, unusual new shows, run—don’t walk—to the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Playing in the Yard is the exciting premiere of one of the most unusual and unique musicals that theatergoers could imagine. It’s beautiful, creative and filled with talented performers. “Illinoise” is a tale told through dance but, despite there being no dialogue, it shouts loudly about this journey we call life. The new musical is about love, loss, soul mates and self-discoveries. There’s both comedy and tragedy in this story about storytellers and, thanks to the artistic collaboration between Sufjan Stevens, Jackie Sibblies Drury and Justin Peck, this may be the beginning of a new form of musical theatre."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...This show is the perfect collective of fanciful rooted in reality. While Stevens’ music has otherworld whimsy, his lyrics are honest truths. Its these opposing forces Peck uses to everyone’s delight. He turns the ordinary to extraordinary. Peck and Drury’s story is set around a campfire. The friends take turns telling stories. As one person opens up their journal, the campfire scene fades into blackness. The song is the story. The dancer is the storyteller."
Chicago Culture Authority - Highly Recommended
"...In a gorgeous staging at the Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, director & choreographer Justin Peck delivers a vibrant interpretation of Sufjan Stevens’ celebrated 2005 Illinois album via dance, live band performance and a dialogue-free story by Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury. On a set dominated by a huge freeway billboard with changing projections and musicians on scaffolding that evokes rusted El tracks, the vignettes play out, one per song (until the climactic last tale), with the framing device of a group sharing creative writing stories around a campfire. As the pantomimes give way to lush dance numbers interpreting the XRT-friendly folk-pop numbers, the show captivates."
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...ILLINOISE is a journey through our great state of Illinois using movement. Directed and choreographed by Justin Peck and featuring music and lyrics from Sufjan Stevens’s ILLINOIS album, the show uses dance as its primary narrative language. Peck collaborated with playwright Jacke Sibblies Drury on a loose storyline for ILLINOISE, but that story is communicated entirely through dance. Stevens’s lyrics underscore the situations in the show and mirror the emotional shades of the choreography."
