Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...I suspect that some of the occasionally flat moments here will deepen over the course of the run as the actors find more of the "wonder and waste" underneath their characters' stories. Owens is a lovely woman who still manages to convince us of her character's lack of confidence in her beauty and desire for touch. In one of the most magnificent scenes, Esther impulsively reaches out and strokes Mr. Marks' back - even though she knows his faith forbids physical contact with a woman who is not his wife. As the two marvel over fine fabrics, it's apparent that their love of handcrafted beauty in a coarse commercial age could make them soul mates in a different time and place. But as it is, this production provides an often-lovely snapshot of lives too often excised from the cultural record of the past."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Eclipse Theatre began its 2014 season, which is devoted entirely to the work of Brooklyn-bred playwright Lynn Nottage, with a mightily impressive production of “Ruined,” her 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner about the victimization of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s civil wars. Now, under the direction of Steve Scott, the company has staged a beautifully fine-tuned revival of her heart-piercing 2003 play, “Intimate Apparel,” which, in a sense, offers a very different view of female oppression and survival"
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Steve Scott's direction for Eclipse Theatre never unites George's two sides, and there's a long slog as Kelly Owens's graceful Esther frays under her lover's mistreatment. But our belief in her class-defying delicacy is eventually restored by her relationship with a kindhearted orthodox Jewish fabric-shop owner (Eustace Allen), whose concealed affection for Esther is key to a sweetly moving ending."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Eclipse Theatre director Steve Scott has assembled a cast led by storefront-circuit rising star Kelly Owens, each forging wholly-realized personalities from their generic archetypes, with the assistance of a technical team that replicates the period milieu right down the gleaming-like-new treadle sewing machine providing the central image in a production as delicately stitched and skillfully tailored as one of Esther's exquisite chemises. Audiences waiting with bated hankies for this fall's lineup of Victoriana will find plenty to take the edge off their appetite with this wistful tale of corsets and regrets."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Eclipse has done its due diligence; the issue lies with the text. And so the production runs like clockwork, which is to say: accurate and well crafted, but along a very narrow track."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...In a familiar picture of heartache and stupidity, newlyweds Esther and George manage to dump on each other's dreams, over and over. The rest of the two-act tale-Nottage's imaginative reconstruction of her great grandmother's unknown marriage based on a mutual deception-won't be divulged. In any case it's fueled more by richly-dimensional characters than by any purposeful or predictable plotting. The play is as fragile and winsome as the ragtime ballads that Mayme pounds out on her upright piano. It's also as tough as its portrait of the untapped talent in Nottage's four vibrant women and the frustrated love in her two secretive meem."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Lynn Nottage is a major playwright whose character development and rich use of fluid language is in the fine tradition of August Wilson. Intimate Apparel is a warm, heart wrenching drama that will reinvigorate our beliefs in the basic goodness of humanity. We love and empathize with these folks, especially Esther, Kelly Owens, Ebony Joy and Eustace Allen delivered exceptional performances. This is a marvelous production of a terrific play."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended
"...Greenhouse does a nice job as the handsome, exotic romance from afar. He particularly excels in his monologues, making them active and warm. Ebony Joy is delicious as a prostitute in love with her job and full of life. But the actors do not seem to be truly listening to each other. Long, pregnant pauses populate the nearly two and a half hour show. Many moments between characters seem abrupt and inorganic. They are interesting choices (and actors), but nobody seems to be in the same play. In a repressed society, Eustace Allen as Mr. Marks, a devout Jewish clothe seller, is overtly intense with his advances on Esther from the start. Director Steve Scott’s production has moments of emotional brilliance, but gets lost amid murky lighting by Mike Winkelman and a dangerously slow pace."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...INTIMATE APPAREL looks below the surface to truly understand one woman's desires. The engaging story brought together unusual pairings. The talented ensemble wooed and chortled with equal enthusiasm. Some of the pacing was sluggish in spots but overall the show was captivating. In particular, I enjoyed how Scott ended the first act and the show. They were picture perfect moments of possibility."
