Males Order Brides or Big Harry Deals Scandalous Scheme at Quest Theatre Ensemble

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...But if you're looking for a cheap family outing, this might fill the bill. The kids in the house hissed, booed and tossed popcorn at the villain and villainess, and as always with Quest, the shenanigans are free."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"... Quest Theatre Ensemble's rollicking production feels like a live-action version of a Warner Bros. cartoon, the difference being that the onstage scoundrels (expertly caricatured by Jason Bowen and Kieran Welsh-Phillips) get to heap amusing abuse on the audience, and we get to pelt them with popcorn in return. There are good guys too, but under James Scott III's direction, rooting for them isn't nearly as fun as rooting against Deal and Billings."

Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended

"...The show is silly, fun and sweet but exhausts a lot of good will with its nigh unsustainable length, helped along by both a repetitive script and excessive improvisation. Intermission came about 90 minutes in when all sense of reason would have demanded the show end. This is a tasty concoction of corn and cheese, but it should cut the fat."

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...The slog to this conclusion is devoid of surprise, sure, but not of delight, as the audience is dutifully trained to cheer the hero and both boo and throw popcorn at the villains, a mustached Jason Bowen and Kieran Welsh-Phillips, who earns her keep embodying the actress turned extortionist who portrays each of the prospective brides. Yet Kentucky community-theater scribe Billy St. John (whose participatory melodrama fare also includes such gems as Evil Doings in Queen Toots’ Tomb and Heaven Help the Po’ Taters) offers only obvious, tired jokes, and the second act loses all momentum in what should be a dazzling set piece of quick-change astonishment. And too often the actors are disoriented by the perfectly timed popcorn-chucking of a prepubescent Marx brother."