Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...As directed by Seth Greenleaf, "Middletown" is performed with scripts on music stands: a nod, for sure, to the advanced age of most of these performers, although they all look good, but also a way to create a vehicle for a kind of low-key celebrity storytelling with no need to fuss with (or pay for) sets and whatnot. Clancy is a sufficiently skilled writer to sell this approach as a kind of Thornton Wilder-style minimalism; you're not really fooled by that but "Middletown" still works in the limited context it sets for itself."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...But under Seth Greenleaf's direction, "Middletown," now playing at the Apollo Theater, packs a visceral emotional hit. It creeps up on you until you realize you are staggered. Clancy's deceptively simple text shows that even the most ordinary moments are precious, extraordinary, one-time events that once gone, can never be recovered. It's emotionally manipulative, but damn, it's effective. "Middletown" will leave a lump in your throat and joy surging in your veins."
Daily Herald - Somewhat Recommended
"...Clancy has his "Middletown" characters repeatedly meet over dinner, which is also what happens in Dan LeFranc's grand-sweep-of-life play "The Big Meal," which first staged in 2011 at Chicago's former American Theater Company. That play followed one family's inevitable tragedies at a much faster and emotionally jarring pace."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...The play provides few moments of intense drama. The moments after one couple discovers their firstborn was killed on 9/11 comes close. And even that sorrow is muted by the fact that the actors stand behind a protective podium. And by the fact that we don't ever really get to know these characters very well. When they pass on, as they must, as we all must, it is hard not to wonder: death, where is thy sting?"
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...Sandy Duncan ( far from her "Peter Pan" days) is adorable as first our emcee. then as Peg meets Dotty ( Buddeke is amazing and plays the audience with great skill. By the way, there are a few places where they want audience participation...respond! Their husbands are Tom ( Zmed is much different than you might remember, if you do remember him) and Don ( Most is still a little bit Ralh Malph, but maybe Malph was a little bit Donny Most). Don and Dotty add most of the comedy to this saga."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Dan Clancy’s play is a journey taken both by two couples and four close friends. It celebrates the highs and lows of life and illustrates how good will, harmony and companionship can help smooth over the bumps in the road that we all encounter. The play could be compared to A.R. Gurney’s popular, bittersweet, two-handed staged reading entitled “Love Letters.”
This drama, laced with a lot of wonderful humor and comic moments, is bound to eventually become an easy-to-produce staple for regional and community theatres around the world. But for now, Chicago audiences can delight this Spring in a gorgeous, heartfelt story about the richness to be enjoyed, not only in married life, but in the shared friendships that occur in life outside of our families. And, especially for theatergoers of a certain age, this is a perfect, tenderhearted reminder that we all experience many of the same joys and sorrows of living and that we can navigate through all the highs and lows through our friendships."
Chicago Theater and Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Written by "Timekeepers" playwright, Dan Clancy, the play's strength is how it captures some of life's funny moments and extreme low points as they are experienced and shared by two couples."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...Middletown doesn’t have the kind of powerful moments that elicit fireworks (though a few might invite waterworks), but that isn’t its intention. This play suggests that all of us, despite our roller coaster lives, ultimately find our comfort zones—our centers—and we help each other through our happiness and sorrow there. What better, really, can we hope for from life?"
PicksInSix - Recommended
"...Those everyday challenges of making and maintaining friendships, our roles as parents and lovers, the joys of accomplishment, and the sorrows of infidelity, illness and death emerge elegantly from Clancy’s work. “MIDDLETOWN” is moving and emotional, magnified by the charming performance of Sandy Duncan—who radiates a sincerity that is all her own—and the fine professional cast members who all feed a healthy dose of reality into the 90-minute production that is honest and satisfying."
NewCity Chicago - Not Recommended
"..."Middletown," the new play by Dan Clancy now playing at the Apollo Theater (completely separate from the Will Eno play of the same name), is practically the embodiment of the phrase "sit back and relax." It's an absolute wash of a thing, sprinkled with enough vague sentiment and heart in its latter half to offer some emotional respite but practically airless in its core foundation. It's the theatrical equivalent of a Hallmark card: heartfelt and appreciative but without the specificity required to really leave a lasting impression."
