Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"..."Midsummer" is thus an affordably priced romance, ideal for your average Gen Z date, especially if you just found that partner through your favorite Internet dating application."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...“Midsummer” is a play that can’t hide its dewy-eyed love for, well, love. Unlike the very bittersweet take on the subject offered by “Once,” “Midsummer” spits out the bitter and doubles down on the sweet. Even as it contains far more drinking, drug use, sex, swearing, and general adult-themed tomfoolery, “Midsummer” offers quite the childlike worldview. It’s a little disappointing in the end, but still a welcome respite from shows that insist on an adult seriousness because they lack the imagination to evoke sincere — and yes, childlike — wonder."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Delightfully dancing between a first- and third-person narrative, often breaking the fourth wall, Chaon Cross and Patrick Mulvey are outstanding as the two lovers. They sing songs (written by Gordon McIntyre of Scottish indie band Ballboy) about hangovers, bondage, and broken hearts, alternating among guitar, ukulele, and keyboard, and all with stellar Scottish accents."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...Midsummer culminates in a very satisfying ending, the perfect outcome for this manic obstacle course and for these decent if desperate dreamers. Capitalizing on Grieg and McIntyre's inspired script and score (and Jeremy Gentry's musical direction), the genius Cross/Mulvaney duo depict Helena and Bob from the inside out, as well as a rogue's gallery of 14 Scottish denizens. All these artists have seized on a memory to make us care more than we could ever imagine."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The Greenhouse Theater Center is undergoing changes. They are fixing the building from top to bottom, making the many improvements that this landmark house of theaters has needed for decades, and at the same time, the management is bringing to its public new theater productions, innovative and unique for this building of theaters that once housed Chicago's Victory Theatre. A Midwest premiere- "Midsummer ( A Play With Music), now on the main stage on the first floor, is an absolutely amazing two actor piece of story telling that will have you smiling and laughing and falling in love with the story and the characters."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Like all great romantic comedies, the show embraces its absurdity with both hands. The result was a delightful evening. I had a ridiculous grin on my face pretty much the entire show, and then for pretty much the rest of the night. It was a joy to watch two gifted actors fling themselves through the story at breakneck speed. I cannot recommend this show highly enough."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Recommended
"...the undeniable fact is that Greenhouse’s Midsummer is a poignant, endearing, and darkly hilarious night at the theatre. Not to mention that, with its 90-minute, no intermission runtime, it’s perfectly constructed to be the centerpiece for date night."
Chicago Theater and Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Director Randy White deftly guides the emotional highs and lows as well as the movement and energy of the frantic, ninety-minute performance that left Cross, Mulvey and their audience breathless."
Storefront Rebellion - Recommended
"...In this case, director Randy White and his cast deliver an exuberant, grown-up good time with an exaggerated sense of the wonder that's inherent in every instance two humans manage to connect despite the odds. Comparisons to Once may be inevitable, but I was reminded of another quirky film about the magic in opening up to the possibility of change: Midsummer is an L.A. Story for Edinburgh."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...This remarkable play is one of the best surprises I have had this year in Chicago theatre. I can't even do justice to the immense joy it engendered in me. (Seriously, I can't: any attempt to describe clearly what happens in this play would spoil it, and I wouldn't want to do that.) Suffice it then to say that Midsummer (A Play With Songs) at Greenhouse is a show you don't want to miss. It is a hilarious and imaginative paean to the idea that we are never stuck in life: no matter how hopeless, dull, or repetitive our lives might seem, change is always possible."
PicksInSix - Highly Recommended
"...Playing out in one 90-minute act on a Mark F. Smith set designed with a few surprises serves the action extremely well when combined with Anthony Churchill’s sound and projection, lighting by Brandon Wardell and Ellen MacKay costumes. “Midsummer” is a tender, emotionally fulfilling work about the importance of focus in our lives and possibilities of finding ourselves through our love for others."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...In the “long, slow haul towards death,” Helena and Bob are both at the same point, 35, which may strike some in the audience as ancient and others as mere childhood. From any vantage point, mid-30s is an age of reckoning. MIDSUMMER (A Play with Songs) entertains the possibility that a divorce lawyer and a car thief can use a long weekend in Edinburgh to turn self-destruction into a story of reinvention."
NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Like a grownup attempting to run, “Midsummer” takes a minute to hit its stride, but when it gets there, boy, it’s good fun. The writing, the songs, and the actors all pull together a realistic feel-good story that could charm even the most headstrong rom-com cynics. And if there’s one thing that everyone can take away from “Midsummer” it’s that life is short and there are many ways to cope but, as they say here, “drinking is our best available option.”"
