Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Hedwig is always a show driven by a central star performance and there’s no question that Lidke rises to that challenge. To like this piece, you have to be willing to go with its metaphors of wholeness and completion, of overcoming rejection of all kinds and loving yourself. I’m always most moved by the image of Hedwig, stuck in a dull Midwestern trailer park for good or ill, watching the wall that defined her life be smashed into pieces, not knowing whether she won or lost. It got me on Monday night in Evanston, as it usually does."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Hedwig Robinson, the main attraction of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s cult-favorite rock musical, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” has played plenty of Chicago venues at this point in her career. Evanston, on the other hand, is new territory. “Chicago… -adjacent,” Hedwig teases in the just-opened staging by Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, in that company’s new digs just a few feet across the city limits on the Evanston side of Howard Street. But Mitchell’s outré creation — here ably embodied by the electric young actor Will Lidke — tears down the wall to the suburbs just fine, without sacrificing any of her unique sensibilities."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Straddling genders and countries, Hedwig is micro and macro, a character and a symbol. Theo Ubique's production shows both the individual looking for love in a strange new world and a fledgling country unsure of its place in that strange new world. Either way, this Hedwig closes over your head like water, the music flooding your neurotransmitters. It's an affirmation that cannot be denied and that will (per the lyrics) hit you hard and fill you up."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Let's not forget, either, the athletic stamina demanded of performers who must remain in full vanishing-point view of the audience for an entire intermissionless 100 minutes. This includes the orchestra led by Jeremy Ramey, utility vocalists Adriana Tronco and Jacob Gilchrist, as well as Brittany Brown, playing the devoted Yitzhak. The night belongs to Will Lidke, though. In the course of the show, this David Bowie-lookalike sprints throughout the auditorium in high-heeled boots, peels from a pre-Raphaelite princess gown to fishnet hose, swaps wigs a dozen times in the course of a single song and spins around a pole—all without voice, eye contact or command of our attention faltering for an instant. Auf geht's Hedwig!"
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...While most productions of Hedwig feature only two performers, Anzevino doubles his cast size with two backup singers (Jacob Gilchrist and Adriana Tronco), who take on many of the other roles normally performed by Hedwig. While this choice makes the show less of a single-actor tour de force, it also ups the musical ante. With an amped-up rock band playing in such close quarters, Trask’s songs pop with the force of a pipe bomb. And when mid-show stunner “Wig in a Box” brings down the house, it’s a moment of pure, inflammable bliss."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...Twenty years after its inception, Hedwig and the Angry Inch remains a defiant assertion of a genderqueer trailblazer who Mitchell calls not a transwoman but “a gender of one and that is accidentally so beautiful.” Her wearing the dismissive slogan, “I Really Don’t Care, Do You?” makes much more sense than Melania Trump. She’s nothing if not true to her own sex, proudly proclaiming that “I’m famous for my big openings” and how much she appreciates “a warm hand at my entrance.”"
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...I must preface this review by stating that I never expected to give this particular show a rating this high, but Toma Tavares Langston and his quartet of fabulously talented performers have brought this show to a new level for me ( and I suppose based on what the opening night response ) and others. When the touring company came by several years ago, I believe my rating was “somewhat recommended”. The current production in the very intimate space at Theo Ubique is far and away a masterpiece compared to what BIC brought in."
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...As always, music director/pianist Jeremy Ramey does a phenomenal job of shaping the volcanic score, with The Angry Inch Band (seated in full view as part of the action) comprised of top-notch musicians Perry Cowdery and Jakob Smith on guitar, Joseph Drzemiecki on bass, and Carlos Mendoza on drums. Robert Hornbostel’s sound design is unquestionably loud, as it must be, but while earplugs are available at the door they are not needed."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Toma Tavares Langston’s production, while perhaps not a musical to everyone’s taste, is beautifully directed, produced and performed. With two exceptional actor/singers in the leading roles, a pair of gifted backup singers supporting them and a brilliant band accompanying the entire show, this production will long be remembered for being a touching, tuneful tale about a young artist trying to find his way in the world."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH is both raunchy-fun and up-lifting. Theo Ubique's production puts us in the room with Hedwig. Lidke, then, captivates us with honest, no-holds-bar, trashy confessions of a would-be rock star. This is a HEDWIG to visit! I highly recommend seeing this show."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Highly Recommended
"...It's a rock show with a unique richness in its language and philosophy, so director Toma Taveres Langston wisely lets it flow out on its own. Some aspects take some getting used to, namely the addition of two backup singers/ensemble players (Adriana Tronco and Jacob Gilchrest). It does make Hedwig that much less lonely onstage, and does dampen some of the more mindscrewy moments in the text."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, now playing in Theo Ubique's new theatre on Howard Street, is funny, poignant, crude, and never anything less than enjoyable. From the moment when punk rocker Hedwig enters the stage dressed as a kind of Pride Month Statue of Liberty (all sorts of kudos to costumer Robert S. Kuhn), it's obvious that this is not going to be a typical musical. In fact, it is presented as a rock concert during which Hedwig, talking as much as she sings, tells the audience the story of her life. (Much of the music, by the way, is loud, but Theo Ubique offers earplugs; I did not find them necessary.)"
BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended
"...You can't get much closer to the action in Theo Ubique's current production. Scenic designer Colt Frank surrounds the audience in Berlin Wall-inspired graffiti with the audience flanking the east and west sides of the theater space, giving the cast a thrust stage runway to use and director Toma Tavares Langston makes sure the cast utilizes the space to the fullest. The end result is perhaps the most intimate "Hedwig" experience you will ever have. Sit at one of the tables on the floor and during the song "Sugar Daddy" you just might be treated to some gummy bears from Hedwig herself. And for fans of the show (and they are legion), that's probably enough to rush out and buy a ticket."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Theo Ubique’s hyper-intimate and well-realized production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” is as good as anything the company ever performed south of Howard, which is high praise when you consider the consistent quality of their work at their former digs. Director Toma Tavares Langston’s staging, which features actors regularly rubbing elbows with the audience, is reminiscent of what was regularly offered in the company’s previous home in Rogers Park. The only thing missing are the view-obscuring poles."
