Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...In essence, this is Galati's bold, remarkable and thoroughly fascinating attempt to wrestle into some kind of tie the phenomenon that was Stein. In less than 90 minutes, Galati tackles Stein's creative works -- plays, prose, verse -- and her biography, inevitably dominated by the love of her life, Alice B. Toklas."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...a beautiful and eccentric show, adapted and directed by Galati, and set spinning by way of an exquisite score by Stephen Flaherty (of "Ragtime" fame), and lyrics drawn from Stein's writings."
SouthtownStar
- Not Recommended
"...Though we hear plenty of Stein's fractured language such as: "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" and "My wife is my life, my life is my wife, my life is my life, my wife is my wife" — we don't get beyond these pretentious and boring fragmentations to discover much about this woman."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...This new chamber musical by composer Stephen Flaherty and director Frank Galati celebrates 20th-century literary lion Gertrude Stein and her lifelong love for Alice B. Toklas. Galati's libretto, stitched together from Stein texts, conveys both her quirky charm and radical vision as an artistic innovator and queer pioneer, while his artful, elegantly designed staging conveys the gentility of a long-gone era. The folk, ragtime, jazz, and blues idioms in Flaherty's lyrical, textured score bring out the innate melodiousness of Stein's writing, with its childlike rhymes and flowing rhythms."
Windy City Times
- Recommended
"...This masterpiece is many things, and it’s never, ever dull. Thank you, Gertrude, for providing my opening for this review, and thank you, Gertrude, for providing the playful, thought-provoking, and joyous language around which this new musical has been composed."
Time Out Chicago
- Recommended
"...With a light and precise touch, Galati directs this intimate, 75-minute series of vignettes, which use Stein’s own words, with both erudite sophistication and simple naïveté. In one sparkling highlight, “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene,” a pair of female lovers and a trio of sailor lovers sing the same lines again and again, each iteration revealing a new shade of their longing and jealousy."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"...Loving Repeating is a commemoration of Stein’s influence on language, thought and feminism and an acknowledgment of a lifetime lesbian love affair. Stein’s poetic texts beg for music and Flaherty invokes her mood, her nuance and her depth of meaning. The outstanding voices, smooth movement and lush, haunting score all contribute to make Loving Repeating a memorable theatrical experience."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Devotees of Stein's work are likely to get the most out of this work, but it has an arty, rather distancing effect for those not enamored of minimalist poetry. As such, I doubt it will have much of a future beyond regional theatre and specialty showcases, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art. For admirers of cerebral art, "Loving Repeating" will be a treat, for the rest of us it is a bit of a chore."
