Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Childer's eyes dart everywhere but he never looks the audience in the eye. He shouts, grimaces and races around the stage. He does a lot well. But you don't feel like you see his heart. And that tone—energetically competent but unwilling to slow down and take real emotional risks—afflicts the whole show. You don't see much difference between the on- and off-stage personas, even though such contrasts explained everything about the stars of this era and, especially, about Kaye himself."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...The show's stiff book (with a somewhat stronger second act) surrounds the troubled marriage with cartoon versions of everyone else in the couple's life, with Christina Purcell (as Eve Arden, Kitty Carlisle and Gertrude Lawrence) and Adam LeBow (as film moguls, agents and Laurence Olivier) changing costumes and poses at every turn. The onstage band often overwhelms the singers. And the lingering impulse is just to rent Kaye's old movies or catch vintage clips on YouTube."
SouthtownStar - Not Recommended
"...You have to be a die-hard Danny Kaye fan to sit through the corny "The Kid From Brooklyn," playing at the Mercury Theater in Chicago.
The nostalgic musical is an overwrought biographical revue of the life of the popular comedian."
Chicago Reader - Not Recommended
"... The script, by Mark Childers and director Peter J. Loewy, comes off as hackneyed showbiz soap opera in its handling of Kaye's stormy marriage to manager/songwriter Sylvia Fine, and the supporting cast offer cliched caricatures of such legendary figures as Gertrude Lawrence, Cole Porter, Laurence Olivier, and Kaye's lover Eve Arden."
Chicago Free Press - Somewhat Recommended
"...in detailing a career that spanned more than 40 years through a stream of fast-moving vignettes, “The Kid from Brooklyn” skims over the life of a fascinating man. The emotional complexity that fertilized Kaye’s unique brand of genius gets lost amid all the scene changes and cameo appearances."
Gay Chicago Magazine - Recommended
"...Co-author Brian Childers plays Danny and captures Kaye’s style in attitude, vocals and speech. Childers has Kaye’s physical grace and trademark high-pitched giggle down to a tee. His comedy scat pantomime of a World War II army inductee is a hoot. However, he doesn’t quite live up to Kaye when it comes to the quick patter songs. It’s one thing to get the notes out and another to get them out with each word clear. Here Childers sometimes struggled."
EpochTimes - Somewhat Recommended
"...While the script is a little weak, the talent is high. The only problem is the sound. I am not sure if the orchestra was too loud or the performers too soft, but one of Danny Kaye's talents was the ability to put a lot of words out there in just a short period of time, and the audience must hear the words to make it a clear talent. If muffled, it has no meaning and therefore not a memorable experience."
Copley News Service - Recommended
"...Judging from the large audience at my performance, “The Kid from Brooklyn” will attract a senior citizen audience with fond memories of Kaye. Childers’s bravura impersonation may satisfy these customers, but I left the theater feeling that I could have spent the evening more profitably watching Kaye in “Knock on Wood,” still the funniest movie I’ve ever seen."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Brian Childers is technically dazzling, and even looks the part, but there’s something a little cold about his impersonation, echoed in the bellicose edge he imparts to Kaye’s more calisthenic performances. All the singers press a little hard, maybe because they’re working against a faintly soulless script, dominated by an accurate but stock manager-wife, actress-mistress love triangle—with a nod to rumored fourth-wheel Laurence Olivier—and the standard résumé-credit whistlestop tour."
ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended
"...Amazingly, Childers, despite his best efforts, fails to captures Danny Kaye’s mystique. Few in the audience laughed at Kaye’s shtick. Fewer responded to his audience involvement efforts to have the audience sing along with him. Childers fell flat as Danny Kaye at the performance I attended."
