Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...As a piece of theater — as distinct from a worthy book of oral history — the show isn’t yet fully formed. The designer, Grant Sabin, has a created a huge, thick tree from which jars of tea hang provocatively (which is a powerful image), and the director, Daniel Alexander Jones, has created some arresting visuals. But the show in general needs to lose some of its academic, grant-friendly, risk-free patina that has the effect of stripping some of the sharper edges of the personality from its fascinating subjects and blunting their emotional force. Any show that needs slides to tell you whom you are seeing and the theme of the segment is missing a chance to communicate those things through the power of performance, and so it goes here."
Chicago Reader
- Recommended
"...Not all of Sweet Tea has as much bite and nuance as "Church Sissies", but Johnson never sentimentalizes or overplays his subjects—despite the cornpone augured by Grant Sabin's downhome, tree-and-front-porch set and director Daniel Alexander Jones's heavy reliance on Mason jars (Johnson makes tea in one, pulls ribbons out of another, and addresses still another as if it were Yorick's skull). Johnson's writing and performance avoid cliches and tricks, succeeding on the merits of a good ear, a gift for mimicry, and empathy to spare."
Centerstage
- Recommended
"...Although initially disorienting, under Daniel Alexander Jones' direction, the show unfolds appealingly, possessed of logic all its own. At times choppy, but always enthused, "Sweet Tea" does what theater is meant to, raising questions and awareness; it strives for universality by presenting something specific and true."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...
The result is an empathetic, often hugely entertaining collection of personal anecdotes that suffers from a scant sense of the people they belong to. Like the chapters of his book, Johnson’s play is divided thematically, which makes it difficult to track his narrators; as valiantly as Johnson (a charming if occasionally shaky performer whose vocals can get lost in the Viaduct’s cavernous mainstage space) and director Jones try to delineate them, assigning each a voice, a gesture or an area of Grant Sabin’s inviting front-porch set, 14 is a lot to keep track of without much context. What’s more perplexing is a character that seems promised but hardly shows up: the South."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Recommended
"...The idea of doing a documentary as a play is an intriguing one, and, overall, it works. However, I wonder whether the staged reading of these same interviews would not have been just as, if not more, compelling. To the piece’s credit, Johnson’s performance does breath life into these words, which certainly makes for a vibrant performance and, as the personal essay genre necessitates, he successfully conveys the truth of his subject’s lives in a way that is honest, non-judgmental and entertaining."
