Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...The diction is mushy at times, and while Kevin Bishop's turn as Wilde is hugely sympathetic — particularly once the tables are turned and Wilde becomes a hunted animal — Bishop lacks the easy charm so essential to the earlier portions. (You also have to wonder why the company didn't simply stage the show in an actual karaoke bar.) There's some heavy-handedness to director Michael Rashid's decision to have "reality" intrude on the story, via intimations of threats and violence from outside the bar. These gimmicks don't deepen the play, which has always made it clear that Wilde was the victim of a legally sanctioned form of high-stakes bullying. And, curiously enough, Rashid leaves you with the message that it definitely will not get better."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...In director Michael Rashid's inventive, sometimes explicitly homoerotic staging, Kaufman's script is enacted by the denizens of a gay karaoke bar. This meta-theatrical approach highlights Wilde's status as a modern gay icon and martyr. It also illuminates the conflicted sexual drives behind his unconventional aesthetic philosophy. The result is a compelling, powerfully acted mix of courtroom drama and passion play."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...It's not easy to conjure a tearful denouement—and playgoers are advised to bring their hankies for this one—from a scenario initiated by hugs, swishes, and the ubiquitous "Don't Stop Believing" (Glee arrangement). Although the ensemble is uniformly committed to their multiple characters—with only Kevin Bishop and Casey Chapman, as Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, respectively, playing single roles throughout—the heavy-lifting honors go to Danne W. Taylor, whose Marquess of Queensbury and two prosecuting attorneys strike just the right note of menace amid the pretty boys for whose sake Oscar Wilde chose to die so courageously and unnecessarily."
Centerstage - Recommended
"...The ensemble, mastering an incredible amount of dialogue, supplies the necessary pace, pathos and levity in each scene. Kevin Bishop, his smug politeness often turning to a sneer, creates an Oscar Wilde whose strength masks his contempt for those unable to respect a "love that dare not speak its name." In every word, every subtle gesture, Bishop demonstrates how Wilde's goal was to use art to guide life through a pursuit of beauty. Mark LeBeau is an strong, empathetic Clarke and Danne W. Taylor's vocal and physical presence command the stage as Queensberry. And Rashid's staging is always imaginative: In one powerfully erotic montage, four nearly naked young men writhe around on a couch seducing Wilde as around them the courtroom drama spins uncontrollably toward its tragic conclusion."
Chicago Stage Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...Still this is a daring effort by a brave new company, obviously committed to unique and important work. Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde tells a historically vital and profoundly pertinent story that challenges the audience to think about art, esthetics, and more importantly the legislation of love. At a time when every step forward by the LGBT community seems to be met by being pushed three steps backwards, the story of Oscar Wilde is as much our call to arms as it is our Passion Play. Black Elephant Theatre’s production takes a lot of risks to varying degrees of success but ultimately pays earnest homage to this critical story and with the rise of anti-gay violence, institutionalized intolerance and suicidal gay youth, it comes at a crucial time."
ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended
"...It is bad camp, bad theatre and poorly acted (except Kevin Bishop and Casey Chapman who tried to make something substantial with of Wilde and Bossie). Skip this one."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Not Recommended
"..One wonders what the real Oscar Wilde would make of his theatrical stand-in currently cavorting on the Raven Theatre's West Stage. Whereas playwright Moises Kaufman provided a fascinating and largely historical viewpoint of the downfall of the flamboyant 19th Century playwright, novelist, poet and symbol of the Aesthetic movement, this version of "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde," marking the debut of Black Elephant Theatre, offers a diminished, modernized cartoon of its subject. Director Michael Rashid seems to view Wilde as a martyr and perhaps a gay Messiah, a fundamental mis-step. Certainly arguments can be made in favor of Wilde's courage to defy the conventions and laws of his age, but there is no factual basis that he did anything for the betterment of society and the future progress of gay liberation. "
Chicago Theater Beat - Somewhat Recommended
"...I recommend this production with a caveat. Unless you dig watching drunken karaoke, take a pass on the pre-show. It’s meant to get the audience into the mind frame of the times and the characters, but it adds more time to a production that clocks in at two hours without karaoke."