Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...The Brothers Q, once behind the counter at the Merz Apothecary in Lincoln Square, now a lettered brand all of their own, have focused this past decade on one main thing: the rap-ization of the Bard of Stratford Upon Avon. By now, nobody does it better."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...Providing much of the show’s verbal fireworks is Pedro’s other bro, the commitment-phobic player Benedick (show co-creator JQ) and Hero’s cousin, the man-hating sexpot Beatrice (renamed MC Lady B and played with absolute fierceness by Ericka Ratcliff). Toss in some villainous sabotage at the hands of Pedro’s brother Don John (GQ again) and the usual Shakespearean mistaken identity, and you have a near-perfect play that should appeal to a younger theater crowd."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...The comedy about two couples' winding journey to love makes good grist for authors Jeffrey and Gregory Qaiyum--the Q Brothers--since there's no great poetry or deep philosophy to be ruined. The original is a slight thing whose pleasures are all about youthful energy and romantic complication, and this entirely rapped version delivers same. The whole seven-member ensemble is delightful, but Jillian Burfete is something special as heroine Hero."
Copley News Service
- Highly Recommended
"...Funk It Up is hip hop with the accent on hip, peppering the audience with bull’s-eye wisecracks, insults, R rated japes, comic tongue-twisters, and versified verbal cadenzas. The visual and literary ingenuity of it all is dazzling."
Centerstage
- Recommended
"...Overall, the cast leaves you impressed, with an over-the-top show presented with outstanding professionalism and moves, grooves and quips that don’t fail to impress."
Time Out Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...It always feels a little more performing-arts school than street, and I could have done without policeman Verges’s (Postell Pringle) mincing (like an outtake from a 20-year-old sketch show), but the piece remains a state-of-the-art contemporary reinvention of Benedick and Beatrice’s wooing."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...This is the type of show that will make you hesitate before purchasing the tickets, there's just something about a rap edition of a Shakespeare play that does not sounds entertaining to me. But surprisingly the show is not as bad as I was originally intending, and many of the dialogue choices made by the Q Brothers will keep you laughing. If you're a hip hop music enthusiast, then this show is definitely for you, but if you're a die-hard Shakespeare fan that cringes at the fact of his work being desecrated, then this show is not for you."
Around The Town Chicago
- Recommended
"...Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s comedies and as most of them do, there is love, love lost, love regained, confusion, identity conflicts, class conflicts and in normal cases three hours of hard to understand language that dates back hundreds of years. This version is NOW! and while it covers most of what The Bard was writing about, this language and the high energy we see is enough to keep our interest. I am sure that many of the audience members, some who may never have seen “Much Ado” cared how close the script follows the story despite its language being very foreign- they all appeared to love it and so will you!"
Chicago Theater Beat
- Highly Recommended
"...In all, Funk It Up is electric, an hour-long onslaught that combines the best parts of a grooving concert, a rip-roaring good story and a night bopping at the clubs. And as the dj who provides the electronic foundation of all the cunning linguistic gymnastics, Adrienne Sanchez brings the noise and the funk, ensuring that the beat goes on throughout the merry war of words."
