Chicago Tribune
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Harper's score is one of those melodic, old-fashioned Broadway song suites, varied in style (blues, jazz, traditional Broadway) and possessing great richness. Few people can write a good old novelty number anymore, but Harper could, heard here in a thing called "The Slap Happy Joneses." The ballads feel fresh and true, and the title number has great oomph. The lyrics have been augmented, capably, by music director Jon Steinhagen."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...With its pure musical comedy style, and its funny, sexy, exuberant score, "Josephine Tonight!" has "hit" written all over it."
Daily Herald
- Somewhat Recommended
"...New musical about celebrated African-American dancer/singer Josephine Baker, a skinny girl from St. Louis who started out dancing for pennies on street corners and ended up performing at Europe's top theaters. With its domineering matriarch-mother-daughter-mentor conflicts, it's a little too much like "Gypsy." Baker should dominate the story."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Monique Whittington offers powerhouse performances as Josephine's mother and as her vaudeville benefactress, carrying Steve Scott's workmanlike staging of this creakily constructed bio-musical. But Melanie McCullough's harsh Josephine seems more predatory Motown dream girl than sophisticated headliner at La Revue Negre."
Windy City Times
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The show does reveal Baker as a passionate woman, but the passions aren’t attached to a cause or a plan because Baker’s character remains so unformed at the final curtain. We never see Josephine Baker the star, the sophisticate, the charismatic presence, the social activist, the anti-Nazi heroine."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...veteran Harper (who sadly died in 2004) has penned a pleasant pastiche score that could give Josephine a solid life in regional houses whose audiences gobble down bio musicals of jazz and pop came-from-nothing stars."
ChicagoCritic
- Recommended
"...Josephine Tonight! will emerge as a stage-worthy show that will appeal to Broadway patrons as a fresh rendition of the classic rags to riches backstage profile we can’t seem to get enough of. Josephine Tonight! is rich in humor with a hum-able, toe-tapping score and smart, sassy lyrics."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...Melanie McCullough doesn't get nearly the amount of stage time or material she deserves in the title role, but she manages to create a feisty, independent and highly likable person. In fact, this production may spark a genuine interest in the real lady behind the legend."
