Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...a thoroughly invigorating, tightly focused piece of Chekhovian drama, wherein chatter about work and art, petty domestic acts and personal bickering patently fail to mask deep vulnerability, resentment and existential despair. It's a sophisticated play that reveals a lot about the architect's lot, but it does not get stuck within those boundaries."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...As always, director Robert Falls, working with designers Thomas Lynch, Susan Hilferty and Michael Philippi, has created a splendid visual environment for the play. But Falls also seems to have taken a page from his staging of O'Neill's "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" with overly glacial pacing in many places. The actors' sometimes muffled speech also needs to be corrected."
Daily Herald - Recommended
"...This cast is exemplary, and Robert Falls' direction is brisk and spare and he does an excellent job sustaining the emotional tension without wallowing in the despair that underscores this insightful, unsentimental play."
SouthtownStar - Somewhat Recommended
"...All the performances stand out, but Peter Weller is the highlight of the show. In a stunning, larger-than-life portrayal of the architect, the well-known film and television actor takes over the stage with gripping intensity, much in the way that Wright took over the stage of the architectural world....There are a few problems in the script, though, that with some tweaking would make this an even more powerful work. Nelson's play is too skeletal and could use some fleshing out."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...The Goodman production -- directed by Robert Falls and set to move next month to New York's eminent Playwrights Horizons -- succeeds on the strength of its fine performances. With his craggy face and deep-set eyes, Weller is every inch the American icon with feet of clay, conveying Wright's power and pain. The actors skillfully negotiate the script's abrupt, occasionally arbitrary shifts in mood."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Using irony and wit to conceal deeper intellectualism, Nelson gives director Robert Falls and star Peter Weller the Wright stuff to please an audience in this New York-bound world premiere. Physically, Wright dominates every scene he’s in, isolated downstage by Falls; or standing while others sit; or moving while others are still."
Chicago Free Press - Somewhat Recommended
"...For sheer dramatic dementia Mary Beth Fisher’s hysterical Miriam deserves a play of her own, Jay Whittaker’s take on this resentful but not prodigal son is worthy of O’Neill’s wastrels and Maggie Siff’s caring Catherine suggests the love Wright sacrificed on the drawing board. But as a whole the rich details and melodramatic mad scenes can’t compensate for a lack of urgency in both writing and plot. All our systematic eavesdropping has been to no avail."
EpochTimes - Recommended
"...This is a wonderful story, directed by Robert Falls and with a stellar cast of players.Peter Weller is dynamic as Wright- and captures the ego of this man. His mentor , Sullivan is deftly handled by Harris Yulin, who captures the great architect on his way down to a tee.
The children , Lloyd ( Jay Whittaker is a standout) and Catherine ( Maggie Siff) offer just the right touch as the kids left behind in the shadow of the genius and the hurt they felt over the years."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...When Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress have a terrific row, one can only imagine what they say to each other. And that’s precisely the problem with Frank’s Home: One has to imagine. The most dramatic encounter in Nelson’s new play takes place offstage."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...Frank’s Home contains too few revelations despite the wordiness of the 100 + minute one act play. It sure has its moments if you can get over the slow start. With some edits and tightening, Frank’s Home will become a place of enlightenment."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended
"...In Peter Weller's stoic, square-jawed, steel-coated prism interpretation, Frank Lloyd Wright becomes a remote, albeit colorful island unto himself. He rants and raves (especially in a monologue that seems to go on for days) about beauty and art, but seems unable or not interested in forging any human connections. We admire his passion, but care nothing for the man himself."
