Red Summer at Center For Performing Arts

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...This is a world premier show, and one of the great things about a premiere show, changes are made to improve the timing, and script of a show. With original score and music, written by playwrights, Shepsu Aakhu, Andrew White, and Shawn Wallace, their 15 songbook credits really emphasized the meaning behind what happened in that week in 1919. Red Summer, pulls off the Band-Aid on one of Chicago's ugly past. The summer of 1919 was the end of the first world war. Because of the great speech that Wilson gave at the time all races came together to fight for a just cause to save the world . After the war, France and other Countries bestowed great honors and medals to American Troops, and also to many African American Units, some of the famous ones were the 369th Inf Regiment, that received the highest honor the Croix de Guerre."

Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Not Recommended

"...It calls itself a musical, but it felt more like a play with the odd song. Exposition numbers were still cropping up at the end of the first act. The music was never quite there, never quite oomph-ish enough for the story at hand. The central motor of the plot-two South Side army buddies, one Black, one white, being thrown apart-never quite revved as it should. The death of Eugene Williams-what ought to be the inciting incident-neither incites much of anything nor does it close the first act on a note of pathos and dread. We only really gather there's a riot going on because there are fire projections."

Picture This Post - Highly Recommended

"...RED SUMMER is for all who want to know history at ground level. The music makes this sad chapter of our history immediate. The production gives us a full frontal experience of the tragedy, more deeply than any academic lesson could achieve."