Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"..."The Gin Game" generally has been seen as a effective and entertaining vehicle for superior senior actors; that is what you will be seeing here. But if you watch closely, and keep focused on what these performers are quietly revealing, you leave with the sense that none of this is really a game."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Although Coburn's play received the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, it is more of a finely observed vehicle for bravura actors than a masterpiece of dramatic art. But as someone whose watched her own 93-year-old mother - a woman with an unassailably independent spirit - deal with life in senior housing, I can attest to the truth of much that unfolds in the play, and to the comedy, pathos, frustration, anger and loneliness of it all."
Daily Herald - Recommended
"...The longtime Chicago-area actors did not pressure Drury Lane to stage "The Gin Game" as a vanity project. It was the Oakbrook Terrace theater that doggedly pursued the husband-and-wife team to step away from semi-retirement. So "The Gin Game" becomes quite a milestone as the 30th Drury Lane production to feature Reeger and Scrofano either separately or together."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...Charles Durning and Julie Harris in the 90s-the play drags and disappoints. Here it's performed by Chicago stalwarts (and real-life married couple) Paula Scrofano and John Reeger and directed by Ross Lehman, but while the actors comedy and heart into the thin material, their sweet, quirky sparking only makes the play's rough, unresolved ending seem all the more a cop-out."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Scrofano and Reeger — married thespians — are outstanding in their roles
and received a standing ovation. They follow in the footsteps of another
married pair of actors: Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy whose Broadway
production, directed by Mike Nichols, deservedly won a Pulitzer Prize for
Drama in 1978 and was nominated for four Tony Awards."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Let’s go back in time. The year was 1978 ( about 40 years ago) . During that year a Pulitzer Prize was awarded to D.L. Coburn’s “The Gin Game”, a two character play that takes place on the patio of a nursing home in any city in any state at any time. This is in fact, a two person play and although many productions have been done to great success, I must say that Drury Lane’s production starring Chicago’s favorite theatrical duo, John Reeger and his wife, Paula Scrofano , is indeed a play that should be on your “must see” list."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...This sad, dramatic, yet often humorous story is a character study of two elderly loners for whom life has dealt a rotten hand. Weller’s insistence that Fonsia continue to play cards, even though she effortlessly beats him every time, is a metaphor for this frustrated man’s need to succeed somewhere in life. He’s one of those outcast individuals who’s lost all his power and control of those around him, and Weller needs some feeling of superiority to feed his fragile ego. Fonsia, we soon discover, isn’t about to give in easily and eventually their war of wills comes to an unexpected climax."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...That 1970’s production starred legendary Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. This production is similarly informed by the electricity of real-world married couple Paula Scorfano and John Reeger who seem to infuse their parts with all the intuition that comes to couples who have been mates for decades. They really know how to get under each others’ skin."
