The Marvin Gaye Story (Don't Talk About My Father Because God Is My Friend) Reviews
Chicago Reader- Recommended
"...The story of Gaye's rise and fall is strewn with musical numbers in this Black Ensemble revival-always a highlight of a show here, and Thompson, cast in Jackie Taylor's jukebox drama, has the charisma and power to inhabit the title role. The songs will be familiar, but for some of us the particulars of their conception will be newly revelatory."
ChicagoCritic- Recommended
"...The audience at opening got swept up in Gaye’s seduction, and were even more excited during “Sexual Healing,” only for their fun to be brutally undercut. The Marvin Gaye Story is a very sad one, and Taylor’s mystical framing device only goes so far in sweetening it. But it contains Black Ensemble’s usual high quality of singing, costumes (Ruthanne Swanson), and orchestrations, and the particular form of murderous hatred it examines is obviously one that audiences will be able to recognize easily at the present moment."
Around The Town Chicago- Recommended
"..."The Marvin Gaye Story (Don't Talk About My Father Because God Is My Friend)" is not one of my favorite Black Ensemble Theatre productions. As I've come to expect at BET, the music is the best. The story line, on the other hand, was dark and ugly, revealing way more than I wanted to know about the singer's private life."
Chicago Theatre Review- Somewhat Recommended
"...As the Black Ensemble Theater's 40th anniversary season moves forward, this time around Jackie Taylor's tribute to super singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye is bigger on book and shorter than usual on song. While the hits she's chosen to include are all appreciated, well-sung and choreographed, but there are several missed musical opportunities. Also, the melodramatic direction, the slow pacing and the uninspired staging, often lacking energy or dramatic tension, fail to serve the script. The revue seems, instead, to mimic the singer's laid back style rather than to propel the story. There are, certainly, many wonderful elements in this interesting revival but, somehow, they don't always add up to What's Goin On."
NewCity Chicago- Somewhat Recommended
"...While actor Rashawn Thompson fails to capture the surprisingly laid-back passion of Gaye's vocal style, he's mostly moving as the troubled star. The problem is that the production rarely connects Gaye's music to the shape and direction of his life. Why did an angry man create such mellow music, why-indeed-did he create music at all?"