Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Does it all work? Only to some extent. The best part of this production comes at the beginning, in the scenes with Simpkins and Walker, two fine performers who both deconstruct the masculine assumptions of the era and live inside it enough for you to believe. That works very well for a while, and it pops up again later in a fine scene with Roque and Rodriguez, but, overall, the piece keeps tipping too far in the direction of parody."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...There is nothing particularly revelatory in any of this. But the glowing faces of "the next generation" in the show's final moments offer a bit more optimism than is usual these days. Maybe that's enough."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...In act two, everyone moves into a freshly constructed fallout shelter, where a series of excruciatingly private encounters (despite repeated insistences that the bunker affords no privacy) allow all but the heterosexual males to quickly and quirkily discover new, liberating, nonpatriarchal identities. As queered-up wish fulfillment—complete with gender-fluid casting—it’s amusing. But director Will Davis’s overamped production unwisely insists that a two-hour skit is visionary drama."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Then there’s the casting—characters comprising three men and three women, all of them cisgender, are played by five cis women and a trans actor. When looking at the power structures that define our society and our family units, gender is one of the core supports holding the whole thing up. By having non cis-male actors portray these cis-male characters, those structures are up-ended from the very start. The roles these men play are allowed to be just that: roles."
Theatre By Numbers - Recommended
"...While the script may not create the full narrative of a new day on the horizon, this production looks and sounds optimistic about our collective future. As boundaries blur and change, Davis wants the audience to know that we can have a good time putting the old world to bed, just as we are creating the new."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...This unusual play, skillfully directed by Will Davis, is at first filled with sitcom-like humor that slowly dissolves into thought-provoking angst and drama. Davis’ unique casting adds another dimension to this production and offers even more food for thought. As the two families bond in their bomb shelter, theatergoers will reflect on how this event from the 60’s somewhat mirrors our recent tentative relationship with North Korea and the Middle East. It’s story about self-discovery under adverse conditions that strikes a familiar cord."
Third Coast Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...The story is about families living through a political crisis a half century ago, but director Davis flips any mid-century thoughts with his casting and a colorful, minimalist design. We're Gonna Be Okay was first staged in 2017 at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, where the presentation was apparently traditional. Davis, working with the Chicago Inclusion Project on casting, weaves in contemporary identity issues. The six roles are played by female actors, not all successfully. Walker and Smith as Sul and Mag are warm and natural, as is Chandrashekar as Leena. Efran, who plays a large role, is supposed to be a talkative, take-charge guy but Simpkins seriously overacts and changes the tone of the production, which varies from conversational to campy and back again."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...From the first step into the large American Theatre Company space to see their new play, We’re Gonna Be Okay, the theatregoer is immersed in what the playwright, Basil Kreimendahl, calls “an idea of 1962.” In order to get to the theatre proper, patrons have to walk past an early 60s family room complete with television and a family (the play’s actors). The verisimilitude of such a scene sets up a contrast with the somewhat heightened reality of the play to follow, a send-up of the Cold War paranoia and the naïve innocence that led people to build backyard fallout shelters in the hope of escaping alive if “the big one” dropped. The play follows two neighbor families who decide to build their own shelter to save money and end up descending into it when the Cuban Missile Crisis starts, as the play focuses itself into a study of relationships."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...Davis' ensemble of six shines, and delivers the fast-paced humor with spot-on comedic timing. It is clear that Davis worked with the actors to help shape their chemistry, as well as create nice compliments to each other."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"..."We're Gonna Be Okay" is not simply one of the funniest shows you're likely to see this year. It is also one of the most joyous. Casting female- and trans-identified actors as well as actors of color into plays about heteronormative whiteness is not so much an act of reclamation as a declaration of inclusion by sheer force of will. America-even its stages-does not make room for these stories, so artists like Kreimendahl, Davis and this cast carve them out of the theatrical soil. The process is surely no picnic but the rewards are manifold for the artists and audiences alike."
