Lots of laughs, pain and hope

Here is a review posted on Chicago reader online by one of our audience members. Thanks for the dialogue!

"Don’t miss this play! Great theater in a little space. Our group of four saw ‘The End of the Tour’ and went through the range of feelings – joy, sorrow, fear, hate and love. Johnson writes strong story elements of family and friends, dysfunctional as they were. As audience members, if we didn’t directly relate to their stories, the story certainly appealed to our emotions. Lots, of laughs, pain and hope. Well acted and well staged. Congratulations to 16th Street and the theatrical company for a highly entertaining evening. Keep them coming."

Top 10 Reasons to see The End of the Tour

This email below was posted on Berwyn Talks blog from Ted Korbos. And it is so good, I just had to repost it here. Thanks Ted for your approval and your wit!

In my best David Letterman fashion, here are my top 10 reasons to see "The End of the Tour"

10. Ronald Reagan - his speeches, his home town and his former girlfriends (sort of).

9. The 16th Street Theatre - its intimate setting allows the play to grab you by the throat.

8. Tommy - the stereotypical Sox fan - dressing sloppy, guzzling beer and conjecturing about menopause and love.

7. Silence - the silent acting in the "off-screen" scenes that play out in darkness next to the "on-screen" main scene.

6. Chuck - the husband whose world is falling apart, walking around with a dying cat in a cardboard box,

5. Coldness - the coldness of Jan toward her husband Chuck and Andrew toward his partner David.

4. Andrew - Andrew is HOT!, especially in the opening scene in his pajamas and tank top t-shirt - think older version of Patrick Kane with a more well defined body.

3. Mae, the Drama Queen - .Mae, the elderly matriarch of a dysfunctional family, entertaining her fellow senior citizens in a nursing home by singing the Johnny Cash song "I Walk the Line".

2. Mothers - Mae, the mother who can't give up her small town thinking; David, the ultimate Jewish mother; and Jan, the woman who has become a mother to her husband Chuck.

1. Hugs -
- the frantic hug between Jan and Mae at the nursing home when Jan tells Mae she's moving away;
- the tearful hug between Andrew and David after Andrew is once again rejected by his mother Mae;
- the non-hug between Tommy and Chuck after Jan tells Chuck she doesn't love him any more;
- the awkward hug between Jan and Ronald Reagan's old girlfriend at the nursing home
- the warm hug between siblings Andrew and Jan at the end of the play.

Thanks Ted! You deserve a hug!