Once upon a week ago I went to a play, and it was called Feast because it is about food. The play was funny at some parts and sometimes not. It was fun but weird because I have never seen a play like it before. The kids wrote the stories; they acted on a stage that had a great set. It was awesome.Ada Grey has loved theater since she saw her first show at age two. She started reviewing at age 4 and started acting at age 6. Her philosophy of criticism is to respect the people who created the art, be genuine, and give helpful criticism. She is happy to be back to reviewing for the 2021-22 season.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Review of Feast at Albany Park Theater Project
Once upon a week ago I went to a play, and it was called Feast because it is about food. The play was funny at some parts and sometimes not. It was fun but weird because I have never seen a play like it before. The kids wrote the stories; they acted on a stage that had a great set. It was awesome.Thursday, October 21, 2010
Review of State of the Union at Strawdog Theater Company

Once a week ago I went to a play called State of Union and it was good. It was a great show. I liked it a lot. The play was about somebody that was running for president. But he didn’t want to be president. It was about a union, and it was in the state.
Michael Dailey, he plays Grant. He was very funny at parts; sometimes he wasn’t. At the beginning he didn’t want to be president and he was telling everybody. That was a serious time. The guy that was married to the girl that was drinking with Grant’s wife gave him some stuff that he could do when he was president on a card and Grant said “Could you please throw these away.” It was funny.
Kristina Johnson played Kay, Grant’s girlfriend. That character was one of my favorite characters because I just thought she was smart and cool and fancy. I thought she had some good ideas about him being president. She published newspapers for work. Her costume was very very pretty, like the black and white dress she wore until it got stained; then it didn’t look as pretty--but it was still very pretty.
Kendra Thulin, she played Mary. She was Grant’s wife. She played a good part--she did a good job pretending to be angry. She did a good job because I think she was cast very good; she was a good choice as the character. She had to pretend to be drunk. She had to pretend that someone was her husband, and I thought she did a good job of that because it really wasn’t her husband. It was very cool how fast she talked.
Andy Lawfer played Spike who was Grant’s assistant, and it was funny how he tried to eat Grant’s hamburger. Then Grant’s wife said “don’t you dare” and he said “okay, I can starve.” It was HILARIOUS (all in capitals, please). So he had a pencil behind each ear, and he was looking for a pencil, and he found one, but not from his head. It was funny.
BF Helman he played the agent to the president. He was trying to find someone to be president because Franklin Roosevelt was dead. He kept talking on the telephone in the middle of a conversation about Grant. He just kept going on and off and on and off--it was funny. He was kind of a good guy and kind of a bad guy in the play.
Kate Harris, she played Mrs. Alexander. She was so very funny because of the accent that she had. There was a funny scene that she was in. Her husband made her so many drinks that all those drinks made her get more drinks. Once he brought her 4 so he didn’t have to go back so much. Jim Heatherly played Judge Jefferson Davis Alexander who was the husband of that girl I was just talking about. He gave Grant the letter, and that’s the one that he threw away. Both of them did an awesome performance.Annie Munch, she did a good job playing all the servants. She didn’t have a very big part, but I still think she did a good job. She played all the maids except for the boy ones. I could tell that they were different because one of them wore a hat and one of them didn’t. She was also the food maid that brought them food. And that’s when the wife said “Don’t you dare, Spike.” Pat Whalen played another of the servants. He brought in the radio. It was really funny how he said, “lots of people want radios today.”
Rob Skrocki, he played the Senator. He was at the party with the girlfriend and the woman the wife talked to. Brant Russell played Hardy. Hardy was so funny because he said, “Nobody told me not to dress.” He was the only one who was dressed up fancy. The friend Sam (John Zinn) came in at the party and it was scary when the wife found out that the girlfriend was in Detroit at the same time she was. Samantha Gleisten played Mrs. Draper. When she went looking for her wrap the wife said, “Would you like some help?” And she said, “No, I’m just going.” I think maybe she missed her husband or her children.
The set was cool because of the arches. The arches were so cool. The set had a couch and some teacups, and I actually got to pretend to drink from one of the teacups when they were practicing for the show. I think all the places they went were almost the same, but that was okay because it was just a set. They went places that you would go awhile ago--I mean like in the time that Eleanor Roosevelt was alive. The person that made the set (Marianna Csaszar) did a good job because they took away the desk because you would not have a desk everywhere you go.
The costumes were cool because they looked like that kind of time period when Amelia Earhart was alive. Joanna Melville was the costume designer and she made good costumes because when she made them she must have thought about the time period that this was in. My favorite girl’s costume was the black one that the girlfriend was wearing. I thought the costume designer did a good job at making it look like it was stained when the wife spilled a drink on her. And I loved the one that the wife wore when she first came in. I liked Spike’s and Grant’s costumes--my favorite one was the white one.
Geoff Button was the director and I think he did a good job casting everybody. I think Michael helped him. Michael is my friend who I helped do his work while my dad was rehearsing. The director did a good job directing because he made the story very clear for grownups and some of it for kids.
I felt good to see the show. I was glad that some people that I knew were in it, and some people that I didn’t know were in it, because I thought that then I could meet some new people and see some people I had known before. People that like romance and presidents would like this play. Tell kids that if they want to come see the play, “Well, you might not understand all of this.” That’s okay because not even some grownups understood all of it. And tell them there will be some kissing too.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Review of Comedy of Errors at Court Theatre

The set was filled with paintings that were all doors so they could peek through them at the end. I thought it looked kind of dirty; it had like trash everywhere. It was funny because it had Coke cans and McDonald’s boxes and leftover Subway sandwiches. Those weren’t there in that time, in the time that Shakespeare wrote this play. That was an exaggeration. The set was very very cool.
The costumes were really cool because they didn’t look exactly like the time, but they kind of did. The
I’ve seen Alex Goodrich in plays before. I’ve seen him in Emperor’s New Clothes, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Barrel of Monkeys. All the plays I’ve seen him in were awesome. This was an awesome play that he was in. I know that it won’t be the last play I will see him in. Comedy of Errors was the soonest play that I saw him in. The Dromio that is visiting is the brother to the Dromio that lives here. He did a clothes changing where he was the person that was kind of like a priate--he was wearing a pirate kind of shirt--and then he ran on stage in the tuxedo. He was the Dromio that visited first and in two seconds he was a different Dromio. He was awesome. He was so funny. Where he went to Rope Depot--that was a funny part. He is very good at acting. One of my favorite scenes was the one where his master talked into the microphone. The guy that he was recording (his master) just talked right into a recording thing, and then Dromio shut it off. Then at some point he showed it to the ladies, and they were so very angry about it, and it was so very funny. When the other guy said don’t lose the money, Dromio gave it to a poor person or a peddler. He tried to give it to the audience, and he called the audience peddlers because he was pointing to us. He wore this white abbey dress with a paper abbey hat when he was Emelia. Emelia was the father’s wife. It was so very very funny. I didn’t think he was really a girl but he did very good at it.
Elizabeth Ledo, she played three parts. She played a newspaper boy and the sister AND Dromio’s wife. She maked them all seem different which is a good thing to say about a person. She had all these funny lines as all the characters. The one where she drank the Coke can when her sister asked for one--that was funny. Antipholus, he falls in love with the sister Luciana. It was awesomely awesome because it was kind of funny how she like backed away evErik Hellman, he played both Antipholuses, and he also played the father of all the kids. The Antipholuses were different because of their voices, but their hair and body were still the same. One went around with teenagers, the other didn’t. They had different outfits but still looked a lot alike. He sounded like Chico from the Marx Brothers with the bad Italian accent when he was the one that lived there. The one that went around with teenagers went to jail. It was so funny. He did all those funny stuff like talked into the recorder. How he made Dromio do all the work was kind of funny and kind of mean. He was just talking to the wrong Dromio like the whole time. He slapped him instead of his real servant! He is serious and funny both at the same time. He is funny because he was being serious. It was seriously funny.
Kurt Ehrmann, he played Angelo and Dr. Pinch and the Courtezan. The Courtezan was so funny because he tortured them with his shiny underwear. He tortured them with his tights and his wig. Dr. Pinch was the doctor and he was also tooken to jail. He was like a wizard doctor and he had a deep voice and he didn’t make any sense at all. Angelo was so very funny. He tried to get the gold necklace and he stabbed his best friend by accident.Stacy Stoltz, she played Adriana. She was so funny because she asked for a Coke and her sister drunk it because she was not being clear. She was just like, “You are not going to drink that are you?” She was mad because her husband wouldn’t come home to eat. She treated her husband badly because he wouldn’t come home to dinner and she asked him ten thousand times to do it. She was very good at acting, but I haven’t seen her in anything, but she was very good. The character with the animal was so funny and she was a bad guy--an angry merchantess. She needed the chain but she never got it.
Steve Wilson, he played a guy that got stabbed and a duke. He had to wear a fake mustache to play a duke. It was so funny how he got stabbed. At the end of the show it was ten hours ago since he got stabbed, and he was still alive, and he still had the sword in his belly. He says “that’s okay,” but then he started sobbing. It looked like he stayed alive, but he had the sword in his belly for his whole life. He did a good job doing acting.
People who like silly things but dramatic things would like this play. They treated everybody badly, but it was funny. I think this play should be ages six and up because I was six when I saw it. You should really go to this play because you would like it even if you don’t like Shakespeare because it is not all the way Shakespeare. After you see this, I think you might like Shakespeare more.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Review of Daredevil Hamlet at The Neo-Futurarium

Once upon a time, I went to a play called Daredevil Hamlet. It was one of the greatest plays this year. You can play ball with the actors at the beginning. I don’t know what kind of ball it was, but it is some kind of ball. I want to play if I go again.
My favorite dance was the one where they danced in their underwear with skulls on them. It was just so hilarious. It was in the scene that they were talking about Yorick—so I think that was supposed to be about Yorick. Hamlet is sad because Yorick is dead. Maybe they did that funny dance to cheer up Hamlet.
My favorite trick was the one where John held his breath underwater for it felt like a whole hour. He was dressed up as Ophelia because she is actually supposed to be dead in the play because she drowns.
At some point in the play a guy went on a baby’s tricycle and went up the ramp. And it was hilarious because he wasn’t actually doing it by himself. He was getting pushed up and they also lifted him up. It was their version of the part where Hamlet is forced to go on a ship. That’s just my opinion.
The guy who played Robin Hood and the King was from Barrel of Monkeys. If you guys don’t know what Barrel of Monkeys is, you can learn it from me, ADA GREY! Barrel of Monkeys is a show and I have been to at least six of them.
John I saw in The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett…. The Complete Lost Works was in the day, and this was in the night. When you get out of a play that is very long at night then I have to go home and go to bed. The daytime play when I get home I can do stuff like play with my Dad and do funny stories with my dolls and all that stuff. But both days were good. Both were great plays. I thought John was one of the funniest actors in this play.
Brennan was very very hilarious. He was one of the most hilarious people in the play as well as John. Once he came out in a bathing suit and a little kid’s floatie. It was so hilarious, I almost laughed my head off. True story. It almost came off.
Heather came out—I think she was supposed to be in the play. It was so hilarious how she just came out and I didn’t really notice her until I heard her. She yelled a lot. You don’t want to marry someone if they have killed your first husband. I don’t think that she thinks that the king killed her first husband. Why was she carrying each member across the stage? Truly, I don’t know.
Ryan played Hamlet. He was a very good actor. All the actors were good, but he could say all his lines in feeling like I can. “To be or not to be, that is the question,” was my favorite speech because it just had so much feeling in it. Like a feeling that he knew what happened (that his father died after Yorick) and he is not going to let it happen to anyone else, but it does, and then he is sad.
The scene where Hamlet dies is the scariest. They had a swordfight. A big big swordfight. The queen drunk a cup with poison in it, so she died. The other ones got stabbed. Some of them got stabbed with their swords, some of them got stabbed with other swords. Horatio says this speech to Hamlet when he is dying. And then he does another a speech when he is dead. The dying speech is in the play Hamlet. But the dead speech is not in Hamlet. I thought they were both awesome. They were both just so dramatic. Jay was a great actor too. He could do feeling very well.
The wrestling was hilarious because some of it was kind of like in Hamlet and some of it wasn’t. 40 thousand brothers part was in the play Hamlet. The wrestling wasn’t in the play—with a coach and stuff and these numbers. I hoped that Hamlet would win it, but Laertes won it because he was her brother and Hamlet was just a guy who was in love with her.
Yorick was a very cute skull who was also a fake skull. He was very cute because he looked exactly like a skull, and skulls are cute sometimes except when they are trying to eat people. I wish that I could be closer to Yorick so I could see what he looked like close up. He looked like he was a smart guy.
It was like Shakespeare and not like Shakespeare because it was hilariouser than Shakespeare’s play was. And Hamlet is supposed to be more and more and more dramatic. It was the same because it was kind of dramatic too. The language of the play was mean and soft. I think doing Shakespeare and their own words was a great idea for the play because it made it funnier and easier to understand and harder—both at the same time. There are iambic pentameters in the play.
If you don’t know what iambic pentameter is, you can learn it from me, ADA GREY! Iambic pentameter is something with 10 syllables. So I put up one finger and then “If MU-sic BE the FOOD of LOVE play ON.” And then you should put up one finger for each syllable. You should try it at home on your fingers sometime. “To be or not to be” doesn’t work, so don’t try it if you want iambic pentameter.
I think this play is for ages 4 and up. I think people who like dramatic stuff and monsters—because there is a ghost in it—would like it. And people who are hilarious and like hilarious things would like it. People should go from all around the world, even people from other countries.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Review of League of Awesome at Factory Theater

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called The League of Awesome and it was awesome. If you don’t know what a league is, you can learn it from me, ADA GREY! A league is a whole bunch of people put together. The show was about a league of superheroes. They had names for superheroes I had never heard of that sounded cool: Cat Scratch, The Beacon, Rumble. There was one person with just a regular name—Sylvia. No superheroes in comics do that. I think they tried to be funny by giving her not a superhero name. It was very funny.
It seemed like it was going to be horrifying and very funny both at the same time because at the start it had The Sorrowmaker almost winning and Sylvia took the commissioner’s tie and made a mask and in another scene the commissioner said “where’s my tie, I can’t find my tie!” The League of Awesome are upset that they cannot fight any more villains because there are no more villains to fight after they fight The Sorrowmaker. They were fighting with each other because they couldn’t get out of the house. Then they realize he broke loose again.
The set was cool. It seemed like a comic book. It had all these comic book designs, like it had panels. They used comic book colors: red, blue, black, white, yellow, and gold. The costumes were very cool. I liked the mask that Cat Scratch wore a lot. Not kidding. Sylvia’s costume was orange and had ruffles. I think the director made the dress like that to be funny.
Cat Scratch was one of my favorite characters because I like cats a lot. I liked her power—that she could scratch. I liked how she really seemed like she wanted to go back to superheroing. Zoe was the leader of the League of Awesome. She was very smart, I thought. Rumble’s super power was that she had really far punches. Carrie Okay comes in at like the middle. Then they invite her to be in the League of Awesome because she is Sylvia’s sister and she can make people sing. Sylvia was funny. She can make things come true. Like she makes Ms. Great.
Ms. Great is created by Sylvia. She was dressed in gold. It was sparkly and shiny. The Sorrowmaker gets attached to her instead of the girlfriend. He tricks her into working with him. She is actually a good guy but he is a bad guy. She acted kind of like an alien because aliens say things like “Invader, invader, invader!” and she said “You’re welcome!”
The Sorrowmaker was the bad guy. He was kind of funny. I think the character is kind of like a villain who doesn’t know what he is doing. The villain is not really all that smart. The Beacon used to be his girlfriend but then he broke up with her without even telling her. Then they showed a scene of what didn’t happen—her not paying attention that well. I don’t think that’s a reason to break up with someone. Then it showed a picture of him starting to like his other girlfriend. The second scene I thought was the true one.
I liked the girlfriend character a lot. She seemed smart. She was kind of funny. She seems like she really knows something about everything. She has to teach the Sorrowmaker how to be smarter.
It was funny because the Sorrowmaker and Zoe a.k.a. The Beacon were about to fight but they decided to dance. I laughed.
The Commissioner was fun and kind of funny. His assistant was funny. I can’t really describe them, that’s how funny they were. The slapping was kind of funny to me. It made me have the giggles. It made me have the hiccups after.
The Narrator was pretty hilarious. You expect not one who seems drunk. You expect a narrator that is not like this narrator. He always wore this real funny coat like a robe that he wore outside.
I think 6 to 100 year olds could go. There is going to be bad language. The six year olds I think could be ready for that. If littler children want to go, just tell them there will be some bad language, and ask them if that is all right with them. It was the League of Awesomest. See you at my next review. Bye. The end.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Review of Green Tea Sushi Restaurant (2206 N. Clark, Chicago)
Once upon a few times I went to a restaurant called Green Tea. It was a restaurant for sushi. It is by the Lincoln Park Zoo. You go across the street from the zoo, and then you keep walking straight, then cross an alley, then cross a street, and then you turn right at the other street until you see a place for green tea. They had this kind of maki called a Unagi Q. It has fish, sweet sauce, fish, cucumber and rice in it. The kind of fish it is is eel. I like it because it has fish in it, and fish is one of my favorite foods. I love scallops! Scallops are one of my favorite kinds of fish, but I do like unagi better. Unagi tastes good because it is very sweet and smooth, and I think everyone would like it.
The miso soup has seaweed, tofu and onion in it. I like the seaweed best. It tastes kind of wet from soup—because it is in the soup. It is sweet and a little bit salty. What masago is is fish eggs and rice and seaweed. The fish eggs they taste kind of salty and squishy. It tastes like something I’ve never had before. The color of them is orange. They have great edamame there. The edamame is really good because it has lots of sweet taste in it—it tastes like big peas. That is what Uncle Brad calls them!
They have a spider roll that I have never had, so I can’t say how it tastes. The spider roll doesn’t even have spiders in it! It looks round and has this stuff which looks wet in it. It has crunchy parts in it. I think whoever likes crunchy things would like it. Dad, Uncle Brad, and my Mom and Lillie like it. I want to put wasabi on masago some day when I am older.
One of the waitresses I kind of know. We talk sometimes. I make pictures for her. She once gave me a calculator for Christmas. She once gave me cookies. They tasted like chocolate.
There are tables and a place where you can see what they are making. I like to sit at the bar because I like to see if my food is coming. I like to see what the other foods look like. I like it when they roll it up.
They have a Hokusai picture at the back. It has a big wave and people rowing a boat. They have fish decorations. They have a number thing where you try to get all the numbers correct. You move number to make them in the right order 1 and 20.
We read books at the sushi place like Magic Tree House. It entertains me. It feels like I am really at home.
This is the best sushi place because it has great sushi. I like it there a lot. It is a really good place. They have sweeter sushi. It has more realistic food—it tastes more like real fresh food than other sushi restaurants.
The people who would like it would be everybody and people who like sushi. If Lillie reads this review I am sure she will want to go there together.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
CD Review of Jungle Gym by Justin Roberts.

Once upon a time I got a CD called Jungle Gym. It is Justin Roberts music. It was AWE-some.