PicksInSix Review: Holiday - Goodman Theatre

Goodman’s ‘Holiday’: An Unabashed Comic Classic!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Ed Tracy

The scintillating Robert Falls directed Goodman Theatre world premiere production of the late Richard Greenberg’s stellar final work—a fresh, funny and thoroughly engaging adaptation of Phillip Barry’s 1928 play “Holiday”—may just be the best production of a promising young season of terrific offerings in Chicago. The timeless love story now playing through March 1 on the Albert Theater stage features an exceptional ensemble and a brilliant Walt Spangler scenic design that is a sight to behold.

The action unfolds before, during and after New Year’s 2020. Johnny Case (Luigi Sottile), a lawyer and idealist has fallen for and proposed marriage to Julia (Molly Griggs) before he was aware that she is the daughter of Edward Seton (Jordan Lage), the patriarch of New York’s wealthy Seton dynasty. Upon arrival at the Seton Mansion on Fifth Avenue, Johnny meets Julia’s older sister Linda (Bryce Gangel), a free-spirited individualist and the younger gay brother Ned (Wesley Taylor), a happy-go-lucky aristocrat with a long list of addictions.

The inevitable meeting between the elder Seton and Johnny sets the stage for the story that follows, a confrontation between the ideologies of Seton’s uber wealthy ideals that permeate the family who consider the “only thing better than a lot of money is more money,” and Johnny’s more eclectic course to have enough money to allow life to be fully lived.

The family operates more or less under the will of their father who favors Julia’s burgeoning financial career over Linda’s bohemian lifestyle in Red Hook and Ned’s inept existence at the family home. Favoritism for Julia has driven both Linda and Ned emotionally closer together with each serving as protector for the other. Things start to unravel when Linda offers to plan a quaint New Year’s Eve party to make the couple’s formal announcement only to have Julia invite a guest list in the hundreds. At the party, Linda hides away in the family’s attic playroom with Johnny, Ned, her Brooklyn friends Nikka Washburn (Christiana Clark), and Nikka’s partner, Susan Feld (Jessie Fisher). The imposing cousin, Seton Cram (Erik Hellman) and his wife Laura (Alexandra Esclante) crash the party, the wheels start to come off the wagon, and all plans for the future are up in the air.

The ensemble, which includes Rammel Chan as the estate’s private chef Walter, delivers Greenberg’s witty, razor-sharp dialogue flawlessly, never missing a comic turn-of-the-phrase. That goes double for Taylor who gives the performance of the night. It all plays out on Spangler’s stunning scenic design that transforms from a richly-appointed living room to the expansive attic playroom and back again in the blink of an eye.

With all of the superb technical elements—from Kaye Voyce’s costumes and original music and the sound design by Richard Woodbury to the Amith Chandrashaker’s evocative light design—Goodman’s “Holiday” is an unabashed comic classic!

PHOTO|Todd Rosenberg

Goodman Theatre
presents
World Premiere
HOLIDAY
Albert Theater
170 N Dearborn Street
through March 1, 2026

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PicksInSix Review: Judgment Day - Chicago Shakespeare Theater

“WHAT GOES ON IN YOUR HEAD?”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

There’s a deliciously hilarious show now playing in The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, a spritely, unabashed, comic romp that centers on a deceitful and wretched lawyer named Sammy Campo (Jason Alexander) who gets what everyone wants out of life: a second chance. The world premiere of “Judgment Day,” with a whip-smart, no-holds-barred script by Rob Ulin that’s loaded with laughs, casts the irrepressible Alexander as one of the most crass and insincere bottom feeders you will ever imagine, thanks as well to the crisp satiric direction of Moritz von Stuelpnagel.

Right at the top, coming on the heels of one of his greatest and most sinister of schemes, the throttled Sammy suffers a massive heart attack. During Sammy’s near-death experience, he is greeted in purgatory by an Angel (Candy Buckley) who appears to him as his former Catholic school teacher. No salvation here, though, as she welcomes the idea that Sammy will finally and forever be “attacked by pecking birds” and boiled in “flaming diarrhea” in Hell to pay for his sins.  

But, since there are always technicalities when you are dealing with matters of Heaven and Hell, Sammy is miraculously restored to the living, armed with a new mantra to accumulate points for good deeds that will realign the trajectory of his afterlife upward. All the insincerity that follows, spewing effortlessly from the irreverent Sammy Campo, begs the question: What will it take to turn this self-centered manipulator into a person worthy of the glory of Heaven?

Sammy first makes a pact with Father Michael (Daniel Breaker), a conflicted priest who jeopardizes his own well-being by ruffling the feathers of the by-the-good-book Monsignor (Michael Kostroff) by helping Sammy. There’s the hard luck story about Edna (Meg Thalken), a member of Father Michael’s congregation who is being evicted from her house for non-payment of her dead husband’s insurance claim. The third opportunity is the reconciliation with his love-lorn wife Tracy (Maggie Bofill) and son Casper (Ellis Meyers). As the relationship with Father Michael develops, Sammy reconciles with Tracy and settles in with Casper. Soon, even his steadfast and delightfully direct assistant Della (Olivia D. Dawson) begins to recognize glacial changes in Sammy’s demeanor. But the question of salvation remains to be answered and this is where “Judgment Day” must meet its maker.

In its best and most hilarious moments—and there are many—Ulin’s script clips along much like a television sitcom, dealing with our hard fast perceptions of spirituality, morality, sex and love. The lawyerly, contrary point of view that Alexander’s self-centered despot espouses is perfectly counterbalanced by Breaker’s everyman character. Ulin allows Father Michael to complete our thoughts at Sammy’s outrageous observations at every turn, whether in the confessional, on a stakeout of insurance adjuster Jackson (Joe Dempsey) or simply finding consolation and ultimately friendship on a park bench.

Beowulf Boritt’s scenic design elements transition from Sammy’s office to the confessional and Tracy’s home all framed in a massive faux stained glass backdrop that offers otherworldly opportunities for the combined efforts of Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting design, Mikaal Sulaiman’s sound and Tilly Grimes costumes. The open design allows Alexander full range of mobility, stepping in and out of scenes in search of his comic salvation in this highly entertaining piece that feels very much like it was heaven sent just for him.  

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

Chicago Shakespeare Theater
presents
World Premiere
Jason Alexander
JUDGMENT DAY
through May 26

The Yard
Navy Pier

WEBSITE

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For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

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PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC