"Few Shakespeare productions gallop at half the pace director Jeff Harnish sets in this Velvet Willies production. That swiftness gives an apt giddiness to Helena's headlong quest to wed the haughty Bertram, who flees the country after being betrothed to her by the king. But keeping the show on fast-forward not only creates a uniform energy and an ultimately wearying avalanche of words, it also obscures the troubling question that gives the play psychological weight: why can't the seemingly insightful Helena let go of a self-serving, inconstant lech? This may be "All's Well Lite," but considering that the cast also perform Hamlet in repertory, it's impressive they're even on their feet for the final curtain. And Roseanne Clark in her Chicago debut effortlessly combines Helena's lowborn humility and native chutzpah into a satisfying whole" - Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader 7/15/05

"Ever watched a lame sitcom with the sound muted and realized the only thing you missed was the laugh track? It turns out the fill-in-the-blank, throwaway dialogue is secondary to the show's main purpose as a vehicle for the cast's cutesy expressions (one per actor). That's the experience of watching this All's Well. The troupe seems to have learned everything it knows about comedy from major-network shows airing between 7 and 9pm. As with sitcoms, you find yourself not really listening, just passively watching gestural acting straight from the Jennifer Aniston school of drama. There are two types of Shakespeare productions: those that don't require hard work to hear what's being said, and those that do. Harnish's is firmly stuck in the latter camp. Dressed in street clothes (to make the Elizabethan playwright contemporary), actors mutter their lines or race headlong through them; they seem to have zero interest in what the words might mean. They're too busy smirking to communicate the problematic undertones in Shakespeare's play about a wily woman conniving her way into bed with her husband, who so resents his enforced marriage he'd rather fight a war than sleep with his wife. Such disengaged laziness is exactly the ammunition needed by those who question why anyone still bothers with the Bard" - Novid Parsi, TimeOut Chicago 7/14/05