“A QUINTESSENTIAL CHICAGO PRODUCTION”

“Under Michael Weber's direction supported by Brenda Didier's delightfully period choreography, Porchlight captures the mood, tone and excitement that drives this musical's vintage heartbeat. It's a quintessential Chicago production that celebrates the working class nightlife that once permeated that ‘great big town on a great big lake.’”

Bob Bullen, Chicago Theatre Addict

“Porchlight Music Theatre’s energetic revival compensates for the script’s shortcomings by immersing the audience in the seedy ambience of a Windy City nightclub. Punctuating scene changes with the rumble and flashing lights of passing el trains, director Michael Weber breaks down the barrier between ‘onstage’ and ‘offstage’ action, integrating the musical numbers into the dialogue and making the show come off as a nightclub revue—a ‘comedy with songs,’ as Lorenz Hart intended, rather than a musical.”

Albert Williams, Chicago Reader

“In the two and a half hours of Michael Weber’s’ pizzazz-packed staging you can taste hard-hoofing Joey’s all-American hunger for the big time, enough to eagerly wait for him to blow it. Lorenz Hart sure knew the territory. So does Weber. The seven-man orchestra, conducted by Jeremy Kahn, do rich justice to Rodgers’ still-hip score, Brenda Didier’s choreography bursts with period-perfect blowout dance un-routines, the casting is superb, and, well, this will be a hit to remember.”

Lawrence Bommer, Stage and Cinema

“There’s a lot to love about Porchlight’s intimate perspective, from the dynamism of Michael Weber’s stage direction to the 1930s Chicago razzle invoked by music director Doug Peck and choreographer Brenda Didier…this is a production charged with in-your-face energy and underpinned with poignant wit.”

Lawrence B. Johnson, Chicago on the Aisle


“Luckily, under Michael Weber’s inventive direction, Porchlight’s ‘Pal Joey’ still sings, playfully evoking the subterranean jazz treble of 1930s Chicago—crooning away beneath the train tracks racketing above—even as Brenda Didier’s leggy, show-stopping choreography brings to mind the heyday of the Ziegfeld Follies. Indeed, even if the restitution of O’Hara’s original book leaves the pacing of the show’s latter half a little wanting, Porchlight’s ‘Pal Joey’ retains its distinction as a show with a thousand little pleasures.”

Tom Williams, Chicago Critic