By and large, I don't read reviews; the reminder that official opinions exist winds up being so inimical to my creative process that I've found it's healthier just to ignore them. I rely on friends and colleagues who are hardier of stomach to tell me when someone's said something nice. So this is hardly an exhaustive sampling—just some nice things that people have said about some performances, if you're into that sort of thing. (There have of course been nasty reviews, too. I'm sure Google can help you with those.)
. . . watch for Elizabeth Bagby's scene-stealing trio of female armpieces sporting three dialects—French, British and Fry.
—Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Theatrical/physical/vocal chameleon Elizabeth Bagby wows as a French model, a porn star and a British violinist who, as doppelganger to Kate, should leave no one surprised as to where Conor’s true affections belong.
—Aaron Hunt, NewCity (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Conor continues to date arm candy in the form of a brilliant comic actress with legs for days. Elizabeth Bagby plays the French model Annika, the airhead porn star Lexi and the British violinist Elizabeth. Bagby has a brilliant sense of comedy and a grasp of dialects making her a welcome addition to the cast.
—John B. Boss, Chicago Stage Standard (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Signal regulars, Elizabeth Bagby, Vincent Lonergan and Joseph Stearns, play caricatures with hilarious results. Bagby, in multiple roles, is dazzling. She continually transforms in her range of accents and attitudes. Her cheeky duet with Lonergan, “Old Dog”, is riotous.
—Katy Walsh, The Fourth Walsh (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Bagby is everything you want in a bandit storyteller: sharp, clear voiced, with a love of the roll and rhyme of her narration and a piratical delight in sending the narrative off in a new direction.
—Ben Kemper, Chicago Theatre Review (The Dead Prince, Strange Tree Group)
. . . by and large, the cast of six (who all, with the exception of Cupper, play multiple roles) deliver dizzyingly good performances. Cupper brings a sad-eyed, Buster Keaton-like demeanor to Semyon, and Bagby runs away with the proceedings with her chameleon-like shifts from the hunchbacked mother-in-law to a vampish actress to an owlish writer.
—Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune (Goodbye Cruel World, Strange Tree Group)
The silliest and most diverse character transformations belong to Bagby, whose unassuming Serafima is the concentrated image of every sharp, biting old lady you’ve ever met. Bagby, as a poet, also delivers a side-splitting acrostic poem about the deceased that rather appropriately spells out “D.E.A.T.H.”
—Johnny Oleksinski, NewCity (Goodbye Cruel World, Strange Tree Group)
Bagby is a fiery standout as the spurned lover.
—John Beer, TimeOut Chicago (The War Plays, Strange Tree Group)
The ensemble's appealing naturalism is perfect for the tiny space; each performer manages an intimate one-on-one with the audience. Andy Hager's mellow record-store manager is awash in goofy gentleness; Elizabeth Bagby's hard-driving wife arouses both distaste and sympathy in her attempts to break away.
—Lisa Buscani, NewCity (People We Know, the side project)
Webster’s characteristically snappy production features a seasoned and sensitive cast. Andy Hager, who’s developing into one of the city’s premier comic actors, lends sad-sack Joshua—a modern-day record-store manager—a moving, steely dignity. He’s ably matched with Elizabeth Bagby, whose Hannah gleams with a wry intelligence on the edge of snapping.
—John Beer, TimeOutChicago (People We Know, the side project)
Tenges excels at truthy dialogue dipped in acid, and Adam Webster's cast of six could hardly be better at landing his lines with razor precision.
—Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader (People We Know, the side project)
It's a rare cast that has nary a single dud performance or at least "lesser" presences, but this one takes the cake. Every actor has at least one (and in the case of Hager and Bagby, several) knockout moments that shine. Playing both to each other and in monologues directed to the audience, there is an unforced grace in each performance that balances the difficult territory the characters navigate - no scenery chewing to be found and a subtleness that a larger space and less capable cast would squash.
And Bagby is just spectacular.
—Don Hall, An Angry White Guy in Chicago (People We Know, the side project)
A hauntingly intoxicating work [with] exceptionally fine acting. . . . Elizabeth Bagby's Judy . . . is the most sympathetic of the three characters, thanks to Bagby's remarkable expression of suffering and rage in a perfectly nuanced rendering [of] the obliged dignity of Judy's station.
—Randy Hardwick, Chicagocritic.com (The Designated Mourner, Right Brain Project)
Elizabeth Bagby as Judy fully conveys the sense of being emotionally changed by the act of describing a life she's actually lived.
—Albert Williams, Chicago Reader (The Designated Mourner, Right Brain Project)
If Theatre 5.2.1 can hang on to talents like [Joseph] Stearns, [David] Morrison, and leading lady Bagby . . . the company's probably onto something.
—Christopher Piatt, TimeOut Chicago (The Sleeper, Theatre 5.2.1)
Even better is the decadent Elizabeth Bagby as [DeLay's] big-haired, blue-eyeshadowed missus.
—Christopher Piatt, TimeOut Chicago (Gerrymander, Striding Lion)
. . . watch for Elizabeth Bagby's scene-stealing trio of female armpieces sporting three dialects—French, British and Fry.
—Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Theatrical/physical/vocal chameleon Elizabeth Bagby wows as a French model, a porn star and a British violinist who, as doppelganger to Kate, should leave no one surprised as to where Conor’s true affections belong.
—Aaron Hunt, NewCity (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Conor continues to date arm candy in the form of a brilliant comic actress with legs for days. Elizabeth Bagby plays the French model Annika, the airhead porn star Lexi and the British violinist Elizabeth. Bagby has a brilliant sense of comedy and a grasp of dialects making her a welcome addition to the cast.
—John B. Boss, Chicago Stage Standard (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Signal regulars, Elizabeth Bagby, Vincent Lonergan and Joseph Stearns, play caricatures with hilarious results. Bagby, in multiple roles, is dazzling. She continually transforms in her range of accents and attitudes. Her cheeky duet with Lonergan, “Old Dog”, is riotous.
—Katy Walsh, The Fourth Walsh (The Next Thing, Signal Ensemble Theatre)
Bagby is everything you want in a bandit storyteller: sharp, clear voiced, with a love of the roll and rhyme of her narration and a piratical delight in sending the narrative off in a new direction.
—Ben Kemper, Chicago Theatre Review (The Dead Prince, Strange Tree Group)
. . . by and large, the cast of six (who all, with the exception of Cupper, play multiple roles) deliver dizzyingly good performances. Cupper brings a sad-eyed, Buster Keaton-like demeanor to Semyon, and Bagby runs away with the proceedings with her chameleon-like shifts from the hunchbacked mother-in-law to a vampish actress to an owlish writer.
—Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune (Goodbye Cruel World, Strange Tree Group)
The silliest and most diverse character transformations belong to Bagby, whose unassuming Serafima is the concentrated image of every sharp, biting old lady you’ve ever met. Bagby, as a poet, also delivers a side-splitting acrostic poem about the deceased that rather appropriately spells out “D.E.A.T.H.”
—Johnny Oleksinski, NewCity (Goodbye Cruel World, Strange Tree Group)
Bagby is a fiery standout as the spurned lover.
—John Beer, TimeOut Chicago (The War Plays, Strange Tree Group)
The ensemble's appealing naturalism is perfect for the tiny space; each performer manages an intimate one-on-one with the audience. Andy Hager's mellow record-store manager is awash in goofy gentleness; Elizabeth Bagby's hard-driving wife arouses both distaste and sympathy in her attempts to break away.
—Lisa Buscani, NewCity (People We Know, the side project)
Webster’s characteristically snappy production features a seasoned and sensitive cast. Andy Hager, who’s developing into one of the city’s premier comic actors, lends sad-sack Joshua—a modern-day record-store manager—a moving, steely dignity. He’s ably matched with Elizabeth Bagby, whose Hannah gleams with a wry intelligence on the edge of snapping.
—John Beer, TimeOutChicago (People We Know, the side project)
Tenges excels at truthy dialogue dipped in acid, and Adam Webster's cast of six could hardly be better at landing his lines with razor precision.
—Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader (People We Know, the side project)
It's a rare cast that has nary a single dud performance or at least "lesser" presences, but this one takes the cake. Every actor has at least one (and in the case of Hager and Bagby, several) knockout moments that shine. Playing both to each other and in monologues directed to the audience, there is an unforced grace in each performance that balances the difficult territory the characters navigate - no scenery chewing to be found and a subtleness that a larger space and less capable cast would squash.
And Bagby is just spectacular.
—Don Hall, An Angry White Guy in Chicago (People We Know, the side project)
A hauntingly intoxicating work [with] exceptionally fine acting. . . . Elizabeth Bagby's Judy . . . is the most sympathetic of the three characters, thanks to Bagby's remarkable expression of suffering and rage in a perfectly nuanced rendering [of] the obliged dignity of Judy's station.
—Randy Hardwick, Chicagocritic.com (The Designated Mourner, Right Brain Project)
Elizabeth Bagby as Judy fully conveys the sense of being emotionally changed by the act of describing a life she's actually lived.
—Albert Williams, Chicago Reader (The Designated Mourner, Right Brain Project)
If Theatre 5.2.1 can hang on to talents like [Joseph] Stearns, [David] Morrison, and leading lady Bagby . . . the company's probably onto something.
—Christopher Piatt, TimeOut Chicago (The Sleeper, Theatre 5.2.1)
Even better is the decadent Elizabeth Bagby as [DeLay's] big-haired, blue-eyeshadowed missus.
—Christopher Piatt, TimeOut Chicago (Gerrymander, Striding Lion)
