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REVIEWS

Tom Jones at Northlight Theatre | Theater review

A freewheeling, innuendo-loving new adaptation of Henry Fielding’s picaresque

★★★★

TIME OUT CHICAGO
January 25, 2014
By KRIS VIRE

In Jon Jory’s fun and freewheeling new stage adaptation of Henry Fielding’s 18th-century picaresque The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, ribaldly staged by William Brown as one of the sexier shows you’re ever likely to encounter at Skokie’s Northlight Theatre, the lustful female “conquests” often seem more in charge of affairs than the good-hearted, good-timing manchild of the title.

Jory’s innuendo-loving adaptation, first produced just two months ago at Actors Theatre of Louisville, employs a blend of direct-address narration and semi-straight-faced scenes that crack the fourth wall; “in-character” performers sometimes react with disappointment to storytelling choices that cut short their chances to get busy. It’s a clever nod both to Fielding’s many writerly digressions and to the winking, camera-acknowledging tone of the Albert Finney–starring film adaptation that won the 1963 Oscar for Best Picture.

And just in case it still hasn’t disarmed you by the end, Northlight’s production tacks on the most winning curtain call in recent memory.

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REVIEWS

Tom Jones leaves in the juiciest parts

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
January 26, 2014
By HEDY WEISS

If, by some chance, members of this country’s pear growers’ association happen to be reading this review, they are advised to head straight to Northlight Theatre, where Tom Jones, John Jory’s stage adaptation of the Henry Fielding novel, is receiving a most delectable production.

To get straight to the core of the matter: There is a pear-eating scene in this show that might go a long way toward suggesting the fruit is one of the more potent of aphrodisiacs.

Director William Brown, a director of great style, wit and playful intelligence, has cast this production to perfection, with Sam Ashdown, a young, physically fleet actor with lean, craggy good looks, immense grace, and the easy command of language by way of extensive work in Shakespeare, proving himself a marvelous Tom Jones … Ashdown has been surrounded by a bevy of beautiful, gifted women who play several roles apiece, and serve as a most varied assortment of erotic bait.

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REVIEWS

Light-hearted Tom Jones an ode to joy of sex

PIONEER PRESS
January 28, 2014
By CATEY SULLIVAN

Bawdy, funny and sexually celebratory, Northlight Theatre’s staging of Tom Jones is welcome blast of heat in the frigid midwinter.

Adapted by Jon Jory from Henry Fielding’s massive 18-volume, 18th century romance, Tom Jones tells a delicious tale of heaving bosoms and unbuttoned trousers as it follows the escapades of a chick magnet in the Era of Enlightenment.

Directed with a clever hand by William Brown, Tom Jones is a lively roll in the hay that’s deeply sensual but never smutty.

Tom Jones is also the rare sex farce wherein the women give as good as they get. The conquests are reciprocal, the characters fully fleshed out in both mind and body.

Yet for all the sexual scrapes and amorous escapades that our fair-haired hero indulges in, Tom Jones — both the play and the character — maintains a delightful core of innocence.

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REVIEWS

Tom Jones, endearing cocksman

Northlight Theatre rollicks mightily with a stage version of Henry Fieldings’s classic novel

CHICAGO READER

January 29, 2014
By TONY ADLER

He’s just a boy who can’t say no. And why should he, with so many desirable women anxious to offer him what’s quaintly referred to as their charms? Tom Jones is one of those magical young men whose very passivity is a turn-on. Handsome, earnest, well-mannered, self-effacing, doggedly honorable, puppyishly sweet, oddly innocent, and totally buff, he incites maternal feelings as a prelude to something steamier.

Henry Fielding’s 1749 coming-of-age novel is at once comic, racy, and moralistic. Jory’s 2012 script pretty much dispenses with the morals, quoting the Bible only in the most subversive way (Ezekiel 23:19—look it up). There are moments of darkness that might accommodate a somber approach. But director William Brown maintains a steely resolve to ignore them. His Northlight Theatre staging is swift even at nearly two and a half hours, very funny, and—let’s face it—rollicking.

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REVIEWS

Northlight’s rollicking Tom Jones offers many delights

★★★★

DAILY HERALD

January 31, 2014
By BARBARA VITELLO

Watching Northlight Theatre’s fabulous Chicago-area premiere of Tom Jones opening weekend, I had a hard time deciding who was having a better time: the audience or the actors.

The laughter from the house pointed to the audience, who likely found director William Brown’s sexy, high-spirited romp the remedy for a midwinter malaise. Then again, Brown’s first-rate ensemble appeared to be having the time of their professional lives.

Either way, it’s a win-win scenario. And it’s not surprising, what with Brown’s canny direction and Jon Jory’s merry adaptation of the 1749 Henry Fielding novel chronicling a young man’s erotic escapades.

From the droll dialogue to the lovely set to the splendid performances, this production’s delights are plentiful. And they continue even after the curtain comes down.

It’s not unusual for audience members to scurry for the exit the minute the play ends. Resist the urge and stick around for the curtain call.

You’ll be glad you did.

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PREVIEWS

Honor and lust take center stage in Northlight’s Tom Jones

PIONEER PRESS
January 15, 2014
By CATEY SULLIVAN

Meet Tom Jones, amorous adventurer and star of novelist Henry Fielding’s saga of “good, clean lustiness.”

“Good Lord, I can’t even tell you how much this character influenced my life,” says director William Brown, who is helming Jon Jory’s adaptation of Tom Jones for Skokie’s Northlight Theatre. “I read it in somewhere in the early 1970s — it just made sex look like such fun.”

Part coming-of-age adventure epic and part social commentary, Tom Jones is essentially the grandfather of all English novels. But don’t let the centuries-old age of Fielding’s novel put you off. So long as there are young men stumbling toward adulthood and bumbling through their attempts at seduction, Tom Jones remains utterly relevant.

“My hope,” Brown adds, “is that Tom Jones makes people remember a moment in time when sex was pure fun. When it didn’t come attached with issues of power or commerce or disease. When it was all about innocence, and spontaneity and exuberance.

“Lust,” he concludes, “gets a bad rap these days.”

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The Best Dramas in Chicago Theatres in February

CHICAGO MAGAZINE
January 28, 2014
By CATEY SULLIVAN

Tom Jones through 2/23 Presumably Jon Jory, the play’s adapter, reined in Henry Fielding’s magnum opus (almost 350,000 words spread over 18 volumes) to a manageable length. But even if he didn’t, you should see this production because the Jeff Award winner William Brown is directing it. Samuel Ashdown leads an ensemble that features standouts Molly Glynn, Melanie Keller, and Marcus Truschinski. Read more>

Winter 2014 in theater: Top 10 critic’s picks

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
January 2, 2014
By CHRIS JONES

Tom Jones: This is not a live appearance by the Welsh singer with the reputation for sparking spontaneous gifts of underwear but a new adaptation by Jon Jory of the novel by Henry Fielding. Then again, Tom Jones, the adventurous 18th-century literary hero, and Tom Jones, the amorous singer, both famously have shared a weakness for beautiful women. At Northlight, the experienced director Bill Brown and handsome star Sam Ashdown are charged with embracing the period raunch and maybe snapping a few corsets along the way. Read more>

Looking ahead to 2014: Top 5 critic’s picks

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
January 1, 2014
By HEDY WEISS

Tom Jones: Henry Fielding’s 18th century novel, about an irresistible scamp with a weakness for women and a propensity for getting into mischief, has been adapted for the stage by Jon Jory. William Brown (To Master the Art) will direct, and even if you can’t wholly forget a young Albert Finney eating and seducing his way through the classic film version, this should be great bawdy fun.  Read more>

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