411: Critical Mass

Media snobs, beware. Your bad reviews aren’t going unnoticed. And thanks to “Bad Review” creator and director Angie McMahon, they won’t go unanswered, either. “I got a bad review in the Chicago Reader—that’s where I got the idea,” says McMahon. Her improv show, returning to Lakeshore Theatre June 30, gives a voice to shunned playwrights and actors everywhere by turning the worst theatre review in the Reader into a mockery onstage. As a “fairly young theatre company,” McMahon searched for a way to tell the critics enough was enough. “I get it. You don’t love what we’re doing,” she says. McMahon says that while she has received negative reviews from other papers, “the Reader is perfect because the reviews are so short.” While the performances might warrant a chuckle from the reviewers, make no mistake of who the show has in its sights. McMahon says she is in no way making fun of the plays being reviewed, but rather “the critics, and how they can be unduly harsh.”