Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn
Drury Lane Oakbrook
direction and choreography
“…the new production at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace is my favorite of the several prior stagings I have seen, including the Broadway bow in 2017.
My affection for this sleeper hit of the season flows from the sensibility of the director and choreographer, Matt Crowle, who, whether as a performer or a director, has a restless kind of attitude that infuses classic musical comedies not just with zest and exuberance (and a whole lot of tap), but an irreverence and spontaneity that cuts through the sentimentality.”
— Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune
The Drowsy Chaperone
Peninsula Players Theatre
Direction and choreography
“Director and choreographer, Matt Crowle, has a high-quality and creative skill palette available, and he applies keen brush strokes both detailed and broadly comic.”
-Warren Gerds, www.wearegreenbay.com
Crazy For You
drury lane oakbrook
direction and choreography
“To understand the new Drury Lane Theatre production of ‘Crazy For You’, you really had to see it’s director and choreographer, Matt Crowle, play Leo Bloom in ‘The Producers’ at the Mercury Theater earlier this year. Or Patsy in ‘Spamalot’. Or Bert in ‘Mary Poppins’. Crowle, one of Chicago theatre’s least-sung, whopping talents, is a physically deft, always live and exceptionally funny guy with an innate and very rare sense of comic timing.
Although Crowle has performed at all the major houses around town and directed with smaller companies, he’s never before been given full control of a show at a theater this size. This is the first time. Let us hope many more will follow.
Crowle takes one of those retrofit musicals that was designed to exploit the songbook of major American songwriters - in this case, George and Ira Gershwin - and makes it a hugely enjoyable experience, not least because his choreography feels exceptionally fresh. In number after number you find yourself watching the steps with unusual attention because Crowle makes them so arrestingly interesting and emotional, and thus so much a part of the vocabulary of the show.”
— Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune
Peter and the Starcatcher
Peninsula Players Theatre
Direction and choreography
“The silliness is extremely intricate… the whimsy is endless… the show is a whopping case of timing of every kind… Director, Matt Crowle, is akin to a New York City traffic cop in a caffeine fit… It’s sheer comedy escape on steriods.”
