“MICHAEL INGERSOLL HELPS LARSON’S 3-CHARACTER PIECE ROAR WITH COMPASSION”

“The main reason why this version is so good is the presence of Michael Ingersoll in the lead role. Ingersoll is a newcomer to Chicago, but once casting agents get a look at this dripping-with-talent young fellow, he won’t need further introduction. Not only does he have a great set of pipes and laudable interpretive skills with a song, he actually looks and acts like a writer-composer type rather than an actor… Far better than the lead in the national tour of this show a couple of years back, Ingersoll has this character down cold—the vulnerability, the charm, the musical chops, the gentle but persistent neuroses. He makes you want him to win, which is the point.”

-Chicago Tribune

“AS GREAT COMPOSER REMEMBERED, NEW STAR GOES ‘BOOM!’”

“His name is Michael Ingersoll. Remember it. He has just recently arrived in Chicago, after working in Cincinnati and Memphis. And he’s got ‘star’ written all over him. In fact, Monday night at Pegasus Players, as the actor flew through tick, tick … BOOM! – Jonathan Larson’s beguiling pre-Rent musical – I was ready to slip him a note that read: ‘Start learning the score for Jersey Boys; you might have a real shot at that hit show’s national tour.’ He’s that good, as both actor and singer. It doesn’t hurt at all that he’s boy-next-door cute.”

-Chicago Sun Times

“Larson’s tale is of young composer Jon, played exceptionally well by Michael Ingersoll …His acting is so compelling that it eerily makes you think you are watching a young Larson on stage. During his song Why, one can’t help being moved by the heartfelt lyrics and the possibility of Larson not being able to realize his dream.”

-Broadway World

“But however capable the three actors who portray Larson’s array of indigenous archetypes, only Michael Ingersoll’s Jon departs from Broadway-style vocal technique to present us with an artist exhibiting not just the obligatory Salingeresque cuddliness, but a gritty passion so evocative of his urban milieu that we can almost smell the Coney Island Red Hots.”

-Windy City Times