Press

Kevin McKillip as adult narrator Shepherd splendidly relives his Ralphie-boyhood memories, If there’s a musical Jeff for a non-singing part, McKillip wins, hands down. - Barry Reszel - Chimit.com

Shepherd is played by multitalented Kevin McKillip, one of the most recognizable stars on the Chicago stage. His own melodious radiolike voice, not unlike Shepherd’s, serves him well here, Watching him is a master class in comic acting and surrendering ego to a role. 

- Karen Topham - Chicago On stage.com

Narrated by Shepherd himself (Kevin McKillip, a superior storyteller too long absent from Chicago stages) as part of his Christmas Eve broadcast - Barbara Vitello - Daily Herald

Kevin McKillip as “Jean Shepherd,” is a powerhouse as the narrator - Mira Temkin - Splash Magazine

One of Chicago’s finest actors, Kevin McKillip is perfection as the Narrator of this story. - Colin Douglas - Chicago Theatre Review .com

“Decent” - Chris Jones - Chicago Tribune

Captain Blood’s not-so secret weapon lies in a double-cast Kevin McKillip. As the preposterously named Hagthorpe, he’s a wildly enthusiastic but hilariously incompetent narrator who can’t detangle himself from laborious exposition to save his life. McKillip also plays Don Alan de Panadero, a Spanish pirate with manners more flowery than a prom queen’s funeral and a wardrobe swishier than an industrial-strength car wash. McKillip has a long and sublimely silly history working as a clown, and he brings everything he knows to the fore. For both roles.
Catey Sullivan - Pioneer Press

Among the supporting players, First Folio stalwart Kevin McKillip shines in the dual roles of Hagthorpe, the hapless narrator/member of Blood's band whose love of exposition earns him jeers from his peers, and Don Alan de Panadero, a treacherous Spaniard whose Castilian lisp gets played for cheap — but abundantly satisfying — laughs.
Kerry Reid - Chicago Tribune

The Show isn’t wholly without its shadows, particularly in Kevin McKillip’s take on Jaques….McKillip’s “Seven Ages of Man” speech is a master class, particularly because he plays it not as a set piece in Jaques’ Greatest Dyspeptic Hits, but as a series of discoveries about the ravages of time that hit home with him and the audience simultaneously.

Kerry Reid - Chicago Tribune

The odd man out is McKillip's haunted, solitary Jacques,...the knowledge of the decline and sorrow that awaits all men and women -- which McKillip so beautifully expresses in the famous "seven ages of man" soliloquy -- that keeps him on the periphery, dreading the inevitable loss that comes from having loved.

Vitello - Daily Herald

The talented Kevin McKillip fully embraces the famous fictional sleuth’s most insufferable behavior in a perfectly cast production at First Folio Theatre. McKillip plays off his character’s arrogance and mines comedy from every turn. 
Lisa Friedman Miner - Daily Herald

McKillip is nothing short of sensational as Holmes…his precise timing commands laughs…Foust and McKillip compliment each other so well in this production, it would be difficult to cast the roles any better.
Ken Payne - BuzzCenterStage Chicago

First Folio has a first rate Leontes in Kevin McKillip...McKillip’s quicksilver instincts and ability to smolder with resentment at the drop of a crown... help sell the sudden changes in psychological weather for Leontes.
Kerry Reid - Chicago Tribune

...hot blooded, fast paced show with terrific inspired performers - led by Kevin McKillip, astonishing as the foolish King Leontes.
Jack Helbieg - Chicago Reader

Kevin McKillip delightfully portrays a strait-laced, straight-faced Legionnaire with exquisite posture, who sheds his crisp uniform to become Schreck’s real best friend Mike. There is a wonderful discussion of “positive male energy” under McKillip’s care. He is just superb.

Regina Daniles - ShawLocal

When it comes to right notes, Kevin McKillip hits them all...In a quietly nuanced performance, McKillip conveys Mike's responses to Heidi's revelations in slight but telling ways: a forward lean, a furrowed brow, clasped hands, angled legs...Mike has one monologue -- masterfully delivered by McKillip --  Revealing his true self, the Legionnaire describes growing up gay, enduring taunts and blows and living in fear.

Take for instance Kevin McKillip’s masterfully zany take on Ira, a hypochondriac and perpetually late comedy writer. Simon positions Ira’s first entrance in Act I to be a bulldozing comic force that commands the audiences attention for a hyperbolic build up to a big bathroom-humor joke. McKillip is more than up to the challenge, and his Ira stands out as one of the show’s best performances thanks to jittery and wiry-limbed physical antics and his odd combination of being both intensely focused and distractingly spaced out.

The Daily Herald.

You know First Folio’s theatrical ship is on course when the crew includes Kevin McKillip. The presence of the lissome, loose limbed actor as an unseasoned cabin steward helps ensure smooth sailing...the character who best navigates the storm-tossed seas...it’s the latest in a series of endearing physical comedic turns from the versatile McKillip.
The Daily Herald

First rate cast of clowns. Chief among them is Kevin McKillip’s Dvornicek....McKillip, whose rubber-legged physique and rubbery faced physiognomy are never less than reliable, outshines his earlier First Folio incarnations as a good-natured idiot who saves the day despite himself.
Chicago Tribune

And from his first determined jump onto the stage, Kevin McKillip -- fleet, witty and twisted, superbly in command of the play's language and with a flair for mixing silent film villainy with flashes of real despair -- lets us know we are in the presence of an actor who can hold the stage for three full hours… McKillip, seen earlier this season as the insufferable literary critic in Court Theatre's production of "Arcadia," brings the perfect balance of coldness, calculation and self-revulsion to his portrait. His Richard is a man whose physical deformities pale in comparison to the profoundly warped nature of his soul -- a man who will stop at nothing to get the crown and consolidate power

Chicago Sun Times

Kevin McKillip's bravura performance as the scheming monarch for First Folio Shakespeare Festival is one of the finest I've seen in the role. The unseasonable chill in the air Saturday added to the play's sense of menace. But even on a hot night, McKillip's cold fury and command of the language and his physical instrument could raise goose bumps

Kerry Reid - Chicago Tribune

If the stage is Richard's, First Folio Shakespeare Festival's exceptional production belongs to Kevin McKillip. For the better part of three hours, the lean, charismatic McKillip commands the stage in the titular role of the…highly theatrical villain whose misshapen body suggests his twisted soul, he is a compelling figure, wielding words as incisively as other men wield swords and wooing and winning a woman in spite of her hatred for him. McKillip's sly, glib performance impresses for its physicality (body contorted, he capers nimbly across the stage) and its humor (he uses wisely his smirk). And yet, a flicker of regret or the trace of conscience sometimes clouds his expression, but only for a moment. The pursuit of power allows no time for self-pity and remorse.

Barbara Vitello - Daily Herald