•Daddy Long Legs Tells a Sweet, Albeit Slow, Musical About Young Love
By D. L. Groover- The Houston Press, Main Street Theater's Daddy Long Legs
"The performances are lovely, matched by set designer Liz Freese's immense mahogany bookcase... and J. Mitchell Cronin's gaslit ambiance. It's a Gibson girl's dream."
•Announcing the Houston Theater Awards 2019
By D. L. Groover, Natalie De La Garze, Jessica Goldman, Margaret Downing- Houston Press Theater Awards 2019- Best Lighting, The Catastrophic Theatre, Curse of The Starving Class
"A naked boy carrying a sacrificial lamb walks out from his family’s dilapidated farm. He’s fighting the curse of his father yet becoming him at the same time. And he's bathed in light so revelatory that it seems like the hand of God himself is showing us his and, by extension, our doomed fate.
But that’s not the only superb moment Lighting Designer J. Mitchell Cronin gave us in The Catastrophic Theatre’s tautly ominous production of Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class.
There’s the way Cronin’s work seemed to add an extra layer of grime to the already filthy family farm. There was his subtle but dramatic handling of the multiple monologues the script required, giving each their “spotlight” without ever being overt about it. The way a glaring light from an empty refrigerator offered first blush promise but revealed only emptiness.
At its most noticeable best, Cronin’s lighting enhanced our dread, fear, and resignation. In its more subtle moments, it added to the feeling that this farm and the family who occupied it were rotting from the inside out"
•Curse Of The Starving Class Showcases Sam Shepard's First Major Off-Broadway Hit
By D. L. Groover- The Houston Press, The Catastrophic Theatre's Curse Of The Starving Class
"In the play's most stirring and stunning moment, Wesley, naked, carries his lamb across the kitchen and out to be slaughtered. Bathed in J. Mitchell Cronin's iconic lighting, it's a vision ripped from Genesis. You can't miss the obvious, for it's a powerfully theatrical image."
•Review: Main Street Theater's Twelfth Night Marries Love and Humor
By Katricia Lang- Broadway World, Prague Shakespeare Company's Twelfth Night
"The design is incredibly important in that it allows the performers the spotlight, literally in Lighting Designer J. Mitchell Cronin's case, while doing the heavy lifting of making sure the audience was somehow surrounded by verisimilitude without an extravagant set.
"Cronin is indispensable, using his skills to create nighttime, a wooden path, or the inside of a noblewoman's home with what seems like simple elements- brightness, darkness, shadow. He also subtly enhances mood and tone. For example, Cronin pours blue over the set when Viola realizes that Sebastian is lost at sea."
•Review Simply Simone Is Anything But 'Simple' at The Ensemble Theatre
By Audrey Morabito- Broadway World, The Ensemble Theatre's Simply Simone
"Lighting design by J. Mitchell Cronin acted complementary to the songs performed, setting the stage for any mood, emotion, or location the story called for."
•Experience the Strange World of August Strindberg in The Ghost Sonata
By D. L. Groover- The Houston Press, Classical Theatre Company's Ghost Sonata
"Strindberg was a stickler for design and lighting, and he'd be especially pleased with director Jonathan Harvey's diaphanous vision... The house, exterior and in, is shaded like cobwebs under J. Mitchell Cronin's soft lighting."
•Review: The A.D. Players' Harvey Is a Gift
By Gary Laird- Broadway World, A.D Players' Harvey
"Lighting and Sound by J. Mitchell Cronin and Jonathan Harvey perfectly complemented the action."
•Review: The Revolutionists Serve Girl Power at Main Street Theatre
By Brett Cullum- Broadway World, Main Street Theater's The Revolutionists
"J. Mitchell Cronin gets to light some dazzling guillotine sequences."
•In The Last Wife at Main Street Theater, No One Is Faithful for Very Long
By D. L. Groover- The Houston Press, Main Street Theater's The Last Wife
"The characters may say “sire” and “majesty,” but they're swathed in a '30s glamour thanks to Liz Freese, set; J. Mitchell Cronin, lighting; Macy Lyne, costumes; Yezminne Zepeda, sound."
In The Press