Tosca
By Giacomo Puccini
Lyric Opera of Chicago
By Lori Dana
Most people with even a passing interest in opera are familiar with Tosca. One of a trio of blockbusters from the height of Puccini’s career, Tosca (along with La Bohéme and Madama Butterfly) cemented the composer’s position among the greatest masters of the operatic form.

For four years now, WildClaw Theatre has created one of the year’s premiere theatrical events. Just in time to offset the sickening holiday hype, WildClaw presents something sickening in a good way. They deliver an evening of fresh horror through an old-school milieu. Early in the year, they put out an international call for horror scripts.

By Robert Andersen
Children’s Theatre may take many forms, and in Chicago, the options are almost endless. The gamut may take you from the parent’s guild in a church basement to a high school/college workshop, to full on-stage production. It is important, however, to maintain the distinction between “Children’s Theatre” and “Theatre for Young Adults.” Adventure Stage Chicago’s latest production, Katrina: The Girl Who Wanted Her Name Back, is definitely in the latter category. The story […]

First Folio Theatre has dubbed their 2010-2011 season the “Season of Suspense.” After a triumphant remount of Executive Director David Rice’s The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story and a favorably reviewed staging of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, First Folio keeps the thrill ride on the track with The Woman in Black.

As Julius Caesar closes at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, another production of Julius Caesar opens at Raven Theatre — the latter an all-female production from Babes With Blades Theatre Company. These two productions could not be more different from one another, yet complement each other well.

The Merry Widow
By Franz Lehár
Lyric Opera of Chicago
By Lori Dana
Most of us love a holiday tradition. The movies have White Christmas, the dance world has The Nutcracker Suite, and for those of us who love opera, the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without The Merry Widow. This time around, Lyric Opera of Chicago has gifted us with the equivalent of a shiny new sports car wrapped in shimmering ribbon: a production of Franz Lehár’s beloved […]

Caffeine Theatre and Chicago Opera Vanguard’s latest endeavor is the American premiere of Boojum! Nonsense, Truth and Lewis Carroll, an ambitious piece of Australian musical theater that made its debut on the Sydney stage in 1986.
Penned by twin brothers Martin and Peter Wesley-Smith, Boojum! takes its name from Lewis Carroll’s epic nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark”, which concludes with the line “For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.”
Martin Wesley-Smith, for whom the […]

Most would argue that theater is first and foremost storytelling. If that is true than Conor McPherson’s haunting play The Weir and Seanachai Theatre Company’s extraordinary production of it represent theater at its finest. I am constantly asked, “What’s the best show playing right now?” Normally this is a tough question, as there are always at least a few standout shows, but without hesitation The Weir is the most intricately compelling and brilliantly delivered play […]

Theater is delightful when it takes something that you love and portrays it for all of its brilliance. Theater is remarkably amazing when it takes something that you’re not fond of and illuminates it for all of its glory. This is just is some of the magic of Bohemian Theatre Ensemble’s Regional Premiere of The Glorious Ones.
I am not fond of 16th-century Italian farce. Generally, I am not fond of period farce from anywhere. Based […]

Few performers can ever simply ease on down the road in The Wiz. Dorothy is Dorothy is Dorothy, ok, but all the other major characters are problematic; Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion run perilously close to a minstrel show act, while the Wiz himself and all of the witches have their backs up against the worst of blaxploitation stereotypes. In the current production of The Wiz at Theatre at the Center, Director/Choreographer Stacey Flaster does an […]