Katrina: The Girl Who Wanted Her Name Back – REVIEW
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 ...
The Woman in Black – REVIEW
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.
Julius Caesar – REVIEW
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 – Lyric Opera REVIEW
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 ...
Boojum! Nonsense, Truth and Lewis Carroll – REVIEW
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 ...
The Weir – REVIEW
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 ...
The Glorious Ones – REVIEW
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 ...
The Wiz – REVIEW
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 ...
Boobs and Goombas: A Super Mario Burlesque – REVIEW
EXTENDED – OPEN RUN!
By J. Scott Hill
Nerdbait. Some celebs appeal more strongly to nerds than do others — think Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science, Carrie Fisher in Star Wars, and Alyson Hannigan in everything. MsPixy (a founding member of Belmont Burlesque Revue) has courted the title of “nerdbait”, occasionally performing striptease as a hoodie-wearing dorklette. She has taken her nerd-positive ...
Boy Small – REVIEW
Christian Choate lived much of his short, tortured life in a trailer park in the Black Oak neighborhood of Gary, Indiana. He was abused — kept in a dog cage, routinely and severely beaten, and starved — by his father and stepmother until he finally died in 2009 at the age of thirteen.
Christian Choate’s body was hastily buried in a shallow pit and covered with cement, a grave in which he lay ...