Review: Just Can’t Stop The English Beat
Birmingham-born band The English Beat shows staying power with its current US tour. Dave Wakeling co-founded the ska sextet in 1979. They opened for seminal acts such as Talking Heads, […]
Karin McKie is a Chicago freelance writer, cultural factotum and activism concierge. She jams econo.
Get Out the Vote with Fight Night at Chicago Shakes
Belgium’s Ontroerend Goed (“Good Moving”) has a distinct outside vantage point to dissect the fraught American electoral system. Their limited run of Fight Night at Chicago Shakespeare is required viewing for […]
Persuasive Xenophobia Finds Voice in BigMouth at Chicago Shakes
Critics Kimzyn Campbell and Karin McKie jointly review BigMouth, running at Chicago Shakespeare Theater through September 22. Ticket discounts are available when two or more “Big in Belgium” shows are […]
Puppies and Kitties and Bunnies, Oh My! Help the Pet Pony Express and Clear Chicagoland Shelters
Local shelters have been in the news lately as they are in desperate need of animal fosters, due to overcrowding, economic uncertainty and because kitten season runs a long stretch […]
She’s Crafty Covers Beastie Boys with Hot Saucy Feminism
City Winery celebrated an auspicious hip-hop-iversary, the release of The Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty album 20 years ago. The officiants were the kick-ass B-Boys tribune band She’s Crafty, formed after co-founder […]
Victims of Duty Showcases the Shape of Michael Shannon
Ubiquitous big-budget bad guy Michael Shannon returns to his roots, his theater company, his kind of town in the remount of A Red Orchid’s Victims of Duty. He reunites with […]
Disruptive Photos at the MCA in Picture Fiction
Seeming eons ago, before the heyday of the selfie, photos captured moments in squares, often outside of and pointed away from the creator. Chicago-trained and -based photographer Kenneth Josephson and […]
BIG SUIT Narrowly Filled at Evanston Space Show
Steve Kikoen was producing and performing in the Steely Dan tribute band Deacon Blues when he was approached to cover Talking Heads music. He assembled BIG SUIT: A Tribute to […]
Chicago Shakespeare Brings Proper Prestidigitation to Macbeth
J.R.R. Tolkien often railed against the supernatural in Shakespeare despite appropriating many of the tropes in his own work (the Lord of the Rings’ Ents were a counterpunch referencing Birnam […]
God Is in the Details of Lyric Opera’s Jesus Christ Superstar
I don’t like musicals. I’m an atheist. I love Jesus Christ Superstar. I was a budding theater nerd when my cool uncle Tommy turned me on to The Who’s Tommy […]
Ferguson, Missouri, Matters in Solo Show Until the Flood
In 2014, unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown was shot at least six times by a white police officer. His body remained on the street for four hours in Ferguson, Missouri, […]
Review: I Spy with My Big Eye the Raucous Residents
In this cult of personality era, The Residents, part of the Bay Area’s Cryptic Corporation, played a refreshingly product, not person, focused set at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk […]