The calendar says it’s spring, even though the weather doesn’t. But it was time to hit the beach anyway. That is, the Jersey Shore. We spent four days last week in the […]
On the Road: At the Jersey Shore, Spring in Springsteen Country
Nancy Bishop
Steep Theatre’s Birdland Is a Fast-Moving Story of Rock Stardom and its Consequences
Paul (Joel Reitsma) is a rock star, with rock star habits and ego. He’s now in Moscow, nearing the end of a long tour and faced with going home to London. He […]
Two Great Playwrights on the Cusp of Their Careers: Philip Dawkins’ The Gentleman Caller at Raven Theatre
Tennessee Williams has been a local favorite for decades, ever since December 27, 1944, when Claudia Cassidy, the fearsome Chicago Tribune theater critic, said Williams turned the theater “into a place of […]
Playwright for the Trump Era? It’s Politics and Money in Brecht’s Round Heads & Pointed Heads at Red Tape
Round Heads and Pointed Heads is a cavalcade of political events and characters, woven loosely (very loosely) into a Brechtian story of politics and money. Red Tape Theatre’s new production of Bertolt […]
Disturbing Theater, 20 Years Later: How I Learned to Drive Is About Drinking, Driving and Sexual Abuse
How I Learned to Drive isn’t a play for the squeamish. It’s a disturbing and ultimately sad story about pedophilia, sexual abuse, drinking and driving. It illustrates how the predator sometimes gets […]
Tension Builds as Ambiguity Becomes Retribution in hang at Remy Bumppo Theatre
We sit through 60 minutes of ambiguity and tension—about what? When hang finally reveals (almost reveals) its essential point in the final 25 minutes, we are caught up in the conversation among […]
What’s Cooking at Third Coast? It’s Smoky Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup
I love soup and tortilla soup is one of my favorites. When I’m in the Loop around lunchtime, I like to go to the Frontera Grill counter on the seventh floor of […]
Through the Elevated Line at Silk Road Rising: Immigrants in the Strange Land of Chicago
Through the Elevated Line at Silk Road Rising is a play about a stranger in a new land. We meet Razi Gol (Salar Ardebili) as he arrives from Iran. We learn about […]
Swashbuckling Is in Style in Boho Theatre’s New Adaptation of Cyrano
Cyrano, the new adaptation of Edmund Rostand’s poetic Cyrano de Bergerac, by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner, is lean and hilarious. The man with the famously large nose is played by Michael […]
City Lit’s Picture of Dorian Gray Misses Wilde Glitter With Flawed Adaptation and Casting
The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel by the brilliant Irish playwright and poet, Oscar Wilde, is loaded with Wildean bon mots. It is one of the most quotable works I […]
Review: Two North Korean Sisters Tear at Your Heart in You for Me for You at Sideshow Theatre
You for Me for You is a play that can tear at your heart and also remind you of current politics. (From which there is no escape.) Coincidentally, the president’s decision to […]
Review: About Face’s Time Is on Our Side Shines a Light on Queer History
Queering history is the theme of Time Is on Our Side by R. Eric Thomas, now at About Face Theatre. It’s the story of podcast creators Annie and Curtis; their main interest […]