Review: Rachel Bloom Does a Song and Dance with Death, Let Me Do My Show
When bad things like a pandemic cause me to despair, I try to find a logical explanation, remember that heroes appear in unusual situations, and know there is a deeper […]
Review: Dance for Life Fills the Auditorium Theatre with Exuberance, Love and Life
Summer weekends are always an adventure in Chicago. Last weekend was the Air and Water Show, Bud Billiken Parade, White Sox vs the Cubs, and several neighborhood festivals. The best […]
Review: 44: The Obama Musical Is unOfficial and unSanctioned but Hilarious and Spot-on Musical Satire
I love a good satire. I am a devotee of both Mad Magazine and National Lampoon. Both were lightning in a bottle explaining social and political issues as I saw […]
Review: In His Hands at First Floor Theater Explores Two Gay Men’s Very Different Experiences With the Church
Review by Erin Ryan. In His Hands, a 90-minute no intermission play, showcases two gay men and their very different experiences with two denominations of the Christian church: Lutheran and […]
Review: At A Red Orchid Theatre, Jon Tai’s Road Signs Offers Storytelling and Mental Wizardry With a Little Magic
The new production at A Red Orchid Theatre is entertaining and astonishing. Road Signs with Jon Tai is an hour of a little magic (he is a magician, after all) laced with […]
Review: Music Theater Works’ Carousel Makes a Moving Case for the Musical’s Ongoing Relevance
There has been a lot of debate in recent years about the place of Golden Age musicals in modern theater. Rodgers and Hammerstein classics such as The King and I […]
Review: Kokandy Productions Stages an Imaginative Journey Down the Rabbit Hole with Alice by Heart
“This isn’t just some silly game. I’ve got no time left.” Alice (Caitlyn Cerza) is lying about with the Caterpillar (Elliott Esquivel) and Cheshire Cat (Mizha Overn). The duo convinced […]
Review: Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw Isn’t Worth the Sacrifice
Like the film it parodies, Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw is not for the faint of heart. Playing at The Den Theatre, Saw the Musical is coming […]
Review: Chicago Shakespeare’s Lord of the Rings, a Musical Tale—an Epic Fail
It took J.R.R. Tolkien three books, 62 chapters and more than a half-million words to tell his legendary story of Frodo Baggins and the quest to save Middle Earth. Adapted […]
Review: Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre Empowers Ntozake Shange’s 1976 MasterWork
I was 16 when For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf premiered on Broadway in 1976 and started making waves in the Black community. I […]
Review: In Wells and Welles, Lucid Theater Portrays the Day in 1940 When the Two Prodigies Meet
Being considered a “boy genius” probably heightened Orson Welles’ substantial ego. In October 1940, his chutzpah enabled him to knock on the hotel room door of a man long recognized […]
Review: At Pegasus Theatre, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea, Tells a Young Man’s Ancestral Dream Story
Pegasus Theatre’s play, Dontell, Who Kissed the Sea, benefits from the poetic language of playwright Nathan Alan Davis and the production’s water theme. The work is directed by Ilesa Duncan, who […]