Review: At The Wake Of A Dead Drag Queen Reflects on Family, Blackness, and Queer Identity
The audience is given a fan as the entry pass to Story Theatre’s At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, written by Terry Guest. There is no doubt that […]
Review: Court Theatre Stages a Masterful Adaptation of Jason Lutes’ Berlin
Jason Lutes took some 20 years to complete his graphic novel, Berlin. Condensing Lutes’ 550-page magnum opus into theatrical language is no easy feat but Court Theatre has brought it […]
Review: Red Theater’s Kairos Probes Questions of Eternal Love—and Life
Kairos pits a newly formed couple against a sci-fi trope—technological revolution. When a new and selective procedure called Prometheus offers the couple synthetic immortality, they struggle, in a very human […]
Review: Citadel Theatre’s A Jukebox for the Algonquin Offers Broad Laughs and a Big Heart
Paul Stroili’s A Jukebox for the Algonquin, currently onstage at Citadel Theatre, does not take place anywhere near the famous literary watering hole. Instead, everything happens in a recreation room […]
Review: Northlight and Theater Wit Join Hands for a Powerful Prayer for the French Republic
“For not only one enemy has risen up against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise up to destroy us….” That stark bit of liturgy—the V’hi She’amdah—is […]
Review: Parsons Dance Returns with a Funhouse of Dance, Smoke, and Mirrors
Parsons Dance rolled into town last weekend after being away for 30 years. The company was founded in 1985 by artistic director and choreographer David Parsons. The advertising promised an […]
Review: Victory Gardens Stages Henry Johnson, a New David Mamet Drama About a Simple Man Who Fails…at Everything
This is a review of a new play by David Mamet…. Although any mention of David Mamet today can turn into something else entirely. For instance, how many playwrights attract […]
Review: At Writers Theatre, Brian Friel’s Translations Is Full of Heart
Yolland (Erik Hellman) and Maire (Tyler Meredith) have left the dance and come running into the clearing. As they try to catch their breath, they realize they are still holding […]
Review: Suzan-Lori Parks’ The Book of Grace—Beautifully Acted but a Mixed Bag at Steppenwolf Theatre
Suzan-Lori Parks is known for writing plays about the inner lives of Black Americans. The Book of Grace is a companion to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog, where brothers Lincoln and Booth live out […]
Review: Giordano Dance Chicago’s Soaring Is a Magical Journey of Life, Love, and Celebration
Giordano Dance Chicago is our homegrown ensemble, and their Friday performance was unlike any other Giordano show I have covered. Soaring: Life, Light, and Legacy is a tribute to artistic director Nan […]
Feature: The National Hellenic Museum Treats Us to Their Annual Lesson in Legal History and Personal Drama with The Trial of Themistocles
Themistocles was a military hero and a political leader, born to a working-class family just outside Athens around 524 BCE. He rose to lead Athens in war and peace but […]
Review: Porchlight’s Titanique Sparkles Like That Diamond (You Know the One)
Not since gin and vermouth first met ice has any cocktail sparkled so purely, so perfectly, so powerfully as Porchlight Theatre’s crazy collision with a fateful iceberg, Titanique, now running […]