Review: Promethean’s A Town Called Progress Provides Some Humor But Takes Itself Too Seriously
Ida is smart and tough. She’s mayor and police chief in her new town of Progress, but she still can’t get the pump to pump water. At least that’s the […]
Review: A Little Too Much of the Same in Dying for It by the Artistic Home
Although Semyon, played by Daniel Shtivelberg, the main character of Moira Buffini’s play Dying For It, lives in post-revolutionary Russia, his struggles are pointedly timeless and engender a theatergoer’s sympathy. […]
Review: Redtwist’s Babel Explores the Pursuit of Human Perfection
Survival of the fittest means that a species that adapts to its environment will be the best suited to reproduce—aka Darwinism. Playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger’s Babel presents a dystopian view of […]
Review: Lush Contemporary Music Blends With Metaphysics and Science in The Life and Death of Alan Turing by Chicago Opera Theater
.Composer Justine Chen and librettist David Simpatico have worked for over a decade to bring The Life and Death[s] of Alan Turing to the opera stage. It was commissioned in […]
Review: Highwaymen, Hookers, and Thieves: The Threepenny Opera at Theo Ubique
The songs in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera remain standards: “Pirate Jenny,” “Tango Ballad,” and especially “Mack the Knife,” which is arguably the world’s most famous murder […]
Review: An Abundance of Black Joy in Second City’s Dance Like There Are Black People Watching
“After a meeting with several Black alumni and current Second City employees, we have come to the conclusion that the erasure, racial discrimination, manipulation, pay inequity, tokenism, monetization of Black […]
Review: Heartache Overshadows Black Lives in Milwaukee Rep’s Seven Guitars
Black history month may be over but, in Milwaukee, a perspective of Black lives is offered this month in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. Milwaukee Repertory Theater, in conjunction with Cincinnati […]
Review: In Joan and the Fire at Trap Door Theatre, the Storytellers Battle Over History but Joan Still Burns
Joan and the Fire, Trap Door Theatre’s latest production, by Romanian playwright Matei Vișniec, takes us back to the Middle Ages to argue about history. The story is told by an […]
Review: A High Energy and Ebullient Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
I grew up watching shows like Ed Sullivan and American Bandstand. The most memorable act was the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. The Ikettes formed a backdrop to the long-legged […]
Review: Lower Wacker Book Club Does Improv With the Right Amount of Controlled Chaos
Before I start my review, I just want to make something clear: unlike most reviews, I wasn’t there because the venue or the performance group offered me a comp ticket […]
Review: Lyric’s Carmen Features Strong Performances, But the Plot Can Be Troubling
Georges Bizet produced some of opera’s most memorable music for Carmen, his 1875 composition, set in Spain and sung in French, about a wildly free-spirited woman whose fickle and domineering […]
Review: Visit the “Adult Sesame Street” with a 20th Anniversary Production of Avenue Q
Have you ever wanted to witness a Muppet make the beast with two backs? Do a deep dive into getting “felt up”? Learn the history of the monster race? Then Avenue […]