Politics. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. This article is a review of The Adult in the Room, a one-woman show about U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi […]
Review: The Adult in the Room Tells Nancy Pelosi’s Leadership Story
Review: House Theatre’s Verböten Adds a Lot of Heart to “Three Chords and the Truth”
The old rock trope says that punk music is “three chords and the truth.” That holds true for the fact-based story about a kid punk band from Evanston in the 1980s, which […]
Review: Court Theatre’s The Mousetrap Proves a Timelessly Enjoyable Murder Mystery
Perhaps best known as the longest-running play ever (notching north of 28,000 performances and counting), Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has been continuously on stage in London’s West End since 1952. Now, the […]
Review: The Thrust of Once On This Island Is Gone, But the Heart, Wonder Remain
Just a few blocks north of the heart of Times Square and next door to the massive Gershwin Theatre (capacity: 1,900) is a more intimate space, an 800-seat theater built for unique […]
Review: Females Seek Agency in Remy Bumppo’s Top Girls
Note: Top Girls was reviewed by Karin McKie and Kim Campbell on Women’s March weekend. Caryl Churchill wrote Top Girls in 1982, in the middle of Margaret Thatcher’s 1979-90 fraught, pseudo-feminist tenure […]
Review: Shattered Globe’s Sheepdog Tells an All-Too-Familiar Story About Police Shootings
Alton Sterling. Laquan McDonald. Walter Scott. Michael Brown. Greg Gunn. Philando Castile. Some of those names might come to mind as you watch the tense, even-handed police thriller, Sheepdog, by Kevin Artigue. […]
Review: The Gulf by About Face Theatre—Two Women Stuck in a Relationship—and a Fishing Boat
Two women on a fishing boat in the Alabama Delta. One casts and sometimes reels in…nothing. The other alternately suns, dozes and reads. It’s late afternoon on a hot, humid day. Kendra […]
Review: Sunday Evening Is an Entertaining Debut for Rose Valley Theatre Group
Rose Valley Theatre Group, Chicago’s newest theater company, makes its debut with the first English language production of Sunday Evening, a play by Zachary Karabashliev, a Bulgarian playwright. You might worry that […]
Preview: Jackson Galaxy at Waukegan’s Genesee Theatre Aims to Teach Humans to Deepen Feline Friendships
When you think of a night out at the theater, you probably aren’t thinking much about your cats at home. When Jackson Galaxy thought about selling out theaters as a child and […]
Preview/Review: Gift Theatre Celebrates Its Birthday With Ten 10-Minute Theater Pieces
Winter seems to be the season for stage fests in Chicago (Rhinofest, Musical Theater Festival, Pegasus’ Young Playwrights Festival, Fillet of Solo) and Gift Theatre, one of our fine storefront companies, adds […]
Preview: Fillet of Solo Festival Celebrates Live Lit With Storytelling Collectives and Solo Performers
The 23rd Annual Fillet of Solo Festival, running January 10–26, celebrates Chicago’s storytelling and live lit scene at Lifeline Theatre and the Teal Room in Rogers Park. The festival, organized by former Lifeline […]
2019 in Review: Our Favorite Nights at the Theater
This isn’t a “best theater of the year” list. As we’ve noted about past lists, we don’t see everything. Most of our writers are freelancers, all with other gigs, and it’s hard […]
