Review: Bridget Everett Turns Up the Heat at the Riviera
The first truly warm evening of Chicago’s spring pulled a raucous crowd into Uptown Square. The blocks around Lawrence and Broadway were packed with hotdog and tamale carts, fans heading […]
Review: Tiler Peck and Friends Fire It Up with a Blazing Turn It Out at the Auditorium
Turn It Out With Tiler Peck and Friends is a visual and musical feast of modern dance, ballet, and tap. The dances are set to amazing live and recorded original […]
Review: Changing Channels at City Lit Theater Reminds Us About Another Scary Time in US History
Midcentury America was a scary time. We worried about the Bomb because the Russians had one too—and it might be bigger than ours (theirs was plutonium). Today is scary too […]
Review: Hamilton Returns to Chicago and It’s Powerful and Timely
The celebrated hip-hop historical musical that took the world by storm, Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is back in Chicago after a two-year absence, and it does not disappoint. The intelligent […]
Review: Chicago Opera Theater’s Der Silbersee Has a Prescient Sychronicity for Today’s World
Wednesday was a significant anniversary for Kurt Weill’s Der Silbersee, ein Wintermärchen (The Silver Lake, A Winter’s Fairy Tale). It was banned by the Nazis on that date in 1933, and Weill […]
Preview: The Onion Co-Founder Scott Dikkers Brings FunnyCon to Chicago
As a co-founder of the venerable satirical newspaper The Onion, Scott Dikkers is no stranger to launching comedy institutions. His latest endeavor is the biggest yet—the first annual FunnyCon, a […]
Review: Goodman Theatre’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Tells a Sweet Story, But Needs a Script Doctor
Oscar Wao is a nerdy guy and a wannabe writer with a big heart. He’s open to friendship and longing for love. We even get to experience his loss of […]
Review: Theatre Y Presents a Chilling Portrait of Refugees During Fascism in Charges (The Supplicants)
Fascism never completely goes away because the concept of a utopian society or a “golden age” is subject to those in power. Theatre Y is staging the North American premiere […]
Review: Red Theater Stages a New Version of Chekhov’s The Seagull and Retains Its Melancholy Mood
It’s a Chekhov play, so ….. Everyone is in love with the wrong person. Everyone is unhappy. People live in the country but yearn to live in the city. The […]
Review: Rivendell Theatre’s Pivot Tells a Tragicomic Story of Life, Love and Farming
It’s a few days before the wedding of Kara and Levi and in the small town of Milton, Nebraska, that’s a big event. As the play opens, we meet Levi […]
Review: Śiva Bhāva: Love, Care, and the Cosmos Is Body and Mind in Balance by Mandala South Asian Performing Arts
Mandala South Asian Performing Arts gave a series of dance performances last week dedicated to Śiva Bhāva: Love, Care, and the Cosmos. The visually stunning 75-minute performance in two parts […]
Review: Provocative and Risky, Ego Death Collective Doesn’t Shy Away from Heavy Subject Matter in Red Light Winter
Ego Death Collective invites the audience to take a leap of faith and step into an extremely intimate blackbox theater for a show filled with deeply flawed characters, exposing the […]