Stages, Theater

Review: Writers Theatre’s Thought-Provoking Eurydice Features Strong Cast and Stunning Design

Eurydice: “I read a book today.” Orpheus: “Did you?” Eurydice: “Yes. It was very interesting… There were—stories—about people’s lives—how some come out well— others come out badly.” Orpheus: “Do you […]

Lauren Katz /
Stages, Theater

Review: Subtext Studio Presents a Harrowing Tale of Human Smuggling in The American Dream

Playwright Juan Ramirez’s The American Dream seems to be taken from the stories that are kept out of the headlines. It is the story of a “coyote,” Efren (Jorge Aguilar), […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Stages, Talk show

Dialogs: Keegan-Michael and Elle Key at the Chicago Humanities Festival—Building Connections One Joke at a Time

Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog, E.B. White famously said: “the subject dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.” […]

Doug Mose /
Classical, Music, Opera, Stages, Venues

Review: Chicago Opera Theater Opens Season With a Compelling Timeline of War and Its Aftermath with Soldier Songs

Soldier Songs is a solo operatic performance that blends the genres of classical and heavy metal. I thought that I had never heard anything like it, however, the parallels between […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Stages, Theater

Review: Sanctuary City at Steppenwolf Explores Conflicted Lives of Dreamers

Sanctuary City, Steppenwolf’s new production by playwright Martyna Majok, is an earnest play with a bit of heart. It tries to demonstrate what the lives of young immigrants are like […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Goodman Theatre’s The Nacirema Society Showcases Stellar Cast and Hysterical Writing

Gracie: “I just can’t get as excited as you do about it, Gram. At the end of the day, it’s just a big ol’ poofy white dress.” Grace: (A beat) […]

Lauren Katz /
Stages, Theater

Review: Murderous Fun With Some Kinks in American Psycho: The Musical by Kokandy Productions

American Psycho as originally conceived by author Bret Easton Ellis has a great elevator pitch. “A novel about an investment banker in the Reagan eighties who at night becomes a […]

Adam Kaz /
Stages, Theater

Review: In The Lehman Trilogy, Three Actors Tell the Story of the Rise and Crash of an Iconic American Business

Timeline Theatre’s new production of The Lehman Trilogy tells the story of the rise and fall of an iconic American business—starting as an Alabama dry goods merchant and becoming one […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Dance, Stages

Review: Joffrey Ballet Celebrates Life in Dance with the Arpino Chicago Centennial Celebration

The Joffrey Ballet took up residence in Chicago in 1996. After nearly four decades in New York and the death of Robert Joffrey, Gerald Arpino, his partner in life and […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Opera, Stages

Review: The Flying Dutchman Opens Lyric’s Season with Obsession, a Curse, and Unrequited Love

The Lyric Opera has produced some of the finest interpretations of Richard Wagner in the world of opera and the season opener of The Flying Dutchman may be my favorite. […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Stages, Storefront, Theater

Review: Trap Door Stages the Stylish if Mystifying Play, The Pragmatists—Is It an Anti-War Play?

Two old friends, their bonds apparently fractured by despair at a collapsing world or something else entirely, meet again. One is artistic and the other is a practical man, a […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Remy Bumppo Theatre Cast Shines in Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky

Many tales have been told and legends passed down of the Harlem Renaissance when the “New Negro” emerged from the dust and toil of the American South. A surge of […]

Kathy D. Hey /