Review, Stages, Theater

Review: Bottled Spiders and Blood Splatter in Chicago Shakespeare’s Richard III 

Now is the unseasonably warm winter of our discontent, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new artistic director Edward Hall helms his first production on Navy Pier. Tony Award-nominated track and field […]

Karin McKie /
Review, Stages, Theater

Review: Otherworld Theatre’s Twihard! A Twilight Musical Parody Is a Comic Treat for Diehard Fans and Others

Review by Anthony Neri.  A zany and eclectic soundtrack by Tiffany Keane Schaefer and Brian Rasmussen meets a zany and eclectic cast in this hilarious generation-specific parody. The three background […]

Guest Author /
Broadway, Review, Stages, Theater

Review: Beetlejuice Exhausts More Than It Entertains, and Audiences Don’t Seem to Mind

Like movie theater blockbusters and best-selling fiction franchises, Broadway has its own version of the audience vs. critic debate, where the biggest commercial successes are often the ones least likely […]

Lisa Trifone /
Review, Stages, Theater, Theater Festival

Dispatch: Midwest Premiere of Morisseau Play Highlights Milwaukee Black Theatre Festival

At a time when many regional theater companies are pulling back on their operations due to funding and other issues, Milwaukee’s Black Theatre Festival has expanded from one week to […]

Anne Siegel /
Review, Stages, Theater

Review: Timeline Theatre Stages What the Constitution Means to Me With Stories of Legal Drama and Personal Pain

Heidi is 15 years old and loves the Constitution. She also is obsessed with witches and the Salem witch trials—and Patrick Swayze. Just a normal kid. The year is 1989 […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Review, Stages

Review: At Porchlight, an Entertaining Cabaret Features Plenty of Talent but Not the Seriousness the Show Requires

Every season on Broadway, new American musicals premiere in the hopes of entering the country’s long and storied canon of productions that can be revisited and revived for decades to […]

Lisa Trifone /
Review, Stages, Theater

Review: A New Generation Tries to Capture the Bittersweet Pain and Transcendent Triumph of Rent in Porchlight’s Season Opener

Attending opening night of Porchlight Music Theatre’s season opener, Rent, was a peculiar proposition for me from the moment I RSVPed, but one I was willing to entertain for the […]

Lisa Trifone /
Review, Stages, Theater

Review: Anastasia Aims for a Fairy Tale, Misses with a Clunky Script and Phoned-In Staging

First released in 1997, the animated feature film Anastasia quickly earned a recognition among the widely popular Disney princesses of the era. Except for one thing: it’s not a Disney […]

Lisa Trifone /
Classical, Music, Review

Review: An Evening of Amazonian Beauty with Third Coast Percussion

Philip Glass is considered one of the greatest living composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. His spare and layered compositions can be interpreted in many ways other than as […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Opera, Review, Stages

Review: Lyric Opera Opens a New Season with Lush, Classic Verdi and Strong Quartet of Voices in Ernani

For the uninitiated (and perhaps even for those clued in) thinking of going to the opera, the Lyric’s Ernani is likely what they have in mind. This lush 2022-2023 season […]

Lisa Trifone /
Dance, Review, Stages

Review: Booms Day Is Beautiful Chaos from Chicago Dance Crash

Controlled chaos is an oxymoron. The word chaos could be a synonym for anarchy meaning away from all of the “archs” that have defined how humankind lives. Monarchy, oligarchy, plutarchy, […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Comedy, Review, Stages

Review: Straight Outta Harvey: Kellye Howard’s Crazy or Nah?! Is a Perfect Storm of in Your Face Grief and Comedy

There have been some really great one-woman performances and standup comics over the years. My favorite ones have told stories that are personal and off-kilter funny. Kellye Howard is yet […]

Kathy D. Hey /