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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]