I attended The Play That Goes Wrong on a friend’s recommendation. I will never forgive him. The touring production runs at the Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., through December 16, and was […]
Review: So Much Wrong with The Play That Goes Wrong
In Steppenwolf’s Familiar, an Immigrant Family Comes to Terms With Old and New Customs
Familiar at Steppenwolf Theatre rings true as a familiar story in one way or another for most of us. An immigrant family struggles with education and culture in its new country, and tries […]
Review: Q Brothers Update Dickens With Rap, Rhymes and Plenty of Heart
For a holiday tradition that’s Lin-Manuel Miranda meets Charles Dickens, look no further than Q Brothers Christmas Carol at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, on through December 30. Presented at The Yard, the theater’s […]
Review: Sideshow Theatre’s HeLa Tells Stories of Death, Joy and Outer Space
“This is Major Tom to Ground Control I’m stepping through the door And I’m floating in a most peculiar way And the stars look very different today For here am I sitting […]
Review: Eclipse’s The Dark at the Top of the Stairs Dramatizes Everyone’s Fears in 1920s Oklahoma
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, a 1957 play by William Inge, is set in a small town in 1920s Oklahoma. The play tells the story of the Flood family—Cora […]
Liberté, Égalité, Sororité: Four Badass Women Fight for Art and Freedom in Strawdog’s The Revolutionists
The Revolutionists is feminist history laced with an argument for the value of art in revolution. Playwright Lauren Gunderson describes it as a “comedic quartet about four women at the height of the […]
Review: As Chicago’s Holiday Traditions Go, A Christmas Carol is Among the Best
Chicago loves its holiday traditions. From classics like the windows and the Walnut Room all dressed up at Field’s/Macy’s to more contemporary additions like Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza and ice skating in […]
Review: The Woman in Black at the Royal George Theatre is Guaranteed to Give You the Chills
The Woman in Black, a spooky Christmas transplant from the UK, is the second-longest running play on the West End (the top spot belongs to another little potboiler, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap). […]
Ike Holter’s Rightlynd Is a Story of Chicago Politics: It’s the City We Love Despite Its Flaws
“Once you’ve come to be part of this particular patch, you’ll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely […]
Review: Miss Saigon at the Cadillac Palace Is the Epic Broadway Hit, Helicopter and All
Inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s massively influential Madame Butterfly, Boublil and Schönberg’s equally successful Miss Saigon originally premiered in 1989 in London’s West End. It would prove to be an international hit, becoming Broadway’s 13th longest […]
Manual Cinema Creates Strangely Enchanting Multimedia Frankenstein at Court Theatre
Manual Cinema is presenting a weirdly enchanting version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at Court Theatre. Nine puppeteers and musicians display the original story of Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature, combined with Mary Shelley’s […]
Red Theater’s An Oak Tree Is an Intellectual Exercise Mixing Dream and Reality
I admire experimentation in theater, whether it’s setting a familiar Shakespearean tale behind a vinyl screen in some post-modern setting (as Gift Theatre did with Hamlet recently) or telling the Frankenstein story […]
