Review: Hamilton Returns to Remind Us That Today’s Politics Is History
Hamilton has landed in Chicago and I was not prepared for the mania that was opening night. The line wound down State Street from the Nederlander on Randolph for people […]
Review: Birthday Candles at Northlight Theatre Will Light Up Your Evening
Birthday Candles is a new play now on stage at Northlight Theatre. It’s a poignant comedy/drama that will cure your emotional ills for an evening with its story of love, life […]
Review: Shattered Globe’s A View from the Bridge Simmers with Raw Emotion and Physicality
Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge is a mid-century American story, a tale that’s rimmed with classic notions of honor and respect, as old as Greek tragedy and Sicilian immigrant lore. […]
Review: Congo Square Theatre Illuminates an Uncomfortable Truth in Welcome to Matteson
Congo Square Theatre is celebrating its 25th anniversary of staging a full spectrum of the Black experience in America. A part of that celebration is the world premiere of Welcome […]
Review: In Water People Theater’s North & Sur, Two Poets Meet—and Magic Happens
Dijo el cuervo, “nunca más.” That famous line of 19th century American poetry, “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore,” is a thread that runs through North & Sur, the new play being staged by […]
Review: In Three Crows’ Beauty Queen of Leenane, McDonagh’s Dark Comedy Illuminates
Before last year’s The Banshees of Inisherin… before Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri… before In Bruges… before all the Oscars noms and Tony nods Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has racked […]
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: Tech Glow-Up for Chicago’s Long-Running Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group started as outsider art, railing against the machine of corporate commodification and end-stage capitalism. Now it’s become a perfect performance entrée for kids and their families, which […]
Review: Hell in a Handbag Stages a Hilarious Parody with Murder Rewrote
Hell in a Handbag puts Joan Crawford, The Bad Seed, Jane Wyman, and Mad Magazine in the Wayback Machine and produces a delicious satire with Murder Rewrote. This show is […]
Review: Steep Theatre’s The Writer Makes a Feminist Assault on Theater and Its Patriarchy
The Writer, Steep Theatre’s new play by English playwright Ella Hickson, is an assault on theater and on the patriarchy. It’s a much-deserved feminist assault. Whether it’s good theater or […]
Review: Music Theater Works Presents Madcap Ribaldry and Great Music in The Producers
Mel Brooks is one of the great geniuses of comedy hands down and The Producers is one of his many masterpieces. Music Theater Works celebrates its 150th show under the […]
Review: Captivating MJ: The Musical National Tour Gives Audiences an Eyeful of Star Power
There’s so much to see and absorb while watching MJ, the musical about late pop star Michael Jackson, that theatergoers can’t be blamed for wanting to see this show more […]