Review: Goodman Theatre Continues a Fine Holiday Tradition with A Christmas Carol
The Goodman Theatre’s 46th annual production of A Christmas Carol is the kickoff to the holiday season in Chicago. The last time I saw it was over 12 years ago […]
Review: Milwaukee Pays Tribute to Hometown Legend in Liberace!
While Chicago can lay claim to many headliners of the past, only Milwaukee had a major influence in the life of a piano prodigy who eventually became known as a […]
Review: The Conspirators Create Bizarre and Brilliant Magic in COMMEDIA DIVINA: It’s Worse Than That
Ask a few actors about their childhoods and you start to notice patterns. “My siblings and I made costumes and put on silly plays for our parents,” is a common […]
Review: Witch by Artistic Home Uses a 17th Century Story to Question Our Hope for the Future
“Where do we go from here? Can we imagine a better world? Or is it time to burn it all down and start over?” That’s part of the opening speech […]
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 […]
Review: At Timeline Theatre, The Lifespan of a Fact Dramatizes a Contentious Search for Accuracy
An eager young intern for a famous magazine agrees to take on a new, fast turnaround assignment: fact-checking an important essay by a famous writer. The essay is to be […]
Review: At Madison’s Forward Theater, the Cooks Are Still Serving Time at Clyde’s
At first glance, one may have trouble seeing the beauty in Clyde’s, penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. In the commercial kitchen of a truck stop diner, life seems […]
Review: Steppenwolf’s POTUS Follows a Manic Day in the Life of the Real White House VIPs—the Female Staff
This review and the final dialog are written by theater critics Nancy Bishop and Kim Campbell. POTUS is ostensibly a play about the President of the United States, in which […]
Review: Chicago Shakespeare Sparks Love and Joy With Twelfth Night
“If music be the food of love, play on.” (Duke Orsino, Act I, Twelfth Night) At its center, Twelfth Night is a story about love. Falling in love, out of love, and everything in […]
Review: Not Much Warmth in This Chilly Touring Production of Company
The American musical theater has been graced with another revival of Company, Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s 1970 musical about our basic human need for togetherness. In this 2021 Broadway […]
Review: Teatro Vista’s ¡Bernarda! Sizzles in a Time of Mourning With Sisters Behaving Badly
The house of Bernarda Alba has had a makeover. If you are familiar with the 1936 play by Federico Garcia Lorca, you may gain new insights about it when you see ¡Bernarda!, its […]
Review: Rosenberg Tells the Story of the Lawyer Who Helped Prosecute the WWII Espionage Case
The truth doesn’t matter. That’s the premise and it’s repeated throughout the performance of Rosenberg, a new play being staged by Open Space Arts, and directed by Michael D. Graham. Set in […]