Review: Trap Door’s The Ugly One Is a Brilliant and Delirious Take on the Construct of Beauty
I always get to shows early. I consider that to be a virtue and also very helpful in getting the vibe of a place. My early arrival habit paid off […]
Review: Much More Than Sandwiches Are Being Served in Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s at Goodman Theatre
Clyde’s is a truck stop diner somewhere on the highway. We meet and learn the skills and stories of the four prep cooks, all of whom are ex-convicts, trying to […]
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: In Time for Halloween, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Arrives with Strong Vocals, Clever Staging
As we left the Chopin Theatre Friday night, after an appropriately spooky and decidedly well-sung performance of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street presented by Kokandy Productions, I […]
Review: Windy City Playhouse Serves Up Cocktails and Vitriol in Southern Gothic
Right out of the gate, I will say that the term ‘gothic’ certainly fits the story and the actions of the characters in Southern Gothic. Windy City Playhouse’s remount of […]
Review: At Steppenwolf Theatre, Miz Martha Washington’s Crazy Dreamscape Offers Comic History Lessons and Discomfort
Leaving the theater after seeing this wise and hysterically funny play, my first thought was, I would like to see this produced in Florida, where the governor and legislature have […]
Review: Court Theatre’s Arsenic and Old Lace Serves Up a Mild Cocktail
Joseph Kesselring’s 1941 Arsenic and Old Lace is a familiar property, frequently revived and indelibly captured on film in Frank Capra’s 1944 movie starring Cary Grant. Its popularity is well […]
Review: Take the Kids—Take Yourself—to See Leonardo, a Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster at Chicago Children’s Theatre
It was a rainy Sunday morning, so what’s the best thing to do (as an alternative to staying in bed)? About a hundred parents and kids—and I—thought the best thing […]
Review: Art and Politics at War in Chagall in School by Grippo Stage Company
Art is enmeshed in the politics of the Russian revolution in James Sherman’s new play, Chagall in School, now being staged by Grippo Stage Company at Theater Wit. Georgette Verdin […]
Review: Lifeline Celebrates 40 years With Miss Holmes Returns
Lifeline Theatre is a mainstay of the arts scene in Rogers Park. They remain after BoHo Theatre moved to Lincoln Square, Theo Ubique moved to the Evanston side of the […]
Review: The Bliss Family Sets a Chaotic Table for Their Guests in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever at City Lit
A high farce, a comedy of manners, a play named after an irrelevant medical condition. Those would be a few ways to describe Noel Coward’s 1925 play, Hay Fever, now on […]
Review: Blank Theatre’s The Wild Party Is One Shindig You Can Skip
A funny thing happened in the New York theater scene in 1999: two new musicals, with the same name and based on the same source material, debuted in the same […]