Review: Queen of the Night Portrays a Healing Journey of a Father and Son
For some, growing up Black in America is to be a stranger to the concept of the All-American. As few as two generations back, a Black father was seen as […]
Review: Sons of Hollywood Reveals Hypocrisy and Defiance in Old Hollywood at Windy City Playhouse
As a fan and amateur historian of the film industry in America, I found Sons of Hollywood to be a heart-rending retelling of the lives of those who entertained millions […]
Review: Chicago Shakes Brings TM, a One-on-One Virtual Experience That Asks if You’re a Good Enough Person
Are you a good person? In TM, one spectator and one actor meet; the actor takes the spectator through a series of questions and exercises to determine if the spectator […]
Review: Timeline Theatre’s Relentless Unburies the Past to Confront the Future
Bakari and Ladymore are brilliant as sisters. Annelle is the dilettante who has had two marriages before finding Marcus. She revels in being a doctor’s wife as much as being […]
Review: Cabinet of Curiosity Sees Sea Change at Chicago Puppet Theater Fest
What I have always loved about every single Cabinet of Curiosity production is that I can’t tell you what it is about, but it holds tremendous meaning for me. Sea […]
Preview: Puppet Theater Festival Opens With the Social Commentary of The Plastic Bag Store
At long last the 4th annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, after a COVID 19- induced delay, is here. If the opening of Robin Frohardt’s Plastic Bag Store on Michigan […]
Review: The Moors at A Red Orchid Is a Wickedly Funny and Subversive Tale of Longing
Ah, gothic romance. It is always a dark and stormy night with sexually repressed spinsters sitting in the parlor of a creaky old mansion with ivy growing inside. The winds […]
Review: Witness Binds a WW2 Tragedy With Present-Day Anti-Semitism Through Inventive Virtual Theater
The tragedy of the MS St. Louis, the 1939 ship bound for the U.S. with 937 European Jews on board, is the subject of a powerful new play by Arlekin […]
Review: Oklahoma! Takes Us to the Dark Side
Broadway revivals have been the lifeblood of musical theater for decades. They are, for the most part, feel-good reminders of the golden age of Broadway. Big voices such as Howard […]
Review: A Hero’s Journey for Alaudin Ullah in Dishwasher Dreams at Writers Theatre
Every first-generation person has a story of integrating the ways of the old country, or of their ancestral region like the American South. It is how identities are built and […]
Review: The Play That Goes Wrong May Be Right If You Need Some Laughs
The Play That Goes Wrong opened Friday night at the Broadway Playhouse. By audience reaction, the play is a barrel of laughs; it’s a wannabe farce that doesn’t quite make […]
Review: Ben Scrooge Gets Jiggy in Q Brothers Christmas Carol at Chicago Shakes
What is this madness? Ebenezer Scrooge is alive in the Millennium and just as un-PC and crotchety as ever. Q Brothers Christmas Carol, directed by Q Brothers Collective members JQ […]