2021 Preview: A Wish List for Theater, Virtual and Live
There’s no need to say how devastating 2020 has been for live theater and all forms of live entertainment. Millions of careers, lives and families have been turned upside down […]
Essay: Revisiting Stoppard’s Magnificent The Coast of Utopia on Its 14th Anniversary
This week I had a chance to revisit the most spectacular theater experience I’ve ever had. It took place on a weekend in February 2007. Over the course of two […]
Report: How Virtual Theater Can Expand the Influence of Local Theaters Post-Pandemic
Virtual theater has come in many forms during the last eight pandemic months. Our most recent theater review was actor/clown Bill Irwin’s new version of his bravura performance of On […]
Review: Stage Left’s The Project(s) Documents a Story of Community Found and Community Lost
The Project(s), a documentary-style theater piece that tells the story of Chicago public housing, past and present, had its world premiere in May 2015 at American Theater Company (shut down […]
Theater, Virtually: See What the Constitution Means to Me on Prime Video
On March 8, just a week before theater and most other live events shut down, I began a theater review this way: “What the Constitution Means to Me is partly […]
Review: Invictus Theatre Offers Emotional Mother-Daughter Story in ‘night, Mother
It’s far more than a beautifully written mother-daughter conversation. Over the course of an evening at home, a young woman explains to her mother the list of things she will […]
Review: Goodman Theatre Reprises Death of a Salesman, a Shattering Theatrical Experience–Thru 10/25
You may have seen Arthur Miller’s midcentury masterpiece, Death of a Salesman, many times. You may have seen some of the great versions. But even if you saw the 1998 […]
Review: Invasion from Mars, A War of the Worlds Radio Play by Theatre in the Dark—Memories of 1938
The Chicago company Theatre in the Dark is offering a new adaptation of H. G. Wells’ classic 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds, as a live 90-minute virtual audio […]
Theater, Virtually: Such Small Hands, a New Play About Love, Aging and Loss by Kane Rep
“I always thought it would be me first,” says the wife about her aging, brain-scrambled husband. “I had cancer scares twice.” Instead, she’s the healthy one, the patient, organized one, […]
Review: Kane Rep Streams Young Love, Adam Szymkowicz’s Emotional Story of Love in Two Parts
Young Love by internationally acclaimed playwright Adam Szymkowicz and directed by Daniil Krimer streamed live on YouTube October 7. Isabel Arraiza and Philip Stoddard star in the digital workshop, a […]
Review: Theatre Y’s We’re Gonna Die Presents Stories and Songs Against Tableaus of Life
In the days of a life-destroying virus, it seems perverse to stage a production titled We’re Gonna Die. Yet Theatre Y bravely undertakes this work, a one-woman play by Young […]
Fall Theater Preview: It’s a Virtual World With Plenty of Creativity on Display
It’s fall and the time when Chicago theaters begin their new seasons. That’s the “old normal,” however, and nothing is normal these days. But although we can’t gather in small […]