Review: Kentucky by Gift Theatre, an Homage to the Meaning of Home and Happiness
Kentucky is a richly drawn study of a family of characters who disagree and battle and are not quite sure they love each other. Mostly it‘s a story of what […]
Review: At Strawdog Theatre, The Effect Asks What Is Real Love and What Is Chemically Induced
Put two attractive young people in a room for four weeks, stimulate them with pharmaceuticals that have unknown properties, and then act surprised at what happens. This is the slightly […]
Review: Sunset Boulevard at Porchlight Glimpses Greatness, Ultimately Falls Short
Though I pride myself on a rather robust knowledge of American musical theater, one show I’ve never managed to get to is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, the musical based […]
Review: Science and Family Trauma in Mosquitoes at Steep Theatre Is Exciting and Perplexing
You might look at Mosquitoes as two plays, stitched together. Set mostly in Geneva, Switzerland, where nuclear scientists work on the Hadron Collider, you have the excitement of scientific challenge […]
Review: At Raven Theatre, Sundown, Yellow Moon Suffers From Pallid Script, Odd Staging
Sundown, Yellow Moon by Rachel Bonds is a family story about twin sisters from the big city who visit their newly divorced father in his barely furnished cabin in the […]
Review: The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon Tells a Poetic and Horrific Story About the Fate of Women Journalists
The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon has a poetic title, both in English and in Spanish (Las Delicadas Lagrimas de ls Luna Menguante). Playwright and actor Rebeca Aleman has […]
Review: Sideshow Theatre’s X—They’re Stranded on Pluto With Environmental Apocalypse Below
The last tree. It’s a theme that symbolizes the environmental apocalypse at the heart of Alistair McDowall’s play X by Sideshow Theatre, directed by Jonathan Green. Some time in the […]
Review: The Divine Sarah Persists in Playing Hamlet in Bernhardt/Hamlet at Goodman Theatre
Sarah Bernhardt was a towering figure in world theater. The French stage actress performed in classic plays of the time, made theatrical tours around the world, including across the U.S., […]
Review: Dana H. at Goodman Theatre Is an Intense, Emotional Experience
Walking into Dana H., all I knew was that the lead actor, Deirdre O’Connell, was lip-syncing. Little did I know I was going to see one of the most intense, emotional […]
Review: In The Great Leap at Steppenwolf, Basketball and Chinese Politics Mix It Up
The Great Leap is an homage to basketball and to playwright Lauren Yee’s father—and also connects to Chinese history and politics and the country’s competitiveness with the West. Yee’s latest play […]
Review: A Perfectly Polite Bit of British History in The King’s Speech at Chicago Shakes
Downton Abbey, the acclaimed British drama series that ran for several seasons on PBS here in the States, returned this weekend. The story, this time on the big screen, brought […]
Review: Love and Information at Trap Door Mines Our Anxieties About Human Connections
Trap Door Theatre’s production of Love and Information, Caryl Churchill’s 2012 play, is more performance art than theater. But Kim McKean’s direction makes this production sizzle with energy. The nine […]