Deirdre of the Sorrows, Synge’s Romantic Irish Legend, on Stage at City Lit
Deirdre of the Sorrows by John Millington Synge is based on the Irish legend of Deirdre, set in ancient times in the Irish kingdom of Ulster. City Lit Theater is […]
Stages Monthly: What to See in Chicago Theaters in September
September is a hectic month for theater in Chicago. Although summer is no longer the slow season it used to be, September sees a lot of season openers and just […]
Strawdog Theatre’s Barbecue Roasts Our Attitudes About Race, Class and Celebrity
Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue is not a treatise on meat-grilling. It’s a satire that roasts our attitudes about race, class and money. It’s a funny, biting family story with a twisty, […]
Black Button Eyes Productions’ Shockheaded Peter Has More Style Than Substance
Presented at the Athenaeum Theatre by Black Button Eyes Productions, Shockheaded Peter presents a series of gruesome vignettes adapted from a German book entitled The Struwwelpeter, written in 1845 by […]
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity: The American Dream in All Its Slamming, Kicking Glory
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is about pro wrestling in all its pounding, banging, slamming, kicking performance art glory. It’s loud and obnoxious. And much of the play that […]
Writers Theatre’s Trevor Polished, But Misguided
If the crux of your musical’s story centers around its 13-year-old protagonist’s attempted suicide, it may be best to forgo an Act II opener that dresses its young cast in […]
Theatre Oobleck’s Closed Casket: Baudelaire’s Final Act
It is no small undertaking to decide to adapt Charles Baudelaire’s seminal 19th century volume of poetry, Les fleurs du mal. Some may find its sheer length and poetic complexity daunting, […]
Expressionist Machinal Tells Powerful Feminist Story at the Greenhouse Theater Center
The play opens with a symphony of switchboard operators, those 1920s-era office workers who kept people talking by plugging phones into jacks, greeting and connecting the world outside with the […]
Did Jefferson and Poe Collaborate in 1826? Monticello Tells Their Story
What if Edgar Allen Poe, a new student and earnest young writer at the University of Virginia, went to Monticello in July 1826 to help Thomas Jefferson with an important […]
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical Speaks to New and Old Generations
It’s been almost 50 years since I saw Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical at the old Shubert Theatre in Chicago. But I sat in the Mercury Theater Friday night […]
An Octoroon at Definition Theatre Meditates on Race and Identity in 19th and 21st Centuries
Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins gives us something to think about in the opening moments of his play, An Octoroon, by Definition Theatre Company, directed by Chuck Smith. An actor (Breon Arzell) appears […]
An American in Paris Brings Broadway and Ballet to Chicago
Calling all dance aficionados! Tony-Award winning, An American in Paris has arrived at the Oriental Theatre for its limited engagement running now through August 13. The coveted Broadway musical tells […]