Review: Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre Empowers Ntozake Shange’s 1976 MasterWork
I was 16 when For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf premiered on Broadway in 1976 and started making waves in the Black community. I […]
Review: Peeling Away the Layers of Two Lives, Civilisation Francaise, by Mary Fleming
Chicago-born Mary Fleming’s Civilisation Francaise is a novel of layers. Layers slowly peeled away for the reader to learn the stories of the book’s two central characters, Madame Quinon, an […]
Review: In Wells and Welles, Lucid Theater Portrays the Day in 1940 When the Two Prodigies Meet
Being considered a “boy genius” probably heightened Orson Welles’ substantial ego. In October 1940, his chutzpah enabled him to knock on the hotel room door of a man long recognized […]
Review: At Pegasus Theatre, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea, Tells a Young Man’s Ancestral Dream Story
Pegasus Theatre’s play, Dontell, Who Kissed the Sea, benefits from the poetic language of playwright Nathan Alan Davis and the production’s water theme. The work is directed by Ilesa Duncan, who […]
Review: A Case for the Existence of God at Steep Theatre Walks a Thin Line Between Hope and Despair
Samuel D. Hunter has received a lot of attention in recent years, with Little Bear Ridge Road now receiving rave reviews at Steppenwolf, and the success of The Whale, a […]
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024: Day Two in Review
Day Two at Pitchfork Music Festival went off with put a hitch. Not a raindrop in sight and the occasionally clouds blocking the sometimes too hot sun were perks on […]
Review: RIP World Premiere in Milwaukee Takes Gallows Humor to Extreme
If you agree that the only certainties in life are death and taxes, you could say that the world premiere of RIP—A Musical Comedy of Life & Death is certainly […]
Pitchfork Music Festival 2024: Day One in Review
Pitchfork Music Festival is back for another year of excellent sounds and vibes at Union Park. Clear skies and actually enjoyable temps reigned supreme on the first day of the […]
On the Road: Letter from New York—Culture Hopping in the City of Islands
“I’m in a New York state of mind”–Billy Joel New York is a city of islands or near-islands. In all, there are more than three dozen of them, inhabited and […]
Review: Grant Park Orchestra Gives an Inspired Performance of Ravel, Rachmaninoff, and Hindemith
Under another beautiful evening and sunset, the Grant Park Orchestra continued its excellent season at Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Wednesday evening. Conductor Eric Jacobsen called the program “inspired” because the […]
The Best Films of 2024…So Far
In a year where it feels like the movies are finally coming back (post-pandemic, post-strike), 2024 is only half over and we’ve already seen some of the best films of […]
Review: Haley Bennett Stars as Widow Clicquot in a Biopic of an Unsung Hero of Everyone’s Favorite Champagne
Though her IMDb filmography dates back to 2007, Haley Bennett first made a name for herself in 2019’s psychological thriller Swallow, Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ unsettling and striking drama about a woman […]