The Hypocrites’ Adding Machine Anything But Mediocre
Amidst a cloud of haze and the repeated plunking of a piano key, a nondescript man hunches over his desk, writing feverishly. By the time everyone has found their seats, the monotonous […]
Court’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night: Dysfunctional Family Masterpiece
[soliloquy id=”3269″] Photos by Michael Brosilow. A friend says that all great stories are about dysfunctional families. Certainly much of the best modern theater is about dysfunctional families. You have […]
Preview: Loyola University Chicago to Celebrate Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems
“Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job […]
Matilda, a Musical Bookworms Can Rejoice To
I had to borrow a kid to go see Matilda. I also had to put aside my usual prejudice towards musicals. But no one was forcing Matilda on me. […]
Gift Theatre’s Richard III A Robo-Usurper
Michael Patrick Thornton in The Gift Theatre’s Richard III. Photo by Claire Demos. The real Richard III perhaps wasn’t such a bad chap, not the “bottled spider” Shakespeare would have […]
Writers Theatre Opens New Venue with Sparkling Arcadia
[soliloquy id=”3199″] 1809–Thomasina and Septimus. Present–Valentine, Bernard, Chloe and Hannah. Photos by Michael Brosilow. Writers Theatre opened its spectacular new theater in Glencoe this week with an appropriately spectacular production […]
Bottom Lounge Goes Nuts For CHON
I’ve never been quite sure how to characterize CHON‘s music. Is it instrumental metal with jazz and classical tendencies? Is it lounge music played on electric guitars, backed by ferocious […]
The Chicago Review of Terrible Books: Kill the Clown
When I looked at the gathering again, almost all of the heads were turned toward me. Nearly two hundred pairs of eyes stared at me. The band stopped playing suddenly. […]
EU Film Fest: The Final Week
The Chicago European Union Film Festival concludes this week, so if you love watching films with subtitles, this is your chance. See some of the best of European films at […]
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, My Golden Days, Marguerite, River of Grass
BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE I’ll admit I had a tough time starting to write this one. It wasn’t any type of writer’s block or uncertainty about my option […]
Anna Elise Johnson, Structural Adjustment at The Mission
Upon entering The Mission’s current show, Structural Adjustment, visitors are immersed in the orange and yellow glow from the front window collage, which serves as the most literal translation of […]
Gogol Bordello in Chicago: Celebration without a blackout
Gogol Bordello transformed the Metro Chicago stage Wednesday night into a street performance, as my preview for this concert predicted. Each band member had his or her own bottomless tank of […]