The Thing: Mindful Baking’s Flax Bread
You have probably seen Mindful Baking’s booth at the farmers market. Their table is usually filled with colorfully glazed doughnuts, cupcakes, and hefty loaves of bread. At their storefront in […]
Review: Archer Oh Hits the Mark at Cobra Lounge
Anyone who thinks that 2025 does not offer the appropriate musical landscape for a gritty garage rock hybrid of early Nirvana, Weezer, and the Smiths hasn’t heard California’s Archer Oh. […]
Review: Berlin’s Leonkoro Quartet Entertains in Hyde Park With a Mix of Early to Modern Music
Before returning to their homes in Berlin, the Leonkoro Quartet finished their North American tour with an entertaining concert at Logan Center in Hyde Park on Friday night. Formed in […]
Review: Giordano Dance Chicago’s Soaring Is a Magical Journey of Life, Love, and Celebration
Giordano Dance Chicago is our homegrown ensemble, and their Friday performance was unlike any other Giordano show I have covered. Soaring: Life, Light, and Legacy is a tribute to artistic director Nan […]
Review: No Names by Greg Hewett Is Just Plain Lazy
Some debut novels confidently announce a fresh, fully realized voice. Others are a little uneven and wear their amateurishness obviously. I’m afraid Greg Hewett’s debut No Names belongs to the […]
Feature: The National Hellenic Museum Treats Us to Their Annual Lesson in Legal History and Personal Drama with The Trial of Themistocles
Themistocles was a military hero and a political leader, born to a working-class family just outside Athens around 524 BCE. He rose to lead Athens in war and peace but […]
Review: The Luckiest Man in America Isn’t Exactly a Character Study, but Strong Performances Win the Film
Based on the true and seemingly inconsequential story of Michael Larson (played by Paul Walter Hauser), an unemployed ice cream truck driver who made a bit of a splash on […]
Review: A Movie about Music and More, The Ballad of Wallis Island Infuses a Heartfelt Story with Charming Comedy
There are movies, and there are musicals. There are even movie musicals. But the musical movie is something else entirely. These are films where the narrative itself is music-based. Films […]
Interview: Michael Shannon and Screenwriter Brett Neveu on Eric LaRue’s Chicago Ties, Adapting a Stage Play and Casting Judy Greer in a Lead Role
With its roots in Chicago theater, the story of Eric LaRue is set in an anonymous suburban community in the aftermath of a shocking crime committed by the high school-age […]
Review: Porchlight’s Titanique Sparkles Like That Diamond (You Know the One)
Not since gin and vermouth first met ice has any cocktail sparkled so purely, so perfectly, so powerfully as Porchlight Theatre’s crazy collision with a fateful iceberg, Titanique, now running […]
Review: Onstage Talent Battles Backstage Bungles in Dreamgirls at the Studebaker Theater
Last December, Seven Thirty Theatre and Katydid Productions presented a production of Dreamgirls—the great American musical about the Motown experience—at the Studebaker Theater. The show was well received and so […]
Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 4/3 and Beyond
It’s a new month so let’s act like it and get a fresh start! There are fantastic events going on this weekend. So start penciling in some fun concerts, movies, […]