Stages, Theater

Review The Brightest Thing in the World by About Face Theatre—Realism to the Point of Cringe

Romance is difficult enough in real life, but it’s damn-near impossible on the stage. Balancing the fictive chemicals of genuine-seeming attraction is a science to challenge our best artists. Success […]

Adam Kaz /
Stages, Theater

Review: Witch by Artistic Home Uses a 17th Century Story to Question Our Hope for the Future

“Where do we go from here? Can we imagine a better world? Or is it time to burn it all down and start over?” That’s part of the opening speech […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Hell in a Handbag Stages a Hilarious Parody with Murder Rewrote

Hell in a Handbag puts Joan Crawford, The Bad Seed, Jane Wyman, and Mad Magazine in the Wayback Machine and produces a delicious satire with Murder Rewrote. This show is […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Stages, Theater

Review: Haven’s The Art of Bowing Challenges Us to Think About the Survival of Theater

“Theater is dead. Long live theater.” That may be the theme of Nathan Alan Davis’ imaginative and puzzling new play, The Art of Bowing, which you can now see in its […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Preview, Stages, Theater

Preview: Broken Nose Theatre Tees Up Its 2022 Bechdel Fest With Eight Plays That Pass That Test

You may know Alison Bechdel as the author and subject of the memoirish musical, Fun Home. But she’s also the source of the well-known Bechdel Test, which requires that a work of […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Stages, Theater

Review: Haven’s Get Out Alive Brings Depression Out of the Shadows With Soul, Gospel and Hip-Hop

I almost didn’t request a ticket to review this show when I saw that it is a play about depression and suicide. I didn’t know if it was going to […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Circus, Comedy, Dance, Stages, Theater, Theater Festival

Preview: Chicago Circus and Performing Arts Festival Premieres April 21-24

Life’s been a circus over the last two years, so we might as well lean into it. Welcome to the Chicago Circus & Performing Arts Festival, the Windy City’s newest multidisciplinary […]

Karin McKie /
Burlesque, Stages

Review: Not Just a Tit Show—Fly Honey Show Celebrates Body, Self, and Sex at Den Theatre

The Fly Honey Show is a vibrant reimagining of the classic cabaret in a safe space for less-heard voices to be themselves—loudly and sexily so. With over 300 all-volunteer rotating professional […]

Katie Priest /
Stages, Theater

Review: Haven’s Kiss Threads the Needle Between Soap Opera and Wartime

Images on the television screen. No sound. We’re in a living room in Damascus in 2014. Four people gather to watch their favorite soap opera. (Syrians love telenovelas.) The two […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Preview, Review, Stages, Theater

Stage Shorts: Broken Nose Theatre and First Floor Theater Plus a Tantalizing Preview for Reverse Gossip

Another in our series of recap reviews for plays that have just opened in some of Chicago’s storefront theaters. Here we have two very different plays but each focuses on […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Review, Stages, Theater

At the Den Theatre, Charlie Johnson Reads All of Proust Will Make You Want to Do the Same

Madelines. Military service. Marriages and family. Swann’s Way to Time Regained. An older man decides he will read Marcel Proust’s iconic novel. As he reads all six volumes over the course of a […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Front page

Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 12/13 – 12/16

We’re inching closer and closer to the end of the year and there’s still so much left to do. There are tons of markets, concerts, and even a few stories […]

Julian Ramirez /