Broadway, Circus, Stages, Theater

Review: Not Much Warmth in This Chilly Touring Production of Company

The American musical theater has been graced with another revival of Company, Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s 1970 musical about our basic human need for togetherness. In this 2021 Broadway […]

Anne Siegel /
Opera, Stages

Review: Standout Performances in Lyric Opera’s Uneven West Side Story

Choreography by Jerome Robbins, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and music by Leonard Bernstein are the calling cards of West Side Story. This is an energetic and passionate contemporary retelling directed […]

Kathy D. Hey /
Film, Film & TV, Review

Review: With tick, tick…BOOM, a Very Busy Lin-Manuel Miranda Helms an Entertaining Adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s First Musical

Tick Tick Boom

It’s not entirely clear when (or if) Lin-Manuel Miranda sleeps, but really, that’s his personal business. In his very productive waking hours, Miranda has seemingly not stopped creating since moving […]

Lisa Trifone /
Film, Film & TV, Interview

Interview: Filmmaker Dominic Cooke on Re-Teaming with Benedict Cumberbatch on The Courier, Patriotism and Making an Emotional Spy Movie

Dominic Cooke

In 2016, for the second season of the groundbreaking British mini-series The Hollow Crown (adaptations of Shakespeare’s royalty-based history plays), director Dominic Cooke cast Benedict Cumberbatch to play one of […]

Steve Prokopy /
Review, Stages, Theater

Review: Fresh Talent and Palpable Energy Deliver a Can’t Miss West Side Story

West Side Story

At a typical (however one defines that) performance at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the accompanying program includes in each cast and crew bio the professional’s previous Lyric credits. The asterisks […]

Lisa Trifone /
Stages, Theater

Porchlight’s Dynamic Merrily We Roll Along Puts Energy in Ever-Poignant Sondheim

In 1981, Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince collaborated with writer George Furth for a new musical based on a 1934 play, Merrily We Roll Along. The show was to be […]

Lisa Trifone /
Film, Film & TV

Film Review: Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened…, Dreams Shattered Then Realized

When I interviewed La La Land writer-director Damien Chazelle a couple months ago for Ain’t it Cool News, we discussed one of the film’s themes being the power of rejection […]

Steve Prokopy /