Re-Joyce in The Plagiarists’ Ulysses
On the surface, Ulysses follows a day in the life of two Dubliners, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus, but truly covers the entire range of human experience: life, love, grief, […]
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 […]
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. […]
From Dawn to Dusk: Music of the Baroque Offers Lively Interpretations of the Day
In an imaginative whim of programming, Jane Glover and the Music of the Baroque orchestra mined Haydn’s very early career and Mozart’s maturing phase to cobble together “From Dawn to […]
Porchlight’s “Far From Heaven” Takes Their Musical Theater Fare Shaken, Not Stoic
How do you take a cloyingly overused plot line and make it feel less decayed, more relevant, and, above all, interesting? That’s what Porchlight Music Theatre’s Far From Heaven attempts […]
R.O.W.E. Week 5: 10 Love Poems Written by Women
I’m Brianna Kratz, a Chicago poet and literature enthusiast. In 2016, I’m reading only women authors for my Read Only Women Experiment (R.O.W.E.). For weekly updates on challenges, conversations, and […]
The Young Wise Life of Andrew St. James
Before the age of 10, Andrew St. James sang and toured for the San Francisco Opera. It was his first job, but it couldn’t last forever. “My voice dropped, and […]
The Greenhouse Theater Center’s Jacob Harvey on Embracing the Individual
One may allegedly be the loneliest number, but at the Greenhouse Theater Center, Artistic Director Jacob Harvey would like to argue that it also makes for one hell of a fine show. […]
Another Word for Beauty—A Musical Beauty Pageant Behind Bars Goes Awry
The world premiere of Another Word for Beauty at the Goodman Theatre was packed. Written by playwright Jose Rivera, the musical centers around the importance of an annual event at El […]
The Mutilated at Red Orchid Celebrates a Joyous Goofy Christmas
A Red Orchid Theatre has mounted a joyous, goofy production of a Tennessee Williams eccentric rarity, The Mutilated. Oh, it’s also a sad story about the strained relationship between […]
The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America by Ethan Michaeli
Available now from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in hardcover for $20.oo. Throughout the 20th century, African-Americans faced extraordinary difficulties as they tried to earn a decent living and break the barriers that […]