Review: Redtwist Theatre’s The Normal Heart—Riveting Drama Still Beats Strong
“Who cares if a bunch of faggots die?” Larry Kramer did. And, more than 40 years ago, that’s what caused him to write that caustic question in his remarkable play […]
Review: Friko Crashes Through at Their Lincoln Hall Lollapalooza Aftershow
Review by Annie Keller. As much as I hate to admit it, I sometimes catch myself longing to live in Chicago during the ’90s indie rock boom—all analog technology and […]
Review: The Olde School Shakespeare Collective Presents The Taming of the Shrew (Brat-Tamer Version)
A raucous night of theater just as the bard intended awaits audiences of the Olde School Shakespeare Collective’s production of The Taming of the Shrew. Hosted at My Buddy’s bar, […]
Review: Zoë Kravitz Directs Blink Twice, a Glossy, Creepy Thriller with a Dark Center
For reasons that don’t quite make sense even to me, the prospect of actor Zoë Kravitz directing/co-writing a film (with E.T. Feigenbaum) has filled me with excitement since I heard […]
Review: The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat Chronicles Three Friends Over Decades and Through Years of Tribulations and Triumph
Based on the best-selling 2013 novel by Edward Kelsey Moore (adapted by Cee Marcellus, which is actually a pen name for Gina Prince-Bythewood, with revisions by director Tina Mabry), The […]
Review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra Was All About the Vibes at Outset
“I’m not trying to get you on the first listen, at all.” This is the ethos of Ruban Nielson, frontman and principal architect of psychedelic rock outfit Unknown Mortal Orchestra. […]
Review: At Invictus Theatre, Network, the Paddy Chayefsky 1970s Masterpiece, Demands We Pay Attention
You’ll want to arrive early if you have a ticket for Network—because the show actually begins 30 minutes before “curtain time.” That traditional convention of naming the hour at which the […]
Review: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Rush, and Rachel Barton Pine—Musicianship at Its Finest at Ravinia
Under the lively leadership of Jonathan Rush, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra completed a residency at Ravinia in an amazing fashion on Sunday evening. Joined by violinist Rachel Barton Pine, the […]
The Thing: Carne Asada Tacos at Taqueria El Asadero
The people who know me best are well aware that rules are very much meant to be woven around, leaped over, and blatantly ignored. My parents really enjoyed my teen […]
Review: At Times Difficult to Watch, Sugarcane, Chronicling Systemic Abuse at Canada’s Residential Schools, Is Essential Viewing
Plenty of movies are meant to be an escape, a fleeting couple hours’ entertainment featuring superheroes or meet-cutes or triumphant protagonist’s journeys. In the world of documentaries, escapism is hard […]
Review: Alien: Romulus Revives a Classic Franchise with a Fast-Paced, Beautifully Violent, Lived-In New Story
Set 20 years after the original Ridley Scott-directed Alien, Alien: Romulus centers on a much younger but no less grungy group of characters who escape their mining colony home/prison planet […]
On the Road: Sun Valley Festival Orchestra Offers Mahler and Community in Sun Valley, Idaho
Creating a dramatic soundscape of sadness, longing, tenderness, and joy, conductor Alasdair Neale led the Sun Valley Festival Orchestra though Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 6, in a-minor, Tragic, before 3000 […]