Review: Stewart Goodyear Inspires Euphoria From the Piano
While driving in central Wisconsin one winter night several years ago, I tuned in to Symphony Hall, the classical radio station on Sirius/XM and was blown away by an incredible […]
Review: Minor Moon Dances and Sways Back Into the Limelight With Album The Light Up Waltz
I don’t know how it happened, or if I even deserved such graciousness, but right around the time I moved to Chicago in 2021, Apple Music randomly put a Minor […]
Interview: The Greatest Hits Filmmaker and Stars Lucy Boynton and Justin H. Min Discuss the Film’s Ties to Music, Memory and a Unique Love Triangle
Ten years ago, writer/director Ned Benson made a film—actually three films—called The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, that attempted to explore the inner workings of […]
Review: Beware of Scary Fairies in Impostor Theatre’s Beyond the Garden Gate
Impostor Theatre Co.’s newest production is a sight to make your skin crawl, but you won’t be able to look away from the spectacle. Beyond the Garden Gate (written by Mallory Swisher […]
Review: Nana at Trap Door Theatre Reimagines Zola’s Tale of Sexual and Financial Greed
The production is a visual spectacle. Ten actors in colorful, period costumes and stylized makeup perform on the tiny stage, which is tricked out with a more elaborate set design […]
Review: Alex Garland’s Civil War Is at Its Most Tense When It’s Most Closely Tied to Today’s Political Climate
Filmmaker Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Men, Annihilation) always finds a way to tell futuristic or fantastical stories like no other. But with his latest, Civil War, aspects of the story […]
Preview: Ducks Ltd. Bring Their Breezy Pop to Empty Bottle
No band operating in the jangle-pop niche is half as hyped-up as Toronto duo Ducks Ltd. Composed of singer Tom McGreevy and lead guitarist Evan Lewis, the band has steadily […]
Review: A Warning to Heed and Hope to Build with Mark Larson’s Working in the 21st Century
One of the first questions a stranger usually asks to identify who you are is, what do you do? But our job is more than how we make money, it […]
Review: Court Theatre Celebrates the Wonder and Terror of Theater Through a Doomed Duo in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Lights go up on a red curtain, hanging ominously over the titular characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as they enact the famous coin-flipping scene that begins the play’s exploration of […]
Review: The First Omen Is an Ultra-Gory Horror Film and a Critique of Religious Fervor Gone Wrong
There’s an awful lot of screaming (maybe too much) in director/co-writer Arkasha Stevenson’s prequel workThe First Omen—and perhaps the mythology is overly twisty and complicated so it can line up […]
Review: Inanimate Crackles With Energy at Theater Wit
I had to look twice when I read the description of Inanimate. A woman in a relationship with a Dairy Queen sign. I was thinking surreal, then disassociative personality, or […]
Review: Purpose Tackles a Family’s Legacy in Steppenwolf Theatre’s World Premiere
Purpose, a new play written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by legendary actor Phylicia Rashad, follows in the theatrical legacy of plays like August Wilson’s Fences and The Piano Lesson, dealing with the […]