Review: Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter Bring the Jams at Space Evanston
What a pleasure to spend a misty autumn night grooving to Kurt Elling with Charlie Hunter at Space in Evanston. I saw him at the Chicago Jazz Festival when he […]
Kathy D. Hey writes creative non-fiction essays. A lifelong Chicagoan, she is enjoying life with her husband, daughter and three dogs in the wilds of Edgewater. When she isn’t at her computer, she is in her garden growing vegetables and herbs for kitchen witchery.
Review: The Joffrey Ballet Flawlessly Dances the Frankenstein Story
I am still in awe from watching the Joffrey Ballet’s Frankenstein at the Lyric Opera House. Choreographer Liam Scarlett stayed closer to Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein or Modern Prometheus than […]
Review: Subtext Studio Presents a Harrowing Tale of Human Smuggling in The American Dream
Playwright Juan Ramirez’s The American Dream seems to be taken from the stories that are kept out of the headlines. It is the story of a “coyote,” Efren (Jorge Aguilar), […]
Review: Chicago Opera Theater Opens Season With a Compelling Timeline of War and Its Aftermath with Soldier Songs
Soldier Songs is a solo operatic performance that blends the genres of classical and heavy metal. I thought that I had never heard anything like it, however, the parallels between […]
Review: Tank and the Bangas Are an Aural Delight with the Chicago Philharmonic
Tank and the Bangas are a genre of music unto themselves, so playing with the venerable Chicago Philharmonic was a further illumination of their poetry and music. The group is […]
Review: Joffrey Ballet Celebrates Life in Dance with the Arpino Chicago Centennial Celebration
The Joffrey Ballet took up residence in Chicago in 1996. After nearly four decades in New York and the death of Robert Joffrey, Gerald Arpino, his partner in life and […]
Review: The Flying Dutchman Opens Lyric’s Season with Obsession, a Curse, and Unrequited Love
The Lyric Opera has produced some of the finest interpretations of Richard Wagner in the world of opera and the season opener of The Flying Dutchman may be my favorite. […]
Review: Remy Bumppo Theatre Cast Shines in Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky
Many tales have been told and legends passed down of the Harlem Renaissance when the “New Negro” emerged from the dust and toil of the American South. A surge of […]
Review: The Past Is Now in Jane: Abortion and the Underground at Idle Muse
Abortion has always been a hot-button issue and the arguments for and against it are about more than the termination of a pregnancy. It is about control and agency over […]
Review: Theo Ubique’s Baked! The Musical Cooks Up Something Funny and Tender
I have always said that there is no real American culture because we are a country of immigrants. The one thing that is a common denominator is the striving to […]
Review: Hamilton Returns to Remind Us That Today’s Politics Is History
Hamilton has landed in Chicago and I was not prepared for the mania that was opening night. The line wound down State Street from the Nederlander on Randolph for people […]
Review: Congo Square Theatre Illuminates an Uncomfortable Truth in Welcome to Matteson
Congo Square Theatre is celebrating its 25th anniversary of staging a full spectrum of the Black experience in America. A part of that celebration is the world premiere of Welcome […]