Review: Steppenwolf’s Noises Off Hits on All Cylinders
Can you hear it? That finely tuned purr? It’s not the sound of a Rolls-Royce or Jaguar in the garage—but instead that other pinnacle of British engineering, Michael Frayn’s classic […]
Review: PARA.MAR Dance Theatre Gives Life to Loss and Passion in Anthology
Choreographer Stephanie Martinez founded PARA.MAR Dance Theatre in 2020 as an antidote to the pandemic’s despair, loss, and isolation. Anthology is a curated selection of six dances by Martinez and […]
Review: Catholic School Scandals Are a Familiar Story in Steep Theatre’s Happy Days Are Here (Again)
Steep Theatre’s world premiere play, Happy Days Are Here (Again) replays a familiar story (sexual abuse in the Catholic Church) and introduces a new one (a Palestinian adapting to American teen life) […]
Review: East Texas Hot Links Is a Harrowing Tale of Jim Crow and Survival at Court Theatre
Playwright Eugene Lee’s East Texas Hot Links takes place in 1955 in the piney woods of East Texas. It was the year that Emmett Till was murdered and the Klan […]
Review: Writers Theater Mounts a Disappointing Version of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 began as something quite special, the brainchild of composer, lyricist and playwright Dave Malloy and originally staged in experimental venues off-Broadway (including, […]
Review: Chicago Shakespeare Theater Stages New Artistic Director’s Contemporary Vision for Henry V
When Barbara Gaines founded Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 1986, the first production held on the rooftop of Lincoln Park’s Red Lion Pub was Henry V, the story of a young […]
Review: Verdi’s Rigoletto Triumphs as the Season Opener for the Lyric Opera of Chicago
There has been a lot of discourse on the survival of opera companies in America. Even the revered Met has met criticisms for everything from the artistic direction and performance […]
Review: The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon Portrays the Cruel Fate of Women Journalists in Latin America
The poetic title of Rebeca Aleman’s play, The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon, may delude you into thinking her play is a sweet love story. But don’t expect a romcom […]
Review: Light Switch, a Passionate Hilarious, Endearing Production at Open Space Arts
Review written by Erin Ryan. Light Switch, written by Dave Osmundsen and directed by Michael D. Graham, is the nonlinear journey of an autistic gay man, Henry, on his quest for […]
Review: Surreality Abounds in Field of Flesh, a Weird But Muddled Interactive Performance
Let’s simplify and take all the phrases critics could use for Field of Flesh—surrealist, experimental, avant garde, etc.—and put them under the umbrella term “weird theater.” You know, it’s the […]
Review: Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago Tells the Story of Chicago in the ’60s and ’70s
If you lived in Chicago during the Richard M. Daley years, you lived in what I call, the real Chicago. We were a bare-knuckled city where people were born with […]
Review: Lex the Movie Expands as Within a Shadow by Red Theater
I saw myself as a character on the stage at the Den Theatre. It was weird and exhilarating to see the everyday struggles of a young Black woman making her […]