Dialogs: Jill Lepore’s Book We the People Tells Us Why Our Constitution Needs an Overhaul
I like to think of Jill Lepore sitting down at her desk to plan her new book on the US Constitution. We don’t need just another history, she thinks. There […]
Review: Tin Drum Theatre’s The Unseen Dazzles and Disturbs
It seems there’s a goldrush for plays people sense might be prescient or “timely.” Which in 2025 means shows that predict devastation and authoritarian nightmares. Tin Drum Theatre Company’s The […]
Review: Echoes of Excellence Carries the Legacy of Black Artists in Opera
Some of the finest singers in opera today performed last Saturday on the newly christened Robert and Penelope Steiner Parquet at the Civic Opera House. The concert was a product […]
Review: Ego Death Theatre’s Days of Rage Is Ferocious, Funny, and Heart-Wrenchingly Human
Ego Death Theatre Collective successfully hits the mark with Days of Rage by Steven Levenson. A compelling script, following a group of young radicals who are willing to do anything […]
Review: Chicago Repertory Ballet Brings the Drama Before the Balcony with The Capulets
The Capulets is a new ballet created and directed by Wade Schaaf, artistic director of Chicago Repertory Ballet. This world premiere is a multimedia collaboration with fantastic projection design by […]
Review: Friends with Guns by A Short Leap Theatre Finds Sparks in a Tricky Conversation
Friends with Guns, written by Stephanie Allison Walker and directed by Nathan Dale Short, is a provocative play that explores both sides of one of the most controversial debates happening […]
Review: Superior Donuts by Artistic Home Is Warm-Hearted and Entertaining But Needs an Update
Tracy Letts’ 2008 play Superior Donuts is a story about friendship between two unlikely souls—with a good dose of violence added. The story is set in an Uptown donut shop […]
Review: The Joffrey Ballet Delivers Classical and Soul/Funk Ballet in Matters of the Heart
One of the things I love most about humanity is that there are so many paths in tune with spiritual matters. I am not talking about religion. I am thinking […]
Review: Lyric Opera Stages a Double Bill of Love, Passion, and Rage With Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci
The Lyric Opera of Chicago gives us a fall doubleheader with two classic Italian operas rooted in the verismo tradition. Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (1890) and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892) […]
Review: Family Secrets and Lies Are the Raw Material for Four Places by 4 Chairs Theatre
Four Places is a tense family drama, played out over a lunch conversation between two adult children with their mother. The play by Joel Drake Johnson is now being staged […]
Review: Kokandy’s Jekyll & Hyde Makes Its Captivating Return to the Chicago Stage
The definitive metaphor for the duality of mankind, the torrid tale of Jekyll and Hyde has been familiar to lovers of literature for nearly 140 years. Adapted for the stage […]
Review: It’s a Revival! Music Theater Works Revisits Godspell Over 50 Years Later
The musical Godspell was a colossal hit off-Broadway, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by John Michael Tebelak. It was 1971, and the news trumpeted stories about […]