Review: Chicago Shakespeare’s Illinoise Inspires, Electrifies
Maybe one of the essential hallmarks of truly great art is the way it inspires others to produce creative efforts of their own. And that is nowhere more true than […]
Review: Red Orchid’s In Quietness Presents a Puzzling Story About Marriage and Conservative Religion
In Quietness at A Red Orchid Theatre asks a lot of its audience, especially an urban liberal (most likely) audience. The play pits feminism against fundamentalist religion. It asks us to believe […]
Review: Complexions Contemporary Ballet Expands the Horizons of Dance with Star Dust: From Bach to Bowie
Complexions Contemporary Ballet emerged in 1994 as the creation of two Alvin Ailey alumni Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden. They moved the parameters around ballet with their careers and then […]
Review: Odets’ Waiting for Lefty by Gwydion Theatre Still Packs a Punch in Contemporary America
Playwright Clifford Odets set Waiting for Lefty in 1935, but this one-act classic play about unions has echoes of life in America today. Unions’ battle against big business was illustrated […]
Northlight Theatre’s Selling Kabul Is Full of Suspense and Gut-Wrenching Intrigue
Lights come up on a live broadcast. On the television on the far corner of the small apartment, we witness President Barack Obama announcing that American troops would withdraw from […]
Review: Goodman Theatre’s Highway Patrol Is a Thought-Provoking Story About Online Friendship
“The truth is, I needed to know I could love someone.” That’s all so many of us want—to love and to feel loved. That can look a number of different […]
Review: How Will the World End? Fire, Ice or Water? In Flood at Shattered Globe, the Answer Is Water
Shattered Globe Theatre’s new play, Flood, is about family issues—parents who don’t understand their children, children who never call home, elderly parents who ignore the realities of today’s world. There may […]
Review: Champion at the Lyric Defines Opera in Jazz With Story of Boxer Emile Griffith
Champion is the story of welterweight boxer Emile Griffith’s career in boxing with a life-defining fatal bout in 1962 against Benny “Kid” Paret. I believe that an opera in jazz […]
Dispatch: Puppet Theater Festival Closes With Puppetry Comic, Joyful, Grim and Gorgeous
Puppets have stories to tell. And they tell them in all sorts of fanciful and humanistic ways. The 6th annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival has come to an end […]
Review: Lyric Presents Rossini’s Cinderella/La Cenerentola With a Twist
I have four copies of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in my library and while I have a weird fondness for dark morality tales, I also enjoy the story of the stepchild […]
Dispatch: International Puppet Theater Festival Kicks Off With Variety of Puppetry Styles and Formats
The 6th Annual International Puppet Theater Festival is under way in Chicago and we have a few brief reviews to whet your appetite for your own puppetry experiences. The festival […]
Review: Porchlight’s Anything Goes—Delightful… Delovely
Get your tickets and grab your seats. On the relatively small stage at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Porchlight Music Theatre is putting on a big, big show: […]