Review: Pinter’s Triangle Gets a Brisk Portrayal in Betrayal at Goodman Theatre
A triangle has three sides. But the three sides are not always equal, as we learn in maths. Or geometry, if you’re an American. And so it is in Betrayal, the […]
Review: Gwydion Theatre Revisits Ibsen’s Ghosts With an Uneven Production
One of the great things about plays from past centuries is that they can be restaged or updated in different eras, with different genders and colorblind casting. Shakespeare’s work lends […]
Review: Circus Quixote at Lookingglass Theatre Retells the Classic Knight’s Tale With Heart and Magic
After much too long a pause, Lookingglass is back. And with style. Circus Quixote, Lookingglass Theatre’s adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel, Don Quijote of La Mancha, is a […]
Review: Hubbard Street Dance’s Winter Series Is a Journey for the Senses
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is in its 47th year of cutting-edge performances and innovations in modern dance. The Winter Series at the Harris Theater Millennium Park opens with a dance that melds […]
Review: Steppenwolf’s Fool For Love Perfects Sam Shepard’s Haunting Work
The script of Sam Shepard’s romantic drama Fool For Love begins with the stage direction, “This play is be performed relentlessly, without a break.” The superb actors at Steppenwolf Theatre […]
Review: A Nuanced and Electric Performance from Complexions Contemporary Ballet
I have always viewed dance as an art of structure and discipline. Traditional ballet has an ethereal quality—tulle and tights with hands just so. Complexions Contemporary Ballet performed at the […]
Review: Timeline Theatre Revisits the American Dream with the Timely Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley
James Baldwin is the greatest American writer. Period. Even more so during Black History Month 2025. Among Baldwin’s many, many gifts was prescience. As a gay Black midcentury man, he […]
Review: In Trap Door’s The Mannequins’ Ball, Mannequins Are the Movers in a Story That Combines Politics and Partying
The new production of The Mannequins’ Ball at Trap Door Theatre is a whole lot of 1930s agitprop choreographed with music, singing and dancing. Nicole Weisner and Miguel Long direct 90 minutes […]
Review: Who’s the Hero in Shattered Globe’s Lobby Hero? All Four Characters Face Ethical Choices
Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero blends working relationships tested by an ethical dilemma in this comedic drama that gets a timely staging by Shattered Globe Theatre. Is the titular Lobby Hero the loopy […]
Dispatch: Puppet Theater Festival Closes With Stories From the Far North to South Africa, Crocheted Art and Music, Music, Music
The second and final week of the 7th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival concluded yesterday, after 12 days of international puppet theater productions at dozens of venues plus free neighborhood […]
Review: Fat Ham at Goodman Theatre Transports the Gloomy Dane to a Lively Southern Backyard Barbecue
Fat Ham, the prize-winning play by James Ijames, is now on stage at Goodman Theatre in a co-production with Definition Theatre. Ijames’ script was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet and incorporates some of the original’s […]
Review: Porchlight’s Fun Home Sets a Complicated Family Story to Music
Alison Bechdel released an autobiographical book in 2006 titled Fun Home, based on her life growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania. It was a graphic novel that told the story […]