2021 Preview: A Wish List for Theater, Virtual and Live
There’s no need to say how devastating 2020 has been for live theater and all forms of live entertainment. Millions of careers, lives and families have been turned upside down […]
Essay: Revisiting Stoppard’s Magnificent The Coast of Utopia on Its 14th Anniversary
This week I had a chance to revisit the most spectacular theater experience I’ve ever had. It took place on a weekend in February 2007. Over the course of two […]
Holiday Season Shows, Streaming to Your Living Room
Hit ‘em on the Blackside Congo Square Theatre Company’s new sketch comedy show Free on demand December 19 through March 2021 No subject is off-limits in Congo Square Theatre Company’s […]
Review: Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue, Newly Cooked Up for Our Virtual World
Robert O’Hara’s funny, snarky familyish drama Barbecue was staged by Strawdog Theatre in 2017 in Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre. It’s set in a public park where four siblings, led by one […]
Report: How Virtual Theater Can Expand the Influence of Local Theaters Post-Pandemic
Virtual theater has come in many forms during the last eight pandemic months. Our most recent theater review was actor/clown Bill Irwin’s new version of his bravura performance of On […]
Theater, Virtually: Actor/Clown Bill Irwin Re-creates Samuel Beckett’s Irish Voice in On Beckett / In Screen
The other night I watched Bill Irwin repeat his bravura performance of On Beckett in a new version adapted for livestreaming. I saw the original in October 2018 at Irish […]
Review: Stage Left’s The Project(s) Documents a Story of Community Found and Community Lost
The Project(s), a documentary-style theater piece that tells the story of Chicago public housing, past and present, had its world premiere in May 2015 at American Theater Company (shut down […]
Theater, Virtually: See What the Constitution Means to Me on Prime Video
On March 8, just a week before theater and most other live events shut down, I began a theater review this way: “What the Constitution Means to Me is partly […]
Review: Invictus Theatre Offers Emotional Mother-Daughter Story in ‘night, Mother
It’s far more than a beautifully written mother-daughter conversation. Over the course of an evening at home, a young woman explains to her mother the list of things she will […]
Review: Goodman Theatre Reprises Death of a Salesman, a Shattering Theatrical Experience–Thru 10/25
You may have seen Arthur Miller’s midcentury masterpiece, Death of a Salesman, many times. You may have seen some of the great versions. But even if you saw the 1998 […]
Review: Invasion from Mars, A War of the Worlds Radio Play by Theatre in the Dark—Memories of 1938
The Chicago company Theatre in the Dark is offering a new adaptation of H. G. Wells’ classic 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds, as a live 90-minute virtual audio […]
Theater, Virtually: Such Small Hands, a New Play About Love, Aging and Loss by Kane Rep
“I always thought it would be me first,” says the wife about her aging, brain-scrambled husband. “I had cancer scares twice.” Instead, she’s the healthy one, the patient, organized one, […]