Review: Cabinet of Curiosity Sees Sea Change at Chicago Puppet Theater Fest
What I have always loved about every single Cabinet of Curiosity production is that I can’t tell you what it is about, but it holds tremendous meaning for me. Sea […]
Preview: Puppet Theater Festival Opens With the Social Commentary of The Plastic Bag Store
At long last the 4th annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, after a COVID 19- induced delay, is here. If the opening of Robin Frohardt’s Plastic Bag Store on Michigan […]
Review: The Moors at A Red Orchid Is a Wickedly Funny and Subversive Tale of Longing
Ah, gothic romance. It is always a dark and stormy night with sexually repressed spinsters sitting in the parlor of a creaky old mansion with ivy growing inside. The winds […]
Review: Witness Binds a WW2 Tragedy With Present-Day Anti-Semitism Through Inventive Virtual Theater
The tragedy of the MS St. Louis, the 1939 ship bound for the U.S. with 937 European Jews on board, is the subject of a powerful new play by Arlekin […]
Review: Oklahoma! Takes Us to the Dark Side
Broadway revivals have been the lifeblood of musical theater for decades. They are, for the most part, feel-good reminders of the golden age of Broadway. Big voices such as Howard […]
Review: A Hero’s Journey for Alaudin Ullah in Dishwasher Dreams at Writers Theatre
Every first-generation person has a story of integrating the ways of the old country, or of their ancestral region like the American South. It is how identities are built and […]
Review: The Play That Goes Wrong May Be Right If You Need Some Laughs
The Play That Goes Wrong opened Friday night at the Broadway Playhouse. By audience reaction, the play is a barrel of laughs; it’s a wannabe farce that doesn’t quite make […]
Review: Ben Scrooge Gets Jiggy in Q Brothers Christmas Carol at Chicago Shakes
What is this madness? Ebenezer Scrooge is alive in the Millennium and just as un-PC and crotchety as ever. Q Brothers Christmas Carol, directed by Q Brothers Collective members JQ […]
Review: Eclectic Theatre Adapts A Christmas Carol as Audio Play (With Visuals)
A new audio-play-with-visuals by Eclectic Full Contact Theatre has joined the holiday season array of productions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Eclectic’s version, adapted and directed by Andrew Pond, […]
Review: Classical Indian Story-Dances Honor Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim by Ragamala
Minneapolis-based Ragamala Dance Company performed Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance last week. Mother Ranee Ramaswarmy, and her daughters Aparna and Ashwini […]
Review: A&A Ballet’s Striking The Art Deco Nutcracker Reimagines the Story in 1920s America
A & A Ballet’s production of The Art Deco Nutcracker lavishly illustrates that a dance company need not have a big name to have oversized talent, vision and creativity. The performance last weekend at Athenaeum Theatre featured impressive choreography, stunning costumes and clever reimagining of […]
Review: The Nutcracker, Joffrey Ballet’s Gorgeous Must-See Holiday Tradition
The Nutcracker is as much a part of me as chocolate, and I don’t think I have made it through a holiday season since I was 4 without seeing a […]