Review: Goodman Theatre’s Matchbox Magic Flute Is a Tiny Enchantment
Great works of art come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, they are vast and sweeping, like the Sistine Chapel or Anna Karenina; and sometimes they are tiny, like a […]
Review: Invictus Theatre Delivers a Living History Lesson in Topdog/Underdog
The way we are taught American history is a scratch-the-surface deal that requires us to keep digging. Playwright Suzan Lori-Parks is a master excavator of history and reveals it in […]
Review: Young People’s Theatre Tells Compelling New Version of The Diary of Anne Frank
The story of Anne Frank is a familiar one. The expressive teenager, who was sequestered with her family in WWII Amsterdam to protect them from Nazi capture, has been famous […]
Writers Theatre’s The Band’s Visit to a Small Israeli Town Features Intimate and Emotional Storytelling
Dina (Sophie Madorsky) enters at the top of the show. The space is empty as she calmly stares down at the audience and whispers the opening lines of the play: […]
Review: Saint Sebastian Players’ An Enemy of the People Depicts a Prophet Submerged in Politics
A new staging of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play An Enemy of the People has come to Chicago, directed by Jim Masini. It dramatizes a public health crisis in a small town and […]
Review: Court Theatre’s Antigone Asks the Old Questions for New Times
Every time an old play is revived, it inhabits two dimensions—the time of its writing and the time of its revival. You can’t exactly call a restaging of a 2,400+ […]
Review: Midnight’s Broken Toll …. Girl from the North Country
Girl from the North Country, a musical adaptation of Bob Dylan’s songs by the Irish playwright Conor McPherson, has already appeared in London’s West End, Off-Broadway at the Public Theater, […]
Review: Bottled Spiders and Blood Splatter in Chicago Shakespeare’s Richard III
Now is the unseasonably warm winter of our discontent, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new artistic director Edward Hall helms his first production on Navy Pier. Tony Award-nominated track and field […]
Review: Otherworld Theatre’s Twihard! A Twilight Musical Parody Is a Comic Treat for Diehard Fans and Others
A zany and eclectic soundtrack by Tiffany Keane Schaefer and Brian Rasmussen meets a zany and eclectic cast in this hilarious generation-specific parody. The three background musicians (Brian Rasmussen, Mark […]
Review: At Timeline Theater, Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes From the Field Walks in the Words of Racial Reality
Sometimes the topic of a play is so big and important, a brief description falls short. Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field, now onstage at TimeLine Theatre, lands squarely in […]
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 […]