Review: Haven’s Get Out Alive Brings Depression Out of the Shadows With Soul, Gospel and Hip-Hop
I almost didn’t request a ticket to review this show when I saw that it is a play about depression and suicide. I didn’t know if it was going to […]
Review: City Lit Theater’s Playboy of the Western World Synges the Old Songs
In 1907, John Millington Synge’s landmark Playboy of the Western World caused riots everywhere it premiered—Dublin, New York, and even, eventually, here in Chicago. Irish patriots claimed the play portrayed […]
Review: Violet Sky Theatre Makes a Sizzling Debut with Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke
Violet Sky Theatre is a new company in the Chicago cultural landscape and it was a delight to attend their production of Summer and Smoke, directed by Eden Blattner. I […]
Review: Choir Boy at Steppenwolf Is a Splendid Spectacle With a Flawed Script
It’s not easy growing up as a gay Black boy. Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play Choir Boy is the story of Pharus, a high school senior at the Charles R. Drew Prep School […]
Review: It Came from Outer Space Is an Irreverent Good Time at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
From its home base at the far end of Navy Pier, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater routinely presents some of the best independent live theater in the city. In between innovative […]
Review: Writers Theatre Rocks With Pearl’s Rollin’ With the Blues: A Night with Felicia P. Fields
The Mississippi Delta is the birthplace of the blues, but Chicago is the proving ground. Just a jump north of Chicago the Writers Theatre closes out its 2021/22 season by […]
Review: Story Theatre is Fire Hot in Debut Production, Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes
Almost everything that is written about the times we live in uses words like troubled, divided, and unprecedented. Various adjectives used by the media are rehashed, and do not get […]
Review: 16th Street Theater’s The Billboard Gives Authenticity to the Subject of Abortion
It has been a minute since I have covered a play that hits home in as many ways as The Billboard, now being staged by 16th Street Theater at Northwestern […]
Review: In a Storm of Silliness, Theater Wit’s Hurricane Diane Demands That We Care About Climate Change
Dionysus/Diane has messages for us. The messages we continue to ignore about the serious dangers that climate change portends for our future—and more importantly, for the futures of our children […]
Review: Pride Arts’ Tommy on Top Has the Recipe for Farce—But It’s Slightly Undercooked
I am a big fan of British comedy and in particular, one master of the genre—John Cleese in Fawlty Towers. That show is an example of farce, done brilliantly. Basil […]
Review: Goodman Theatre’s Life After Has None
I’ll keep this short – but it won’t be sweet. The Goodman Theatre’s production of Toronto playwright Britta Johnson’s freshman musical Life After starts promisingly, with an absolutely spectacular set […]
Review: Kokandy Productions Presents Scandalous Teens and Schemes in Cruel Intentions: the ’90s Musical
What says snobby teens with step-sibling issues and boy band music cruising the airwaves better than the movie Cruel Intentions? It was a movie made for the’90s. It was a […]