Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 1/25 & Beyond
The below-zero temps are behind us and the rain is here making our beautiful city a little damp. Let’s make the best of what we got and discover something fun […]
Review: Lyric Presents Rossini’s Cinderella/La Cenerentola With a Twist
I have four copies of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in my library and while I have a weird fondness for dark morality tales, I also enjoy the story of the stepchild […]
Dispatch: International Puppet Theater Festival Kicks Off With Variety of Puppetry Styles and Formats
The 6th Annual International Puppet Theater Festival is under way in Chicago and we have a few brief reviews to whet your appetite for your own puppetry experiences. The festival […]
Review: Gryphon Trio Ends the Northwestern Winter Chamber Festival in a Lackluster way
On a sunny but chilly Sunday afternoon, the Gryphon Trio gave a lackluster performance to close the Northwestern Winter Chamber Festival at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston. Although the playing […]
Review: Porchlight’s Anything Goes—Delightful… Delovely
Get your tickets and grab your seats. On the relatively small stage at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Porchlight Music Theatre is putting on a big, big show: […]
Review: Third Coast Percussion Premieres New Work by Carlos Carrillo
L-R Peter Martin, Robert Dillon, Sean Connors, and David Skidmore. Photo by Ron Perlish
Dispatch: 2024 Sundance Film Festival Opens with Varied, Vibrant Independent Cinema
The 2024 Sundance Film Festival opened in Park City, Utah, on January 18 with hundreds of films set to premiere over the next ten days. Several Third Coast Review critics […]
Review: Mother Courage at Trap Door Theatre Brings Brecht’s Anti-War Rhetoric Home to the 21st Century
Bertolt Brecht’s 1939 play, Mother Courage and Her Children, is the greatest anti-war play of all time. Anti-war, anti-government and anti-capitalism, as we learn in the opening scene of this stirring […]
Review: Washington, Daley, and Three Other Mayors, Chicago’s Modern Mayors, edited by Dick Simpson and Betty O’Shaughnessy
Chicago’s Modern Mayors, edited by Dick Simpson and Betty O’Shaughnessy, covers a 40-year period during which Chicago, its people, and its region went through great changes under a succession of […]
Recap: True Detective (S4, Ep1) — Mystery Series Returns as Night Country in Solid Premiere After Five-Year Hiatus
If you ignore the murder, tormented police, and general unpleasantness, True Detective is a show about the mystery of its protagonists. Whether they are good or bad, nihilistic or hedonistic, […]
Review: Tamar Berk’s tiny injuries Is Worth Your Immediate Attention
If you want to throw a music critic into a real mental tizzy, ask them what they’re listening to or what they’d recommend. I know enough other critics that I […]
Interview: Stormy Weather—Christopher Hawkins Releases New (and Award-Winning) Horror Novel, Downpour
For horror novelist Christopher Hawkins, the dark and drenching clouds described in his latest novel, Downpour, have led to brighter, sunnier skies. Recently winning the Booklife Prize in Fiction, Downpour […]