Review: Two Winners in the Nutcracker Ballet Relay
My interest in classical music was weaned on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker ballet. So I leapt at the opportunity to do a Nutcracker relay last Saturday: the matinee opening […]
Review: Broadway Rising Chronicles the Cost, Both Human and Financial, of the Great White Way’s Pandemic Closure
Although some may not have considered the arts an essential function during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the city of New York, the theater industry employs nearly 100,000 artists and craftspeople. […]
Review: Beabadoobee’s Vitality Matched Her Devoted Fans’ Enthusiasm
Singer and songwriter Beabadoobee, the musical pseudonym of Beatrice Kristi Laus, brought her imaginative universe of Beatopia to the Riviera Theatre this past Tuesday evening. After finding viral success with […]
Review: Cyanide and Happiness’ Master Dater Is a Great New Holiday Party Game
Tabletop party games are everywhere these days. A simple trip to Target will turn up dozens and dozens of them. And many of them follow a familiar formula, at least […]
Review: Gender Bends in Midsommer Flight’s Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a mistaken-identity rom-com designed as a frolic to entertain at the end of the holiday season (there is nothing about Christmas in this play itself). […]
Review: Hot Handel Kicks Off the Holidays at the Auditorium Theatre
I heard that there was some Grinch behavior spreading around Chicago. Even I have mandated that my office shalt not play that one station that starts with the fa-la-la business […]
Review: The Buttcracker: A Nutcracker Burlesque—Here to Make Christmas Cheer Queer
The Buttcracker (playing at the Greenhouse Theater Center through December 31) is a Nutcracker Burlesque, a Yule pantomime with elements of comedy, magic and circus that blends all the qualities […]
Review: Noah Baumbach Embraces Absurdity, Uncertainty in Weird, Interesting White Noise
Filmmaker Noah Baumbach has made a career out of films that explore the absurdity of humanity, the seemingly arbitrary connections we forge and the ways we exhaust ourselves trying to […]
Review: Family Drama Memories of My Father Channels A Deep Father/Son Relationship Alongside Shallow Colombian Politics
After truly enjoying his previous few films (The Queen of Spain, The Artist and the Model, and the Oscar-nominated animated feature Chico & Rita), director Fernando Trueba’s latest, Memories of […]
Review: Will Smith Stars in Emancipation, a Story of Enslavement, War, Faith and Triumph
Set about 100 years apart, there are two films out right now built around real-life photographs of brutalized Black bodies that resulted in public outrage and instigated change in American […]
Review: A Twisted Spin on Santa, Violent Night is Mostly Obvious Humor and Intermittent Action
From the production/stunt team that brought us such films as John Wick, Nobody, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and Hobbs & Shaw comes the Christmas-themed actioner Violent Night. The film borrows […]
It’s The Final Bandcamp of 2022, Let’s Support Some Local Artists
It’s the final Bandcamp Friday of the year! What initially was a short term way to help bands affected by the pandemic shutting down touring has become this great on-again-off-again […]