2023 in Review: Best Documentary Films of the Year
As I am prone to do every year, I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list, not because I feel they should be judged any differently than […]
Review: An Artist/Photographer Analyzes the Wanderlust of Stray Shopping Carts
The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification By Julian Montague Second edition, 2023, University of Chicago Press Julian Montague published his first edition of The […]
Review: In Adapting Alice Walker’s Classic Novel (Again), the Latest The Color Purple Boasts an Impressive Cast If Chaotic Story
Since Alice Walker’s The Color Purple was first published in 1982, it has been adapted into a film (in 1985, directed by Steven Spielberg), a stage musical (in 2005, which […]
Review: A Harlem Reverie in Sugar Hill: the Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker
Harlem. The name evokes a sense of place, time, and for some, the halcyon days of the Harlem Renaissance. Sugar Hill is a section of Harlem where the strivers lived, […]
Review: Stunning Locations and Beautiful People Aside, Anyone But You Is a Rom-Com Without Much of Either
The characters in the new romantic-comedy Anyone But You spend a great deal of time walking away from each other when their feelings get hurt rather than sticking around and […]
Review: François Ozon’s Farcical The Crime Is Mine Caps Outstanding Year at the Movies
After adapting Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant in Peter von Kant (2002), and tackling medically assisted suicides in Everything Went Fine (2021), a youthful gay […]
Review: Even Unplugged, Hovvdy Somehow Manages to Sound Just As Electric at Lincoln Hall
I’ve been to several seated concerts in my time, but nothing like Hovvdy last week at Lincoln Hall. Actually, now that I think about it, Hovvdy’s show was pretty much […]
Review: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Frolics Through the Brandenburg Concertos
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center gave a lively performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos at the Harris Theater on Wednesday night. This is an annual holiday […]
Review: Third Coast Percussion Commemorates 400 Years of Zildjian Cymbals
Third Coast Percussion commemorated a 400-year anniversary with the help of composer and percussionist Michael J. Burritt, who was their professor 20 years ago at Northwestern University. Burritt, who has […]
Review: Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas Tells an Adorable Holiday Story with a Menagerie of Puppets
Much of the theater on offer this month involves a nutcracker or Christmas ghosts. And we have you covered on those performances. But if you are looking for something different in […]
Review: Joffrey Ballet’s The Nutcracker Blends Holiday Cheer and Wonder With Its 1893 Chicago Backdrop
The basic plot of the famous The Nutcracker ballet is a familiar story. A young girl, Clara, receives the gift of a Nutcracker on Christmas Eve. That night, she has […]
Review: Michael Tilson Thomas, Orion Weiss, and the CSO Deliver Mozart and Brahms/Schoenberg
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gave a rousing if edgy performance on Thursday night, when it opened a series of concerts at Symphony Center, billed as MTT Conducts Mozart. MTT refers […]