Sunday, 12 May 2019 23:38
It’s Mad, Beat, Hip, & Gone, and Here’s Why It’s Worth Watching
Written by Bill Esler
Promethean Theatre Ensemble has brought to stage a very good production of Mad, Beat, Hip & Gone, a play that is a riff on the Beat Generation literary movement – specifically drawing from Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel, On the Road. The script by Steve Dietz (Private Eyes) adopts aspects of…
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Theatre in Review
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I have to admit up front - I am a full-on West Side Story fan girl. I have seen the movie, released in 1961, probably 100 times. I know the plot, the words to every song, the dance moves, and have viscerally felt the teenage angst that is the underlying…
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Theatre in Review
Saturday, 04 May 2019 13:09
Review: 'American Girl Live' at Broadway Playhouse
Written by CJ Burroughs
I know I’m not the target audience of the current production at the Broadway Playhouse (or of the American Girl store nearby), but I suppose my wallet is. What I do know is that my six-year-old daughter was excited for the show, and I was excited to watch her watch…
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Theatre in Review
"If you're not going to grow then don’t live," says Hazel in Lucy Kirkwood's play 'The Children' now running at Steppenwolf. Directed by Jonathan Berry, 'The Children' makes its area debut after extended runs on Broadway and West End. A well-cast trio of Chicago favorites will surely entice audiences. In…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 05 May 2019 16:39
Funny, Weighty and Good: A True Story of the Civil Rights Freedom Riders
Written by Bill Esler
Too Heavy for Your Pocket at TimeLine Theatre is both an important play, and a good one. Powerful, but not too heavy to bear, with a rock-star cast directed by Ron OJ Parsons, it tells the story of the Freedom Riders – groups of blacks and whites who traveled through…
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Theatre in Review
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Wednesday, 01 May 2019 21:23
Kick off your summer with Handbag's 'Golden Girls Vol. 3'
Written by Kimberly Katz
I saw this adorable show on the night of the recent APRIL snowstorm in Chicago and, as per usual, the Fab Four - Dorothy, Rose Blanche and Sophia - instantly warmed up my night with explosive laughter! “Golden Girls Vol. 3” features two great episodes, the first being "Caged Miami…
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Theatre in Review
Saturday, 27 April 2019 13:15
We said that we wouldn’t call it “A Whale of a Tale” - COT's Moby Dick
Written by William and Margaret Swain
Chicago Opera Theater presented the new opera, Moby Dick, by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, in a brave, intelligent, and strikingly beautiful performance last Thursday at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Usually, the old adage that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” seems well suited to…
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Theatre in Review
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- MobyDick
- COT
- Chicago Opera Theater
- Harris Theater for Music and Dance
- Richard Cox
- Jake Heggie
- Gene Scheer
- Captain Ahab
- Aleksey Bogdanov
- Andrew Bidlack
- Vince Wallace
- Nick Ward
- David Martin Jaques
- Lidiya Yankovskaya
- Kristine McIntyre
- William Swain
- Margaret Swain
- Chicago
- Opera
- theatre
- Buzz Center Stage
- Moby Dick
Sunday, 28 April 2019 19:43
Language Rooms Looks At Unsettling Nature of Our Contemporary Inquisitions
Written by Bill Esler
Language Rooms is a convincing portrait of the hidden world of government interrogators. These individuals use cajolery and flattery, or fear and intimidation, to persuade individuals to spill their secrets – all on behalf of securing the safety of the state. This two-act piece (one intermission) flies by, as the…
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Theatre in Review
Friday, 26 April 2019 23:01
Two Days in Court: This Dramatic Pairing Enriches Both Plays
Written by Bill Esler
City Lit Theater artistic director Terry McCabe brings us an inspired pairing with Two Days in Court, a double-bill of one act plays with a legal theme - and pieces not often seen. The Devil & Daniel Webster is a 1938 play about the famed 19th century orator who reclaims…
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Theatre in Review
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Saturday, 20 April 2019 14:02
Marriott's 'Footloose' will kickstart your Spring with love and joy!
Written by Kimberly Katz
I had a blast enjoying this production of ‘Footloose the Musical’ based on the 1984 movie starring Kevin Bacon and so did the opening night audience who roared their approval and stopped the show after the rousing rendition by Ariel played with real sass and excitement by Lucy Godinez of…
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Theatre in Review
Saturday, 20 April 2019 16:34
The Music and the Mirror: Porchlight's ‘A Chorus Line’
Written by CJ Burroughs
The first time I saw ‘A Chorus Line’ was when I worked backstage for a touring production while I was in college. Perhaps it was my youth, or perhaps it was the fact that I was in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the fit and fabulous cast,…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 14 April 2019 12:09
'Cambodian Rock Band' at Victory Gardens Theatre an entertaining tribute to human resilience
Kerstin Broockmann
Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band begins and ends with music, not what Americans think of when they think of Cambodia, as the glib narrator points out, shifting from slides of musicians whose songs are nearly lost to history to more familiar images of the genocide that resulted in their loss.…
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Theatre in Review
If you follow the Chicago theater scene, you’ve likely heard about local playwright Ike Holter. His Rightlynd series has been appearing in near rapid succession at various theatre companies around town. The Rightlynd saga concludes its seven-play series at the Goodman in a new play called 'Lottery Day'. Accomplished local…
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Theatre in Review
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