Sunday, 23 October 2022 15:05
'Clue' at the Mercury Theater a mystery with loads of laughs and fun
Written by CJ Burroughs
One of my earliest memories going to a movie theater is seeing Clue on the big screen. It not only started a lifetime love of Tim Curry, but cemented the Parker Brothers board game as the only board game little me ever wanted to play. And it still remains as…
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Monday, 17 October 2022 17:42
'The Wizards' at APO Cultural Center - Supernaturally Imaginative!
Sarz Maxwell
THE WIZARDS explores the convoluted synergy of racism and urban gentrification. From the Oregon Black Laws and the more widely prevalent Sundown Laws, America has used statutory exclusion to uphold and reinforce segregation. Chicago remains the most segregated city in America; even the heinous redlining that propelled development of the…
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A title like “Swing State” is certainly provocative and might suggest exactly what Rebecca Gilman’s new play is about, but oddly enough it’s not about an election. Two of Chicago’s best actresses; Mary Beth Fisher and Kristen Fitzgerald join director Robert Falls in this much-anticipated production at Goodman Theatre. Chicago-based…
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Theatre in Review
Saturday, 15 October 2022 15:19
The Joffrey Ballet's 'Beyond Borders' at the Lyric Opera House Resplendent… Transcendent… Provocative
Sarz Maxwell
My major reaction to the Joffrey Ballet’s Fall season opening is deep gratitude: I feel privileged to have seen BEYOND BORDERS. I need to offer a caveat: I love ballet, but I know very little about it. Please, look to the experts for a technical critique. I offer only what…
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Monday, 10 October 2022 16:41
Review: Three Crows Productions' 'MACBETH' at Redtwist Theatre
Sarz Maxwell
This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen Shakespeare’s MACBETH, though not since the 2009 Babes with Blades’ all-female-cast production. That was memorable, and continues to stand as my favorite rendition of The Scots Play. But Three Crows comes damn close! Edited and most ably directed by Dusty Brown…
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Tuesday, 04 October 2022 13:47
Review: Congo Square Theatre Company's 'What to Send Up When It Goes Down' at Lookingglass Theatre
Sarz Maxwell
Described as a play-pageant-ritual-celebration, WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN is both scripted and improvised, participatory and performed – for the purpose of empowering Black People’s response to WHAT GOES DOWN: past, present, and future violence against Black People. “IT? You know what IT is. IT is that…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 04 October 2022 15:53
Review: Hell in a Handbag's "Frankenstreisand" @ Redline VR
Written by John Accrocco
Nobody does camp like Hell in a Handbag Productions. Ensemble-developed, oddball parodies of queer iconoclasts are what they do best. For their 21st season, longtime collaborators Tyler Anthony Smith and director Stephanie Shaw meld Barbra Streisand’s enduring legacy with Mary Shelly’s classic horror story. A cast of loveable weirdos round…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 02 October 2022 12:29
Highly Recommended! "Botticelli in the Fire" at First Floor Theatre
Sarz Maxwell
BOTTICELLI in the FIRE is a delight! I’ve got a lot to say about this production, but if you want to cut to the chase: See BOTTICELLI in the FIRE! I’d little idea what to expect, except that queerness would be a major theme, and I’m afraid reading this review…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 27 September 2022 14:53
Review: Idle Muse Theatre Company's 'The Strange Case of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE' at The Edge Off-Broadway Theatre
Sarz Maxwell
I found DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE to be weird. Well, it’s supposed to be weird, right? It’s a weird and spooky story about Dr. Henry Jekyll, a respectable, conventional Victorian physician, liberating his dark side: a persona named Edward Hyde, whose cruel and amoral exploits prove ruinous. Yeah. Weird.…
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Goodman Theatre welcomes back audiences with Lynn Nottage’s Broadway hit, “Clyde’s”. Collaboration between Goodman and playwright Lynn Nottage goes way back, including the 2019 production of her second Pulitzer Prize winner “Sweat”. This food-filled dramady is directed by Kate Whoriskey who has directed several of Nottage’s plays around the country.…
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Tuesday, 20 September 2022 15:09
“Red Summer” at Governors State University Center for Performing Arts in Collaboration with MPAACT – Just one story of a shameful past
Written by Wesley David
The term "Red Summer" was coined by civil rights activist and author James Weldon Johnson, who had been employed as a field secretary by the NAACP since 1916. It is the period from late winter through early autumn of 1919 during which white supremacist terrorism and racial riots took place in more than…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 19 September 2022 14:08
Review: Kokandy Production's 'Sweeney Todd' at Chopin Theatre
Sarz Maxwell
Oy … where to begin with Stephen Sondheim’s SWEENEY TODD? Let’s begin with what one sees first: the venue. Chopin Theatre opened in 1918 at the Polonia Triangle in Wicker Park. Over 100 years the building has variously housed (among other things) a bank, a thrift shop, and a discotheque. In…
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Thursday, 15 September 2022 13:52
The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington funny but not funny ha-ha, funny like, oh sh*t!
Written by Wesley David
Black and Irish Twitter had a field day upon the death of Her Highness Queen Elizabeth II. No tears were shed other than tears of laughter and joy at the demise of a colonizer. Telling Black twitter to be respectful of the death of the woman who inherited the legacy…
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Theatre in Review
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