By the time Charles Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” debuted on Broadway in January 2020 it was already a classic in American theatre. It premiered with the Negro Ensemble Company in 1981, winning the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1982. It was adapted to film and was nominated for Best Picture,…
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Theatre in Review
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Sunday, 02 April 2023 14:57
MadKap's 'Rumors' at Skokie Theatre is a Hilarious Celebration Of Great Jewish Playwriting
Written by Kimberly Katz
After its successful run of Book of Merman, MadKap Productions decided to take on a brilliant, little known farce comedy - Neil Simon’s Rumors. Quick, witty dialogue is the name of the game in this fast-paced story that revolves around an upscale dinner party where everything that can possibly go…
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Theatre in Review
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Artistic Home has given theater goers a rare jewel of a comedy, a 1928 send-up of Soviet society that was never seen by Russian audiences because Stalin banned it. Well, his censors must have read only half way through, and clearly had no sense of humor, because this is comedy…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 19 March 2023 14:05
Review: 'How Blood Go' at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre
Written by Wesley David
“It should be a crime to not acknowledge another person’s humanity.” Didi – “How Blood Go” I’m not a fan of hospitals, television dramas taking place in hospitals or anything involving healthcare. From a very young age I’ve had an uncomfortable relationship with the healthcare industry. My grandmother, God rest…
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Theatre in Review
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Tuesday, 21 March 2023 21:35
Laced with Gallows Humor, ‘The Shroud Maker’ Looks at Life in Gaza as It's Really Led
Written by Bill Esler
“The Shroud Maker” is a look into the world of Hajja Souad, an 84-year-old Palestinian seamstress, plying her artisanal trade amid the rise and fall of violence in Gaza City adjacent to Israel. Her specialty: shrouds used in Islamic funerals to wrap the deceased. Unfortunately for the world, Souad’s business…
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Theatre in Review
Friday, 17 March 2023 19:56
Keep on Turnin', Keep on Burnin'; TINA- The Tina Turner Musical Rolling through Chicago at Nederlander Theater
Written by Kendall Royzen
In 2023, “iconic” is a word often used hyperbolically. It is flippantly used to describe and categorize an incredible movie, a famous influencer clap back, a beautiful piece of fashion, or even used to describe a viral TikTok video. When we overuse or misuse a word enough it loses its…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 12 March 2023 20:22
Can You Tell Me How to Get To; Avenue Q at Northlight Theater
Written by Kendall Royzen
On a rather ordinary winter day, I settled in to binge-watch Big Little Lies on HBO. In the show, the community of upper-class suburbia signs a petition to ban a musical from performing in the local theater. The play was against the community values, they argued, handling issues of racism,…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 14 March 2023 11:13
Seriously Entertaining: Rajiv Joseph's 'Describe the Night' in Chicago Premiere at Steppenwolf
Written by Bill Esler
“Describe the Night” at Steppenwolf is serious theater that is seriously entertaining. Intellectually challenging yet side-splittingly funny, it has sat with me for days after as I’ve puzzled over what it is telling us. Written by celebrated playwright Rajiv Joseph, whose sly wit enthralled audiences in Steppenwolf’s “Guards at the…
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Theatre in Review
Thursday, 09 March 2023 13:20
It's the Hard Knock Life for "Annie" at Cadillac Palace
Written by CJ Burroughs
The first movie I remember seeing in a movie theater was John Huston’s 80s film version of Annie — the one with Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks and Carole Burnett as Miss Hanigan. Burnett’s drunken spinster entertained little me nearly as much as the film’s climax high atop the steel…
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Theatre in Review
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It’s hard to imagine a musical about the inception of the Declaration of Independence being interesting. It’s even harder to imagine that it can still be interesting in the shadow of arguably the most beloved American history musical, ‘Hamilton’, but the new production of ‘1776’ is more than just interesting,…
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Theatre in Review
Thursday, 02 March 2023 22:07
Good Not Great; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at Marriot Theater
Written by Kendall Royzen
There is a lot of bad content out there, particularly regarding family programming. Any parent forced to endure an hour of Cocomelon will tell you, not every show is a banger or cult classic in the making. When modern programming fails, it is nice to know we can reach into…
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Theatre in Review
Saturday, 25 February 2023 15:05
Review: Remy Bumppo's 'Anna in the Tropics' at Theater Wit
Written by John Accrocco
What does a cigar factory in 1920s Florida have to do with Tolstoy’s epic novel ‘Anna Karenina’? More than you might think it turns out. In Nilo Cruz’s 2003 Pulitzer Prize winning play ‘Anna in the Tropics’, cigar rollers working in a factory are inspired when a new lector reads…
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Theatre in Review
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Friday, 24 February 2023 16:50
Signed, Sealed, Really Delivers Musical Essence of Stevie Wonder
Written by Bill Esler
“Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Stevie Wonder Experience with John-Mark McGaha” was a warm refuge from the frigid Chicago weather for its opening night February 23. The Mercury Theater at Southport in Wrigleyville is the perfect venue for a show like this, intimate but big enough for the inevitable crowds of…
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Theatre in Review
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'Blue' Holds Mirror to Race in America
Written by Betsy SchmittWhen Francesca Zambello, director of The Glimmerglass Festival, commissioned an opera about race in America, the country was reeling from a spate of police shootings of young African-American men in Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. By the time the… -
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Disney's The Little Mermaid at Drury Lane: An Inspiring and Delightful Production Celebrating Girls' Unique Voices
Written by Kimberly KatzI thoroughly enjoyed Drury Lane's enchanting stage production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid from start to finish. While few are overly familiar with Hans Christian Andersen’s original, darker tale of ill-fated romance, the Disney animated film and this stage adaptation,…
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