The Den Theatre returns to original programming for the first time in nearly five years. Director Lia Mortensen directs their revival of the Joel Drake Johnson play ‘Four Places’. In the intimate space at the Den, ‘Four Places’ gets its first Chicago production since its premiere in 2008 at Victory…
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Theatre in Review
Friday, 31 May 2019 08:37
Didn't Get The Memo? Then Don't Miss This Orwellian Farce by Václav Havel.
Written by Bill Esler
Organic Theater has done such a wonderful job in The Memo, it is hard to imagine a more perfect presentation of this play by Czech writer and statesmen, Václav Havel. The Memo is at turns funny and unsettling. While the original The Memorandum is rooted in the totalitarian Eastern Europe,…
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Theatre in Review
Cirque du Soleil is back in Chicago with its latest touring production, Volta. Volta’s inspiration comes from the culture of street sports and just about any acrobatics that could have originated in an urban jungle. Written and directed by Bastien Alexandre, the theme of Volta is finding freedom from the…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 20 May 2019 15:47
Long drive and it's outta here! 'Miracle' is a homerun!
Written by Ken Payne
With the Cubs finally winning the World Series in 2016 after a 108-year drought, it was probably inevitable a theatrical production would be created at some point to recreate the special magic Chicagoans felt over that incredible year. And so ‘Miracle’, the new musical by William Marovitz and Julian Frazin,…
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Theatre in Review
Really? Another ‘Frankenstein’? The 2018/19 season was the year of ‘Frankenstein’. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s classic gothic thriller, four theatre companies produced wildly different adaptations of the novel. If you find yourself wondering whether these companies knew of each other’s productions, they surely did. The beauty…
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Theatre in Review
You know if a musical wins the Pulitzer, it’s going to be a sad one. Creative team Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey took home the 2010 Pulitzer for ‘Next to Normal’, an award rarely given to musical theatre. David Cromer returns to Writers Theatre to direct this highly anticipated revival.…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 19 May 2019 02:47
Shakespeare With Spectacle: Expect the Unexpected in Goodman’s Delightful Winter’s Tale
Written by Bill Esler
Goodman Theatre’s staging of The Winter’s Tale, loaded with spectacle, would have seemed ridiculous and even unanchored 20 years ago. But with the surging popularity of those magical realms in the movies of the Marvel Universe – Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame - where characters die, then return, and…
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Theatre in Review
When having non-stop conversations in his head and agonizing over the most mundane decisions becomes daily reality of living with OCD, finding a cure turns into obsession. Of course it does. The Mushroom Cure is a comedian Adam Strauss’ true tale of his ongoing battle with OCD. Though he sees…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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…
Published in
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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