Thursday, 06 May 2010 00:06
Puppets Make Everything in Life Better for Now: A Review of Avenue Q
Kendall Hartenstine
When I heard of a Broadway musical starring foul-mouthed puppets I thought this could just possibly be the best thing ever. Avenue Q did not disappoint. It exceeded all of my expectations and more by delivering hilarious dialogue, witty songs and full frontal puppet nudity (which is always shocking). In…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Wednesday, 28 April 2010 19:26
Billy Elliot – Good, but Not the Best Musical Ever
Written by Ken Payne
If you want dancing – amazing dancing, then yes, “Billy Elliot” certainly delivers, and does so with flair, imagination and precision. However, if it’s music you want to take home with you and hum around the house, you might be hard pressed to remember any of it. Despite the fact…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Friday, 16 April 2010 16:15
Into The Woods – Porchlight Music Theatre, April 9 – May 30, 2010
Miguel Harvey
Porchlight Music Theatre debuts a revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s modern classic Into The Woods this week at The Theatre Building on Belmont Ave. Though the show still has its kinks, a snappy pace (crucial for most Sondheim musicals), excellent set design, and some good performances make this…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Thursday, 15 April 2010 11:04
A Profanely Good Time: A Review of Mick Napier’s “Swear Jar”
Written by Kendall Hartenstine
The dissident style of “Swear Jar” is a breath of fresh air in a comedic world filled with stale political and healthcare jokes. Imagine an uncensored Second City-style revue with the added bonus of a beer bar only a few feet away from your seat. That’s what you get with…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 12:43
Beauty and the Beast at Cadillac Palace - Kim Katz Quick Pick
Written by Kimberly Katz
Am I the only person who cries during Beauty and the Beast? Not when Belle and the Beast get together - but when Belle trades her life to save her quirky, inventor father from the Beast’s cold dungeon. I just love this story for little girls. Of all the popular…
Published in
Theatre in Review
It is a chilly Irish seaside town, he loves her, and she loves him but he drives her away with his chilly intellectual life view and marries a more compliant version of her, and she marries a more life loving but less intelligent version of him. Forty years later he…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Thursday, 25 March 2010 19:26
Theatre on the Hill’s “The Elephant Man” is Simply Wonderful
Written by Ken Payne
Director Craig Engel’s latest production to come to Bolingbrook’s Theatre on the Hill (TOTH) is a story many are familiar with, and, since presented with such a timeless magic about it, is a performance that can certainly be enjoyed by everyone once again. “The Elephant Man” a story of a…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Wednesday, 17 March 2010 16:34
Count on it: Number of People shines at Piven Theater
Written by Kendall Royzen
Oscar Wilde once said “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” For Leo Gold, that diary is filled with an anguish that has haunted his memories and greatly impacted his life. Battling with Alzheimer’s and the recent death of his wife, retired statistician Leo Gold attempts…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 14 March 2010 12:24
“Trust” is an important play, compelling and seductively disturbing
Written by Kimberly Katz
Phillip R. Smith and Allison Torem star in Lookingglass' "Trust" directed by David Schwimmer and Heidi Stillman When you enter the lobby of Lookingglass Theater to see the play “Trust” which details the rape of a 14 year old girl by an internet pedophile, you will see a table set…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 12:10
High Romance, Masterfully Delivered “An Evening with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin”
Written by Kimberly Katz
“An Evening with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin” You may ask, what is so entertaining about two singer/actors, simply dressed all in black with nothing on stage except a pianist, bass player and thirty or so antique stage lanterns? Plenty, when the two accomplished singer/actors are Toni Award winners…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Seeing the play Twelve Angry Men, you get exactly that: twelve angry men. Twelve jurors locked in a room on a scorching summer day, wiping sweat from their necks and foreheads, fanning themselves with their hats, gulping down water -- it's the hottest day of the year onstage, and sitting there in…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 21 February 2010 20:23
A Fetching New Musical: A Review of 101 Dalmatians
Written by Kendall Hartenstine
Wednesday night I ventured to the historic Cadillac Theatre to partake in some four legged fun at the 101 Dalmatians Musical (I promise I will keep the dog puns/terminology to a bare minimum in this review). Filled with cartoonish-like sets, actors playing humans on stilts and likable songs from Dennis…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 14 February 2010 11:10
Take a Picture, it will last Longer: “I Am a Camera” explores photography’s impact
Written by Kendall Royzen
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But what happens when you combine photography with live art? This is one of the core questions that is explored in the new Neo-Futurist play “I Am a Camera” written and directed by Greg Allen. One of the great things about…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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