Wednesday, 08 February 2023 12:37
Goodman's 'Toni Stone' – Big League Production for a Big-League player
Written by Wesley David
Decades before the enactment of Title IV, famous for its impact on expanding opportunities for women and girls in sports and well before the inaugural game of the WNBA, an African American women became the first to play for a professional baseball team. “Toni Stone”, written by award winning playwright…
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Theatre in Review
Friday, 10 February 2023 12:31
Review: Dramatic Road to a Historic Oscar Win in ‘Boulevard of Bold Dreams’
Written by Bill Esler
Sometimes a deceivingly "small" story can pack a wallop, and that is the case with LaDarrion Williams’ ‘Boulevard of Bold Dreams,’ premiering at TimeLine Theatre before it moves on to Boston. Set in 1940, this finely crafted script quickly establishes fully fleshed out characters Arthur (Charles Andrew Gardner), a bartender…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 07 February 2023 22:33
Skokie Theatre's "The Book of Merman" Sings Out Praises to Be Your Own Star!
Written by Kimberly Katz
The Book of Merman is a delightful musical theater piece that beautifully spins the popular Broadway hit, The Book of Mormon. When doing home-to-home missionary work, I’m sure no one can predict how the day will go. So many different situations can present themselves whether the expected or least expected.…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 05 February 2023 21:53
What We Do For Love; A Chorus Line at Drury Theatre
Written by Kendall Royzen
Like most things in our lives, what once was old can be new again (looking at you wannabe fanny packs). But some things can stand the test of time and find a resurgence, not to be duplicated but merely rediscovered by a new generation. A Chorus Line, now playing at…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Thursday, 02 February 2023 11:30
Review: Andy Warhol Was in Tehran. This recount is Both Funny and Moving
Written by Bill Esler
‘Andy Warhol in Tehran’ is a delight, an incisive comedy packaged with a serious exploration of art, history, and political values. Rob Lindley as Warhol captures the artist exactly as he was seen in his public persona, somewhat vapid, seemingly desultory, with a passion for attaching to others’ fame, while…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 13:13
Pools of emotions spoken and unspoken in Goodman’s “the ripple, the wave that carried me home”
Written by Wesley David
Like Christina Anderson, the Tony award nominated playwright of “the ripple, the wave that carried me home” I too was naively unaware of the history of segregation of public pools. Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, at the same time as the play’s timeline, public pools were more likely segregated by…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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Thursday, 26 January 2023 13:15
‘The Birthday Party’—A Comedy of Menace from a Master of the Genre
Written by Bill Esler
CityLit Theater’s ‘The Birthday Party’ opens with a load of laughs, seducing the audience with its low-key humor, then shaking us up as sinister overtones are gradually revealed. We are introduced to the middle-aged operators of a British seaside boarding house: Meg (Elaine Carlson is delightfully comedic) and her dead-pan…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Monday, 23 January 2023 13:12
It's delightful, it's funny, it's Oil Lamp's 'Almost, Maine'!
Written by Kimberly Katz
Have you ever fallen in love – or out of love? Have you ever lost the love of your life only to find the new love is waiting for you right around the corner at just the perfect moment? Have you ever found love when you weren’t even looking for…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Friday, 20 January 2023 14:28
Review: 'Cabaret' at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts
Written by John Accrocco
Fewer theatrical experiences are more thrilling than a Kander and Ebb musical done well. Porchlight’s revival of ‘Cabaret’ delivers the exact kind of razzle-dazzle audiences expect when they think of the Kit Kat Club. Directed by Artistic Director Michael Weber and choreographed by Brenda Didier, this production scrubs off some…
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Theatre in Review
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Tuesday, 17 January 2023 15:19
The Edge’s Tick, tick...BOOM! Understood the Assignment
Written by Anne Rakowiecki
If you love Rent, you’ll really like tick, tick…BOOM! If you don’t like Rent, you’ll probably still really like tick, tick…BOOM!, because what’s not to like about a great story and a talented cast? If you’ve ever struggled, strived, or attempted to create anything — or even just faced existential…
Published in
Theatre in Review
As a child of the 80s, I fondly remember sitting up on weeknights and watching tv sitcoms with my folks. Many of them—Murphy Brown, Designing Women, etc.—proved a bit too mature for my (still) juvenile sensibility. But one “old people” show I always loved (and still do) was The Golden…
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Theatre in Review
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Monday, 26 December 2022 18:44
Review: ‘Irving Berlin’s White Christmas’ at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts
Written by Kimberly Katz
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie is an absolutely fantastic seasonal Christmas show that pulls out all the stops! I am a huge fan of the original film White Christmas and this talented cast, which was well-directed by Sasha Gerritson, brings so much of the magic of Irving…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Friday, 16 December 2022 14:57
Review: Bald Sisters is Funny, Powerful and Stunningly Good
Written by Bill Esler
"Bald Sisters," in its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, tells of a Cambodian refugee who escaped the unspeakable terror of the Kmer Rouge with her daughter, and made a new life and birthed a second daughter in the U.S. But the play only touches that in passing, instead focusing on…
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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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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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