Every December the Chicago theater community goes into full holiday mode, producing a wide array of favorites for reliably sold out houses. COVID obviously has altered many traditions, and theatrical performances have been forced to digitize operations or simply skip this year. Manuel cinema hadn’t planned on doing a holiday…
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Theatre in Review
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Thursday, 19 November 2020 21:54
Let it Burn; Steppenwolf NOW's debut show What is Left, Burns shines in the darkness
Written by Kendall Royzen
It’s no secret that Chicago is in for some dark months ahead. But in every darkness there are flickers of light to be found. Throughout history, the Arts are those flickers of light, providing entertainment, levity, and much needed escapism from everyday struggles and strife. In today’s virus-that-shall-not-be-named world, movies,…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 09 March 2020 12:53
Review: Judy & Liza - Once in a Lifetime: The London Palladium Concert — A Tribute' at Greenhouse Theater Center
Written by John Accrocco
With Renee Zellweger just having won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Judy Garland, focus on Garland’s legacy has been renewed. Local actresses Nancy Hays and Alexa Castelvecchi, along with music director Robert Ollis, reconstruct an iconic moment in pop culture history. A young Liza Minnelli performed just one…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 09 March 2020 03:06
Promethan Delivers the Goods in Excellent Mrs. Warren's Profession
Written by Bill Esler
How is it possible that a 19th Century play by George Bernard Shaw could be so on trend for today? Promethean Theatre Ensemble’s production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession is just that, examining the limitations women faced in careers - steeply limited in those days - and hurdles they faced in…
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Theatre in Review
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Dan Clancy’s Middletown is a very true-to-life rollercoaster ride involving two couples that befriend each other in the prime of their lives and remain friends through their senior years. They have dinner every Friday night for thirty-three years and share everything with each other – the good and the bad.…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 03 March 2020 18:21
PLANO: the imaginary “safe place” that’ll leave you feeling slightly disturbed
Written by Vika Lvova
Where’s Plano? I’m not sure, but it’s a place some characters of the namesake play like to visit often. Perhaps Plano doesn’t even exist. Presented as part of Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series and directed by Audrey Francis, this Will Arbery’s dark comedy is progressively more disturbing. All of its characters seem…
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Theatre in Review
America was a different place in 1965. Jim Crow was alive and well in southern cities, American schools were still on the way to being integrated, African-Americans were getting their heads busted in trying to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Alabama, there were race riots in major northern cities,…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 02 March 2020 14:51
The Writer and the Writer’s Brother – The Pillowman at Gift Theatre
Written by CJ Burroughs
Kids these days… I went into opening night of Gift Theatre’s production of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman only knowing that my 16-year-old daughter was excited to be my date. “It’s dark, Dad,” she warned me. Boy, was she right. “But it’s amazing, Dad,” she also assured me. And boy, was…
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Theatre in Review
Friday, 28 February 2020 08:35
Great Acting and Staging in Lifeline's Middle Passage
Written by Bill Esler
Set in 1830, Lifeline Theatre’s Middle Passage, beautifully directed by Ilesa Duncan, is an exciting show: absolutely entertaining, well-produced and well-acted. And yet, entertaining as it is, Middle Passage also recounts the horrific enslavement and transport of Africa’s Allmuseri people, their inhumane treatment by a cruel ship’s captain, and the…
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Theatre in Review
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Wednesday, 26 February 2020 13:08
'Book of Moron' is a Fantastically Fresh and Funny Way to Get Your Brain Clean and Running Again!
Written by Kimberly Katz
It's been 24 hours since I enjoyed this play and I'm still reeling from the super intelligent "trance-formation" delivered with rapid fire accuracy by Robert Dubac's one man show Book of Moron. Dubac plays out the thought patterns of a man who has traumatically lost a portion of his memory and is…
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Theatre in Review
Saturday, 22 February 2020 17:39
You be the detective: 'Shear Madness' returns to Chicago
Written by Ken Payne
There’s something about a good mystery that keeps us engrossed. Maybe it’s the colorful suspects, maybe it’s the dissecting of clues involved, maybe it’s our own morbid curiosity that comes with murder - after all isn’t Forensic Files still one of the most watched TV shows? We like the detective…
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Theatre in Review
There is a saying among the Maasai people that if you do not give an elephant a proper burial, it will haunt you for days. Lynn Nottage’s play Mlima’s Tale is an elephant ghost story. And in it we learn, elephants never forget! Mlima is a legendary elephant on the savannas…
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Theatre in Review
Tuesday, 18 February 2020 14:19
Theatre at the Center's 'Almost Heaven' a beautifully performed tribute to the late, great John Denver
Written by Ken Payne
When I remember John Denver, it’s hard not to think about crisp country air, clean rivers, pristine mountains and, well, just a healthy planet. John loved nature. It was abundantly clear in his music. His life was cut short at just 53 years old when a plane he was piloting…
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Theatre in Review
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