“Sludge and slurry!” Badger (John Drea) frequently exclaims to giggles and muted repeat-backs from the littlest of audience members. Utterly enchanted, the children in this audience seem…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:00PMThirteen-year-old Amanda, not quite a Twihard herself but an avid reader who loved Twilight, would have died over Otherworld Theatre’s Twihard musical parody. Thirty-one-year-old Amanda th…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:23AM"It is one of my all-time favorite plays, and Invictus Theatre’s production is a brilliant example of how to handle this intense two-hander."
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AM“Band’s Visit” takes so many of the traditional musical theater-type songs and mashes them together into an enchanting story about what it means to be a person in the world with other …
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMWhen we meet Gigi (Iris García) she is having a crisis of personality. Staring horrified in front of her bedroom mirror, the blonde wealthy woman is suddenly a dark-haired Indigenous woman.…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 01:07PMSitting in near silence in an apartment, curtains drawn, television above a whisper, and fans oscillating to feign static sound. That is how we meet Taroon (Owais Ahmed). Alone in a Kabul re…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:00PMThis is Aaron Posner’s very loose adaptation of Chekov’s “The Seagull.”
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMBased on the true story of a battle between essayist John D’Agata and fact checker Jim Fingal, “Lifespan” bemoans the realities of journalism that few in the general public truly under…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMA carnival of famous American assassins who got their day in history or missed their mark, Stephen Sondheim uses them as thematic devices. Are they misunderstood outsiders? Misguided patriot…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMSettled in the grass at Moore Park in the Austin neighborhood, a baby clad in a vegetable-patterned onesie coos to the music, while a toddler wriggles, wiggly worms in hand, to the aptly nam…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:11PMThe stages at Chicago Shakespeare Theater are accustomed to classic tales of daring sword fights, magic spells, and a prince in disguise—just the kinds of stories that Belle loves to read.…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:01PMHeidi Schreck’s play showcases our narrator regaling us with her complicated love story. This romance between an American teen circa the 1980s and the United States Constitution circa the …
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMNo one does thriller or horror like A Red Orchid Theatre, truly.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMA simple lit rooftop, church steeple, or body-as-a-temple metaphor greets you as you enter the theater. Two bright lines meet in the middle, seemingly pointing upwards towards something grea…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 06:06PMLike the people in the allegorical Tower of Babel, the citizens of Jacqueline Goldfinger’s futuristic Babel are seeking oneness. The kind of oneness that mankind has never reasonably come …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:49AMHajja Souad’s story, eight decades of life lived, is woven into a narrative of resilience, hope, and the changing tides in Palestine during her long lifetime. Brought to life in the U.S. p…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 09:41AMWe are reminded, subtly, that we too are made up of the stuff of those who have loved us. Whether we like it or not there are characteristics and tendencies we each carry within ourselves ta…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMMusic Theater Works’ production of “Avenue Q” is delightful.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMWhen I read Molly Smith Metzler’s now award-winning Cry It Out in 2018, I knew it was something special. I am still not a parent myself nor (at that point) were any of my closest friends. …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 01:30PM“Gone with the Wind”'s Hattie McDaniel’s artistry and life were complicated, much like history. That’s why TimeLine’s production suits them so well. We get to imagine what things w…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMA murder trial transcript that went missing, not to be found until 2004—decades after the murder of Emmett Till. The Black Chicago teen whose unfathomable death in 1955 sparked the Civil R…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:04PMThis is an inventive and gorgeous retelling of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights.”
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMBrent Askari places Warhol just ahead of the revolution in Iran (then Tehran) in the 1970s to get Polaroids of the Shah’s wife for a portrait commission.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMMichael Gene Sullivan’s new play is a lively reminder that those who came before are not just names to memorize in grade school. Their legacies, infamous or not, follow us in ways seen and…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMYou will be dazzled by the shimmering costumes a la Bill Morey, the incredible talent of the ensemble and enamored by Angela Weber Miller’s multifaceted set.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMNow the new executive director of the League of Chicago Theatres, Ford’s love of the theater shines on in a unique way.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMManual Cinema’s amalgamation of puppetry, mixed between shadow and light, is the perfect homage to this beloved Victorian ghost story.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMDuring the holiday season there are traditions all over the world. I hope that Strawdog’s Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins maintains its place as a Chicago seasonal perennial. Now in its f…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:30PMEqual parts imaginative holiday magic, Dickensian gothic style, and honest-to-goodness humanity.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMInt. messy Chicago apartment, unseasonably hot end of November. Being a theater critic can be so isolating when you don’t fit the story being told. Most of the time, I […] The post Mon…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 01:13PMThe show is everything you’d imagine for a staged version of Buddy the Elf’s coming-of-age story. You can practically taste the gooey gumdrop goodness from any seat in the house, even if…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AM