Thursday, June 13, 2013
Although the writer Sherod Santos is known in literary circles for his body of poetry, his words are taking the stage in “Lives of the Pigeons,” receiving a world premiere at The…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:58AMSunday, June 9, 2013
With their popular and tuneful musicals, John Kander and the late Fred Ebb fashioned a storied career essentially from derivation. That’s not to slight the duo’s awesome achievements bec…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:24PMThursday, June 6, 2013
There are a couple playwright-screenwriters that are of particular interest at the moment. One is Elizabeth Meriwether, scribe of the hilarious and twisted “Heddatron” and the far less f…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:51PMTuesday, June 4, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski Another year, another Non-Equity Jeff Award Ceremony. Folks around these parts call it “Theater Prom” for a reason. The banter is awkward, the recipients are…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:43AMThursday, May 30, 2013
On the far wall of Rivendell Theatre is an illustrated moon cycle, starting from waxing crescent transitioning all the way to a big full moon and back again in the opposite direction. In the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:40AMA fabulous teacher once described to me, in a harsh English screech, the probable conditions that Shakespeare was working under during the late sixteenth century. “On one side,” she said…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:41AMWednesday, May 29, 2013
The story of the solider returning home from war is as ancient as Odysseus and as contemporary as the evening news. The specifics may vary, but the central conceit of the Greek legend is the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMTuesday, May 28, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski Right away I knew something was up at the Civic Opera House on January 5. The lights dimmed and the familiar, soothing British brogue of Lyric Opera principal conductor …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMTuesday, May 21, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski Playwright and Chicago native son David Ives is receiving a rolling homecoming by happenstance this season and next. Last winter, Chicago Shakespeare Theater presented h…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMSaturday, May 18, 2013
Late in Neil LaBute’s ”In The Company of Men,” the most deplorable character I’ve ever seen in a domestic drama relaxedly watches “Seinfeld” after confessing to …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:29PMFriday, May 17, 2013
RECOMMENDED Few works of theater have the adrenaline-fueled urgency of “Roadkill.” But it’s not the familiar rush of exhilaration; it’s the primal clamor for survival that pu…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:02PMWednesday, May 15, 2013
By Eric Shoemaker The Back to Back Theatre ensemble is no ordinary group of performers. The company has existed since 1987 to bring disabled actors to the stage in order to build, together, …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMMonday, May 13, 2013
The biggest revelation of Craig Wright’s “Orange Flower Water” is that it wasn’t written in 1982. Wright, a playwright particularly relevant after the recent Broadway…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:42PMAs Rhea Perlman walks into Lou’s, the kind of neighborhood bar you wind down the holidays at, a warm sensation creeps its way from your toenails to your topmost follicles. Carla is bac…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:10PMThe hubbub in the men’s restroom at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre a couple years ago was highly energized. During intermission of J.T. Rogers’ “Blood and Gif…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:06PMFriday, May 10, 2013
There is churchly ambience to “Henry VIII,” which opened Wednesday night at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Catholic clergymen clad in red vestments descend the central aisle to the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:46PMRECOMMENDED One hopes the producers and creative team of the deeply problematic “Big Fish,” which recently completed its pre-Broadway tryout here in Chicago, caught a preview of “Ivywi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:14PMMonday, May 6, 2013
The sturdiest moments of “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark,” which opened on Monday night at the Goodman Theatre, have the audience gazing up at the stage, eyes fixated on actress Tamberla Pe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00PMThere’s disagreement on exactly what mood House Theatre is trying to achieve within its campfire concert, “Ploughed Under: An American Songbook.” The upstairs theater at the Chopin is …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:20PMSaturday, May 4, 2013
RECOMMENDED Rick Cluchey’s performance in Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” is a surreal exploit that goes far beyond docile entertainment and way past profundity; it’s living…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:43PMThursday, May 2, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski David Adam Moore is an anomaly in the cast of Lyric Opera’s upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” A baritone who performs …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMTuesday, April 30, 2013
RECOMMENDED Writing a play of divisive issues is no small feat. Some critics will decry the work as preachy, manipulative and disguising the playwright’s political agenda, while others mig…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:59AMMonday, April 29, 2013
RECOMMENDED A blizzard rages outside of an Indian restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio. Weather being nature’s indicator of theatrical tumult yet to come, the wind howls maliciously. Unlike Tenne…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:35PMSunday, April 28, 2013
RECOMMENDED A two-act playlist of familiar tunes, an average production of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” dusts off your great grandad’s old gramophone for a quaint fe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:59PMSaturday, April 27, 2013
Spotted: Chicago cozying up to Scottish playwright David Greig. Ever since the two lovebirds first met during the National Theatre of Scotland’s touring “The Strange Undoing of Prudencia…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:27PMFriday, April 26, 2013
Singing-dancing mischief-maker Joey Evans is the ideal match for two-faced Chicago, its organized crime and morals-be-damned nightlife, or so says composer-lyricist team Richard Rodgers and …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:52PMWednesday, April 24, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski “Three generations,” points out director and actress Mary Ann Thebus. She’s sitting on a couch against the back wall of the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater lobby …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:00AMTuesday, April 23, 2013
Lookingglass Theatre Company has a proven flair for effectively incorporating visual effect into scenarios and scripts that don’t outright scream for it. And after “Eastland,” …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:24PMBy Johnny Oleksinski The 2013 Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations have been announced, with Bohemian Theatre Ensemble and The Hypocrites leading with fourteen and twelve nominations respective…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:17AMMonday, April 22, 2013
Warming up to the characters in Quiara Alegría Hudes’ new play “The Happiest Song Plays Last,” which opened tonight at the Goodman Theatre in association with Teatro Vista…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:03PMTUTA has transformed its Studio Theatre into a bohemian tent draped with patterned fabrics and littered with crates and seemingly discarded light fixtures. Is there any better landscape for …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:35PM 
