Monday, April 22, 2013
TUTA 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 06:35PMSunday, April 21, 2013
In a classic sketch from the inexhaustible British comic duo French & Saunders, the comediennes dressed as English schoolgirls pester an invisible teacher from the back of the classroom…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:47PMSaturday, April 20, 2013
“Part epic tale/ Part fire sale/ But all sincere/ And standing here.” And all true, I might add, of the new musical “Big Fish,” which opened last night at the Oriental Theatre ahead …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:48AMThursday, April 18, 2013
RECOMMENDED Seated behind me on Monday night at Victory Gardens Theater was a woman laughing uncontrollably while a six-hundred-pound man choked on a sandwich. My jaw dropped to the floor. T…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:41PM“Don’t wanna be an American idiot!” I can commiserate. Since seeing the concert-like show—playing a brief and generally enjoyable touring engagement at the Cadillac Palac…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:54AMMonday, April 15, 2013
Playwright Samuel D. Hunter is enduring an impressive national swell in popularity. His “The Whale,” now being given a Chicago premiere by Victory Gardens Theater, has been making the re…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:22PMSecond City’s Dalmatian-free one hundred first revue, “Let Them Eat Chaos,” hits the hyperactivity of its titular chaos squarely on the head, but, for all its unneeded projections, …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:09PMLionel Bart’s “Oliver” is always, first and foremost, about the kids. And when it comes to singing, dancing, mischief-making rapscallions, director Rachel Rockwell’s …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMThursday, April 11, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski “I’m a sock guy. I love socks,” says Tarell Alvin McCraney, glancing down at my feet. I’m wearing striped socks with an alternating spectrum of pinks divided by …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:30AMTuesday, April 9, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski The 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville has come and gone. It was the first Festival of Les Waters’ artistic directorshi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMMonday, April 8, 2013
RECOMMENDED “Maria/Stuart” begins as a dark comedy. Screaming “Hep! Hep! Hep!,” a small red-vest-clad woman traveling in steel-straight lines and muttering menacingly…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:54PMPlays that center around a person’s death are frequently written. What better way is there to showcase a contrast in characters’ points of view than by giving them a mutual target to eac…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:02PMWednesday, April 3, 2013
Court Theatre in Hyde Park has announced its 2013-2014 season (also its fifty-ninth), which notably features the Chicago premiere of 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner “Water By The Spoonful&#…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:40PMMonday, April 1, 2013
RECOMMENDED The Building Stage has done something unavoidably moving for its swan song. After eight years of producing in its West Loop venue, its final show, “Dawn, Quixote,” addresses …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:03PMThe sixties is a decade rife with fictional opportunity. The example du jour on television is “Mad Men” with its cigarette-smoke clouds and ream upon ream of red velour, but the powder-k…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:02PMWednesday, March 27, 2013
Much in the same way the cinema is using spectacular 3D films and the enormity of IMAX to rip potential patrons from the warm embrace of their plasma screen, legitimate theater is looking to…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:47PMSunday, March 17, 2013
RECOMMENDED Wedging a rap into William Shakespeare’s plays is well-tread territory. Every so often, a hoodied Hamlet will hyperactively soliloquize the usual six speeches verbatim with…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:04PMSaturday, March 16, 2013
“Stones In His Pockets,” which opened last night at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, wants to fight against a prevailing American perception of Ireland as one big happy, pastoral fa…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:26PMBy Johnny Oleksinski On January 28, @RobertFalls201 tweets, “Day before rehearsal begin & completely panicked; haven’t prepared enough, have no idea how to START & shouldn’t s…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:00PMFriday, March 15, 2013
Recall, if you will, the factors that distinguish Clark Kent from his alter-ego Superman. Yes, Clark gruffly rips open his button-down to reveal that iconic spandex “S,” but tha…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:54PMWednesday, March 13, 2013
Adding to its previously announced production of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart” starring David Cromer and directed by Nick Bowling, TimeLine Theatre Company has added two more prod…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:47PMWriters’ Theatre in Glencoe has announced their 2013-2014 season, including a classic play, two Midwest premieres, an American premiere and a world premiere. From September 3 to November 1…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:24PMMonday, March 11, 2013
RECOMMENDED “I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me,” said war-hero-turned-president Andrew Jackson, a man whose personal and political lives were both defined by tumult. Hi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:57PMSunday, March 10, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski Just over a year has passed since “Hit The Wall” began an acclaimed and popular world premiere in the Steppenwolf Garage Rep. On opening night last February, after a…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:50PMWednesday, March 6, 2013
Prolific Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse’s body of work, while performed with great frequency in Europe, is rarely seen on American stages. I wouldn’t interpret that as qualitativ…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:44PMLast night on the “Colbert Report,” hunky actor James Franco told the host he’d be performing in a yet-to-be-announced Broadway revival of “Of Mice and Men.” Th…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:07PMBy Johnny Oleksinski White planks. What I’m staring at with the mischievous grin of a shifty-eyed child is a field of neatly lined-up boards with both a silver shimmer and the scratched-at…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:05AMBy Johnny Oleksinski Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced a 2013-2014 season replete with world, national and local premieres, shying away from last year’s roster headlined by Bro…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00AMMonday, March 4, 2013
Victory Gardens Theater announces its 2013-14 Season: the Co-World Premiere of Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the World Premiere of Marcus Gardley’s The Gospel of Lovingkindne…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:20PMShe Kills Monsters/Buzz22 Chicago RECOMMENDED Buzz22 Chicago may be the least-known of the three storefront companies showcased in this year’s Garage Rep, but for sheer creativity, inn…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:00PMFriday, March 1, 2013
AMERICAN BLUES THEATER EXPANDS TO A FOUR-PLAY 2013-2014 SEASON, INCLUDING AWARD-WINNING WORLD AND CHICAGO PREMIERES, ANDTHE RETURN OF AN ANNUAL SOLD OUT HOLIDAY HIT The American Blues Thea…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:28PM 
