All stories by Johnny Oleksinski on BroadwayStars

Friday, March 1, 2013

American Blues Theater Announces 2013-2014 Season by Johnny Oleksinski

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
Thursday, February 28, 2013

Review: Rich and Famous/Jackalope Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED The performance world struggles with fame in all its many mediums. Lady Gaga perceived the glamour of “The Fame” and the gnarling villainy of “The Fame Monster;” TV satir…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:22AM
Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Review: From Doo Wop To Hip Hop/Black Ensemble Theater by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED When taken apart song-by-song, the musical catalogue of Black Ensemble Theater’s uplifting new show, “From Doo Wop To Hip Hop,” is radically diverse in genre, era, rhyt…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:13PM

Goodman Theatre Announces 2013-2014 Season by Johnny Oleksinski

WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS AND DIRECTORS HEADLINE GOODMAN THEATRE’S 2013/2014 “DREAM” SEASON A BLUES-INFUSED NEW WORK AND A REVIVED MUSICAL CLASSIC BOOKEND THE LINE-UP OF WORLD PREMIERES, GOODM…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:02PM
Monday, February 25, 2013

Review: 25 Saints/Pine Box Theater Company by Johnny Oleksinski

Crystal methamphetamine is the drug of the moment in fiction. On television, the meth-fueled “Breaking Bad” has won critical accolades for its dizzying calamities propelled by Bryan Cran…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:55PM

Northlight Theatre Announces Partial 2013-2014 Season by Johnny Oleksinski

Northlight Theatre announces the first selections of its 2013-14 season: including a World Premiere by Christian O’Reilly, Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles and Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize winn…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:02PM
Thursday, February 21, 2013

Review: Cadre/Chicago Shakespeare Theater by Johnny Oleksinski

The World’s Stage series at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, among the best and boldest importers of international work in the city, has provided a season of struggle, iron wills and trium…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:19PM

Review: Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology/Collaboraction by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED Three plays currently playing in Chicago urgently grab hold of prescient national issues both imperative and sickening: “Teddy Ferrara” at the Goodman Theatre, “…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:37AM
Sunday, February 17, 2013

Review: City of Dreadful Night/The Den Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

Recreating Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” painting is the beginning and the end of the originality in Don Nigro’s new play; the Den Theatre’s treatment simplistically bangs the nail …

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:29AM
Friday, February 15, 2013

Review: Julius Caesar/Chicago Shakespeare Theater by Johnny Oleksinski

There is a compulsion today to jam a play’s relevance down the audience’s throat—spicing up classical texts with easily digestible contemporary settings. Too often though, what…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:10PM
Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Review: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo/Lookingglass Theatre Company by Johnny Oleksinski

Glancing above and around the stage at Lookingglass Theatre Company on Saturday night, one could spy a handful of animal topiaries of varying size and species—giraffe, rhino, bird—a kind…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:59AM
Sunday, February 10, 2013

A Triumph For Art: Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” Returns To Lyric Opera by Johnny Oleksinski

By Dennis Polkow The gargantuan music dramas of Richard Wagner are by and large a world inhabited by gods and heroes ruled by magic and fantasy. The one exception is “Die Meistersinger von…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:57PM
Thursday, February 7, 2013

Review: Disconnect/Victory Gardens Theater by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED When the cable goes out and you begrudgingly dial your service provider’s help line, who do you imagine is idling on the other end? My mind conjures up a grimy McCormick Pl…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00PM
Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Not Just A Play: “Columbinus” Revised and Revisited at American Theater Company by Johnny Oleksinski

By Johnny Oleksinski “I never thought I’d go back to this play. Ever, ever,” emphatically states PJ Paparelli, artistic director of American Theater Company. He’s tal…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:00AM
Monday, February 4, 2013

Review: Southbridge/Chicago Dramatists by Johnny Oleksinski

Throughout Reginald Edmund’s “Southbridge,” which opened in a world premiere on Saturday night at Chicago Dramatists, my mind repeatedly wandered to author Toni Morrison. M…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:04PM

Review: Sunset Boulevard/Drury Lane Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED With “Phantom of the Opera” having celebrated the all-time record of twenty-five years on Broadway last week and two local venues going head-to-head with Andrew Lloyd Webber …

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:03PM
Saturday, February 2, 2013

Review: Successors/Signal Ensemble Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

Even the best political satire has its limits. A constantly shifting Second City revue or a four-minute cold open on “Saturday Night Live” hits the spot like little else. But bri…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:24PM

Review: Sweet Charity/Writers’ Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED “Sweet Charity” is the pet name neurotic accountant Oscar Lindquist (Jarrod Zimmerman) gives Charity Hope Valentine (Tiffany Topol), a dance-hall hostess he’s f…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:43AM
Thursday, January 31, 2013

Review: Minsk, 2011: A Reply To Kathy Acker/Chicago Shakespeare Theater by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED “You can’t put your hands together in Minsk. You can’t drum.” How can that be true? The element that most bores into the audience at Chicago Shakespeare T…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:24PM

Review: Stadium Devildare/Red Tape Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

Playwright Ruth Margraff’s “Stadium Devildare” is a caffeinated dystopian fiction wherein politics, sport and theater have become indistinguishable from one another. Corpor…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:48AM
Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Review: Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West/TimeLine Theatre Company by Johnny Oleksinski

How we relay history has been forever changed by photography and video. Walk into any American classroom today, collegiate or otherwise, and you’ll doubtlessly find projected YouTube c…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:33PM

Back To School: The Cast of Goodman’s “Teddy Ferrara” Spends The Day in Madison by Johnny Oleksinski

By Johnny Oleksinski “It’s both sides of the spectrum: drunk college kids and very serious politicians, all mixing together on the streets,” says Paloma Nozicka, a recent graduate …

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:00AM
Monday, January 28, 2013

Review: La bohème/Lyric Opera by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED Given that it was 1972 when Pier Luigi Pizzi’s sumptuous production of Puccini’s “La bohème” was first presented at Lyric Opera, few would argue that, after countless re…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:33PM
Saturday, January 26, 2013

Review: The Whipping Man/Northlight Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED An onstage door left ajar has an unusual way of commanding an audience’s attention. Unspoken judgement accompanies gawking at the unattended entranceway as though a charact…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:20PM
Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Review: Other Desert Cities/Goodman Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED No one ever told Deanna Dunagan “those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” Just examine some of the actress’ most recent characters. At the weak…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00PM
Sunday, January 20, 2013

Review: Skylight/Court Theatre by Johnny Oleksinski

A night of tumult and passion or an average evening at home, lounging on the settee? In the case of “Skylight,” which opened at Court Theatre on Saturday night, the jury’s …

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PM
Thursday, January 17, 2013

Review: Lady M./The Side Project by Johnny Oleksinski

Do not go into “Lady M.” expecting a dramatically re-imagined “Macbeth.” “Lady M.” is, as a script, a rearrangement of the original text, a reprise without many new chords. D…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AM
Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Review: The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs/16th Street Theater by Johnny Oleksinski

RECOMMENDED Nearly a year after the controversy surrounding monologuist Mike Daisey’s “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” reached its pinnacle—a stormy timeline inc…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PM
Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Review: American Wee-Pie/Rivendell Theatre Ensemble by Johnny Oleksinski

There comes a moment in a treasure trove of films starring the likes of Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts when a depressed, frazzled character wallowing in her own complacency, willingly or by …

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PM
Monday, January 7, 2013

Review: Sugarward/The Side Project by Johnny Oleksinski

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” not to mention the much less holy head that governs in the name of the crown. I believe that little piece of Shakespearean wisdom sits …

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00PM

Review: The Motherf**cker With The Hat/Steppenwolf Theatre Company by Johnny Oleksinski

Fresh on the heels of the positively seismic “Good People,” a masterfully rendered class commentary that took a company on Halsted back to its gritty roots, Steppenwolf Theatre e…

SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime