All stories by Lawrence Bommer on BroadwayStars

Friday, July 15, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: EROICA (Azuza Productions at Redtwist Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

HIPOCRACY BEGINS AT HOME In theater revenge is best served quickly. That’s a virtue in David Alex’s 80-minute family drama, now detonating four times a week at Chicago’s Redtwist Theat…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:18AM
Sunday, July 10, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY (Steppenwolf Theatre Company) by Lawrence Bommer

COLORFUL CHARACTERS AIN’T ENOUGH Between Riverside and Crazy is a 2015 slice of strife from Stephen Adley Guirgis (perpetrator of The Motherf**ker with the Hat and Jesus Hopped The ‘A’…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:44PM

Chicago Theater Review: A JEWISH JOKE (ShPIeL–Performing Identity at Victory Gardens) by Lawrence Bommer

A JEW WALKS INTO A COMMUNIST MEETING… Sometimes whistle-blowing can echo from the past. It’s never too late for a timely reminder that ignorance is no excuse. A 95-minute solo show …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:03PM
Saturday, July 2, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (Dead Writers Theatre Collective at the Athenaeum Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

THE LIES THAT PASS FOR LOVE Many years ago, a half hour into the Body Politic Theatre’s revival of The Importance of Being Earnest a woman behind me very softly threw up. It was done so ef…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:50PM
Thursday, June 30, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: MAN OF LA MANCHA (Marriott Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

FREEDOM BEHIND BARS: THE UNREACHABLE STAR JUST GOT REACHED A skeptic might argue that Man of La Mancha succeeds because it lifts the guilt of anyone who never read Don Quixote. (Two hours in…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:40PM
Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: COMPANY (Writers Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

KEEPING COMPANY–SONDHEIM’S BITTERSWEET BEST It’s the first musical in Writers Theatre’s sumptuous new $30 million-dollar home in Glencoe, a light-loving complex with a more spaci…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:52PM
Monday, June 20, 2016

Theater Review: THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL (Pre-Broadway World Premiere, Oriental Theatre in Chicago) by Lawrence Bommer

BIKINI BOTTOM HITS THE HEIGHTS Upfront confession: I’ve never seen Nickelodeon’s 17-year-old SpongeBob SquarePants animation series. But my ignorance of this aquatic Sesame Street and it…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:55PM
Sunday, June 19, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: AN ANTHONY NEWLEY AND LESLIE BRICUSSE SONGBOOK (Theo Ubique) by Lawrence Bommer

THE CANDY COUPLE “The world belongs to the fools who dare to dream”: Reprising the crowd pleasure of music-hall euphoria and pantomime cut-ups with a charming quintet of Cockney buskers,…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:32PM
Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: MAKE ME A SONG (Eclectic Full Contact Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

OUT OF CONTEXT BUT EASY TO ADMIRE William Finn, a gay songwriter with wit and warmth (and second only to Sondheim), writes story ballads and situational numbers that teach as much as touch. …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:02PM
Sunday, June 12, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: THADDEUS AND SLOCUM: A VAUDEVILLE ADVENTURE (Lookingglass Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

CORKING UP OR SELLING OUT? Living up to its title billing, Lookingglass Theatre Company’s world premiere Thaddeus and Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure is a rampage down Memory Lane. Their 13…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:56PM
Friday, June 10, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: TAPPED: A TREASONOUS MUSICAL COMEDY (Forth Story Productions at Theater Wit) by Lawrence Bommer

SO BEYOND BAD THAT YOU’LL BE TAPPED OUT Half-baked, heavy-handed, overlong, poorly plotted, wretchedly sung, scenically sterile, contrived and clichéd, witless and mindless, and minus…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:37PM

Theater Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC (National Tour reviewed in Chicago) by Lawrence Bommer

EV’RY MOUNTAIN GETS CLIMBED AGAIN It’s fitting that Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final collaboration is a tribute to the art and craft they served so well—music and singing. Like Ma…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:46AM
Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: HAUPTMANN (City Lit) by Lawrence Bommer

THE LONE EAGLE VERSUS THE LONE WOLF 81 years ago, everything conspired to make the “trial of the century” engrossing entertainment. (Actually, it was the second trial of the century̵…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:42PM
Monday, June 6, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: MY FAIR LADY (Light Opera Works in Evanston) by Lawrence Bommer

LOVERLY The most insidiously satirical moment in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore comes when a lowly sailor and his captain must instantly switch places when we learn that the latter…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:42PM
Friday, June 3, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: CAUGHT (Sideshow Theatre Company at Victory Gardens) by Lawrence Bommer

SUBVERSION, DISRUPTION—AND PRETENSION Caught is just what Gertrude Stein said of Oakland: “When you get there, there’s no there there.” A series of metaphysical jokes played on the a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:04PM
Thursday, June 2, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: CONSTELLATIONS (Steppenwolf Theatre Company) by Lawrence Bommer

CAPTIVATING VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF LOVE What a feat happens seven times a week in Steppenwolf’s upstairs theater! Usually critics tell you to take their words for what they saw–but…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:42PM
Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: SOUPS, STEWS, AND CASSEROLES: 1976 (Goodman Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

A RECIPE FOR BETTER THEATER It’s no accident that this bold play, the latest offering from Northwestern University professor Rebecca Gilman, happens in Wisconsin circa 1976. The story of …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:33PM
Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: THE NORTH POOL (Interrobang Theatre Project at The Athenaeum Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

INTERROGATING AN AUDIENCE It’s the afterschool special from hell: The North Pool is that rare you-can-hear-a-pin-drop play. In a mere 80 minutes, playwright Rajiv Joseph shrewdly and sharp…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:47AM
Monday, May 23, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: TUG OF WAR: FOREIGN FIRE (Chicago Shakespeare Theater) by Lawrence Bommer

BINGEWATCHING THE BARD “Tug of war”–a child’s game that mutates into an adult’s nightmare; it’s an apt title for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s marathon of Bard his…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:31PM
Sunday, May 22, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: THE BOYS UPSTAIRS (Pride Films and Plays at Mary’s Attic) by Lawrence Bommer

AN UNCRITICAL MATING COMEDY Familiar gay fare, The Boys Upstairs, a 2009 rouser by Jason Mitchell, revels in industrial-strength crowd-pleasing. Pride Films and Plays’ two-hour funfest is …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:38PM
Thursday, May 19, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN (Stage Left Theatre at Theater Wit) by Lawrence Bommer

A DOCUMENTARY DRAMA DELIVERS Chicago is currently witnessing two productions about photojournalists haunted by their work. TimeLine Theatre’s Chimerica offers a flawed but fascinating 180-…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:48PM
Monday, May 16, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: DISENCHANTED! (Broadway in Chicago at the Broadway Playhouse) by Lawrence Bommer

GIRL-POWER PRINCESSES TAKE ON TROPES, BUT THIS REVUE COULD USE MORE WIT AND MAGIC If you were a mean girl, you might call Disenchanted! a feel-good pity party. More compassionate souls will …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:18PM
Sunday, May 15, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: CHIMERICA (TimeLine) by Lawrence Bommer

A SEARCH FOR DOUBT BOTH TANTALIZES AND ENERVATES Speculation is just as tricky on the stage as on the stock market. Winner of the 2014 Laurence Olivier Award, Chimerica (its title suggesting…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:09PM
Thursday, May 12, 2016

Chicago Dance Review: CINDERELLA (Joffrey Ballet) by Lawrence Bommer

A FAIRY TALE LEAPS INTO LOVE Rossini, Walt Disney, Rodgers and Hammerstein—they all wanted a piece of Perrault’s fairy tale. Cinderella has become Cendrillon, Cenerentola, and, by Jerry …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:15PM
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Theater Review: CHICAGO (National Tour at Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago) by Lawrence Bommer

CORRUPTION: MORE FUN WHEN CHOREOGRAPHED Now in its twentieth year, this slimmed-down, near-concert version of Kander and Ebb’s cynical and enthralling musical features, as the smoothly lyi…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:31PM
Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW (Goodman Theatre) by Lawrence Bommer

LORRAINE HANSBERRY’S OTHER PLAY Written five years after Raisin in the Sun and just before her early death at 34, Lorraine Hansberry’s last work is a challenging—as in problematic—pl…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:41PM
Monday, May 9, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (Theatre at the Center in Munster, IN) by Lawrence Bommer

LET’S NOT CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF George Gershwin died no older than the equally immortal Mozart—and, well, we can’t make or get enough of a Broadway blessing’s too-brief talent for…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:46PM
Sunday, May 8, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (American Blues Theater) by Lawrence Bommer

 A HUGE HIT IN AMERICAN BLUE’S LITTLE SHOP American Blues Theatre seldom does musicals (the last was the wonderful Hank Williams: Lost Highway). Happily, their current triumphLittle S…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:55AM
Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: ONCE IN A LIFETIME (Strawdog Theatre Company) by Lawrence Bommer

A CRASH COUSE IN ‘LA LA LAND’ LUNACY Once in a Lifetime, the first triumph of George S Kaufman and Moss Hart (You Can’t Take It With You, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Royal Family),…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:23PM
Saturday, April 30, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: A RED LINE RUNS THROUGH IT (The Second City e.t.c.’s 40th Revue at Piper’s Alley) by Lawrence Bommer

SCATTERSHOT SPOOFERY THROWS A LARGE NET OVER A LITTLE SATIRE Alluding to the elevated Chicago subway that courses through the North Side, A Red Line Runs Through It proves a theme as much a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:56PM
Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Chicago Theater Review: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (Shattered Globe Theatre at Theater Wit) by Lawrence Bommer

IN THE HEAT OF THE STORY “They call me Mister Tibbs.” That’s the signature catchphrase from the celebrated 1967 film starring Sidney Poitier the first African-American male Oscar winn…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:16AM

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
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