NO MAN IS AN ISLAND Whenever it’s revived, it’s hard to imagine a more necessary musical than this 1949 Pulitzer Prize winner. Seventy years after the Japanese surrender, it remains a he…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:36PMRISING UP FROM DOWN UNDER 23 years ago, mega-entertainer Peter Allen died of AIDS. But The Boy from Oz is the story of a survivor. The self-made star refused to be stifled by the Australian …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:42PMCIRQUE DU FIN DE SIÈCLE This is a snazzy and pizzazz-packed blast from the past: Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities draws its whimsical magic from the “steampunk” style that melds Victoria…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:41PMTHE NEW DEAD-END KIDS It’s easy to hate the surly slackers in subUrbia, Eric Bogosian’s slice of strife. In this 1994 play, they infest the parking lot of a 7-Eleven–now ch…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:50AMSTILL BREATHING 15 years ago a new show called First Breath launched the About Face Youth Theatre Ensemble. Appropriately, the current showcase 15 Breaths is presented by the next generati…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:55PMDIVA TO THE TOWEL SET In this summer fluff title tells all–Bette, Live at the Continental Baths (in Chicago, upstairs at Mary’s Attic). This uncredited concoction by Hell in a Handba…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:30PMTIME HEALS ALL PLOTS Shakespeare’s strange romance, which begins with gratuitous jealousy and ends with gratuitous forgiveness, is best treated as a fairy tale for grownups: A virtuous que…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:19PMIS IT REALLY HUMAN TO FORGIVE? Heidi Schreck’s powerfully pleasing play exists for its final moment. So this critique will be strategically selective and shorter than usual. In any case, t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:33PMBLACKBUSTERS A dozen shows in one and a showcase of solos to beat any band, Black Ensemble Theater’s summer blockbuster Men of Soul pays kickass tribute to the greatest soul singers–…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:32PMTIME TRAVEL AS URBAN RENEWAL U.K. playwright Alistair McDowell likes to break the rules to reach a crowd. An intriguing U.S. premiere by Steep Theatre Company, his sardonically titled Brilli…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:23PMA DELIVERANCE IN DACHAU Even in the Holocaust’s democracy of death each victim could only die once. But some seem to have died a bit less than others. Remembering the unnumbered thousa…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:13PMUNQUIET DESPERATION IN BUCKS COUNTY He’s no longer an angry young playwright and gay avenger, the bad-boy Jeremiah who unleashed scorched-earth provocations (Sister Mary Ignatius Explains …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:09PMA LEVIATHAN BEACHES ON MICHIGAN AVENUE Moby Dick, Herman Melville’s whale of a tale (or tale of a whale) from 1851, is as unsinkable as its title cetacean. It’s never been more so than i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:25PMTHE GIFT OF JOY, FROM LONDON TO CHICAGO It’s been 37 years–two generations!–since the Royal Ballet visited Chicago and the Auditorium Theatre. They couldn’t have come bearing…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:49PMSTAGE NOIR This non-dancing, Tony-winning, cinematic musical by the terrific trio of jazz composer Cy Coleman, bookwriter Larry Gelbart and lyricist David Zippel brilliantly lampoons Hollywo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:24PMOUR FEATHERED FIENDS This is not Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, a 1963 horror fest about being pecked to death and delighting in Tippi Hedrin and Suzanne Pleshette’s contagious distress. …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:47PMHISTORY IN A HOLE The America Play was inspired when author Suzan Lori-Parks observed a professional African-American Lincoln impersonator hard at work pleasing a crowd. This strange early w…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:58PMCLOSET EMANCIPATOR For what it’s worth, the other “F-word” is now a play’s title, presumably rivaling the “N-word” for shock effect. Well, anything called Abraham Lincoln Was A F…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:42AMPRIVATE DANCERS It’s a stunning vote of artistic confidence. The repertory of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Summer Series, their latest dancefest at the Harris Theatre, consists of thre…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:17AMCOPE WITH HOPE A tale for all ages, this perennially popular musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (creators of I Do! I Do!) got a major make-over in 1990: The 30th anniversary tour with R…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:34PMSIX SINGULAR SENSATIONS No text or context, no name-dropping or dates delivered, no editorials about the art–the songs just sing for themselves. The revue’s title–A Marvin Haml…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:28PMWINDOWS ZERO This could have been a conversation. Employing flashy strips of LED lights, twelve video monitors, and digitalized backdrops, Goodman artistic associate Regina Taylor’s stop. …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:38AMNO FLOWERS IN A TOO-SECRET GARDEN It’s right that Court Theatre completes its 60th season with this redemptive tale–and it comes just as summer finally delivers its much-appreciated …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:36PMTracy Letts and Amy Morton make this latest visit to George and Martha riveting.
SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PMTHE LAST VICTIMS An urban massacre grabs headlines for days, then burns out as quickly as it erupted. There’s always the next shock of the known to deal with: Without meaning to be cruel, …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:55PMDEAF, DUMB, BLIND–AND FABULOUS! Right now there’s a lot of noise in the attic–Mary’s Attic in Andersonville. The uproarious occasion is Miracle!, a gender-bending, cross-dres…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:17PMA METAPHORICAL MESS “The truth can be cruel.” That’s the twisty motto of the interactive quiz show within Quiz Show, a maddeningly metaphorical one-act from Strawdog Theatre Company. T…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:47PMLIVING A LEGACY At this very moment Islamic State terrorists are on the brink of invading–and possibly destroying–the ancient Roman capital of Palmyra. Loathing any past but thei…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:40PMDIRTY DOINGS IN DIXIE In a way The Little Foxes is a complete complement to Margaret Mitchell’s antebellum revisionism in Gone With The Wind (which appeared the same year as Lillian Hellma…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:09PMDISTURBED DANCES Two years ago Boris Eifman brought his all-absorbing story recital Rodin to the Auditorium Theatre. It delighted audiences with its stream of 1,000-word pictures: The vibran…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:19PMTHE ONCE AND FALLEN DREAM It’s a continuing crisis seen from the inside out, fleshed out with warmth and truth. In The Project(s), American Theater Company artistic director PJ Paparelli …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:56PM
