Wednesday, October 15, 2014
STEALING CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE The Submission is a devious, double-edged title for Jeff Talbott’s equally transgressive play. It refers both to the cold (as in out-of-nowhere) entry of a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:54PMSunday, October 12, 2014
TWILIGHT IN TIVOLI Following their productions of Brecht’s The Mother and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, venturesome Oracle Theatre brings us another thespian rarity. This fall’s find is…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:57PMThursday, October 9, 2014
EARNING THEIR FUTURE At 25 years young, River North Dance Chicago is as old as its current dancers, most born when it began. They grew up to find the perfect home for their non-negotiable ta…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:22PMTuesday, October 7, 2014
CAPITOL CRIMES “A plague on both your houses!” Without naming either political party, that’s just what Maxwell Anderson wished over 80 years ago through his Pulitzer Prize-winning Both…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:35PMMonday, October 6, 2014
AN ALL YOU CAN ETTA BUFFET A Black Ensemble Theater hit in 2005, At Last: A Tribute to Etta James is back in (the pleasure of) business. It’s also updated to reflect the last decade of “…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:47PMSunday, October 5, 2014
WINNING SMALL Still potent after 42 years, Caryl Churchill’s corrosive class comedy Owners pits two outlooks on life against each other. In one corner you have Churchill’s now-patented �…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:21PMRED, WHITE AND PAS DE BLEU Marking the 125th anniversary of Chicago’s glorious and historic Auditorium Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, which used to come here every season, is all too br…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:28AMFriday, October 3, 2014
SMOKEFALL GETS IN YOUR EYES It opened a year ago in Goodman’s smaller Owen Theatre. Due to rave reviews and popular demand, it’s now the fall opener in the larger Albert enclave. Clearly…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:13PMThursday, October 2, 2014
A WHISTLEBLOWER’S CONVENIENT SUICIDE Urgent, cinematic, and breathlessly intense in everything but its intermission, TimeLine Theatre Company’s true-life exposé of a truth-teller and hi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:18PMTuesday, September 30, 2014
LAUGHTER IS THE WORST MEDICINE Humor and hygiene play off each other in Sarah Ruhl’s much-praised but not altogether satisfying 2004 romantic comedy. Now fitfully revived by the new Bluebi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:52PMSunday, September 28, 2014
LOVE AS A MOVEABLE FEAST Conor McPherson’s plays are so rooted in the characters that plot is really revelation. With unforced warmth, he captures loneliness in the act of self-effacement …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:00PMA BEDTIME STORY FOR EVERY ADULT With a justifiably extended run, Route 66 Theatre Company’s richly rewarding world premiere of Caitlin (A Twist of Water) Parrish’s The Downpour is a stor…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:10PMSaturday, September 27, 2014
OUT OF THE COUNTRY AND OUT OF LUCK Seldom has a title been more ironic: The World of Extreme Happiness, specifically the booming factory city of Shenzhen in urban China, is definitely extrem…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:00PMFriday, September 26, 2014
STAY FOR A WEILL An impeccable labor of love, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s heartfelt homage, A Kurt Weill Cabaret, pays unstinting tribute to a deft and dynamic composer. Kurt Weill’s …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:40PMSunday, September 21, 2014
AFTER THE FALL IS OVER A Midwest premiere by Northlight Theatre, Amanda Peet’s topical domestic drama The Commons of Pensacola isn’t exactly about Bernie Madoff’s unimprisoned wife nor…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:50PMSaturday, September 20, 2014
SUNSET ASSISTED DYING Samuel D. Hunter, Victory Gardens Theater ensemble playwright and recent recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award, specializes in tender tales of gutsy outsiders, sp…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:58PMFriday, September 19, 2014
TALESPINNING AT ITS MOST LITERAL Running only through this weekend, Joffrey Ballet’s captivating evening, Stories in Motion, delivers three richly imagined dance narratives, complete with …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:59PMThursday, September 18, 2014
A FORCED FRENZY Some well-meant productions make you feel bad because you care so little. That’s perilously close to what transpires in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s louder-than-life rev…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:13PMMonday, September 15, 2014
REALITY THEFT Twisting a devious course over a mere 80 minutes and across Lookingglass Theatre’s nearly barebones thrust stage, this puzzle play by Lucas Hnath (whose equally treachero…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:47PMSunday, September 14, 2014
VIDEO WILL OUT Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy becomes, appropriately, a 115-minute, one-act opera by Ernest Bloch, a dour offering first produced in 1910 at the Opera-Comique in Paris.…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:27PMFriday, September 12, 2014
GROUNDING GENIUS IN LIFE Lucas Hnath is a curious writer who likes to pit truth against fantasy to see which captures the most actuality. His Isaac’s Eye, now in an enthralling Midwest…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:10PMSunday, September 7, 2014
PRAY FOR MIRACLES The “fall” in the title doesn’t mean the season. Miracles in the Fall refers to the expulsion from Paradise, the epic fall that supposedly created original sin. Pursu…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:24PMSaturday, September 6, 2014
THE BACK STORY BEHIND MOBY DICK A thrilling feat that reclaims the past, The Whaleship Essex is sailor-playwright Joe Forbrich’s detailed and driving reimagining of an 1820 tragedy that, 3…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:33PMFriday, September 5, 2014
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MY DEAR WATSON A cardinal rule gets broken here: You can be funny or you can be scary–but try to be both and you’re neither. You’ll be this show. Deft at farce i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:35PMThursday, September 4, 2014
DUEL NATURE In Trevor, recently produced by A Red Orchid Theatre, playwright Nick Jones delivered a sardonic and heavy-handed attack on dangerous animals kept as domestic pets. He wastes no …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:34PMFriday, August 29, 2014
YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME—AGAIN Chaim Potok’s 1972 novel My Name is Asher Lev is a coming-of-age story that pits one passion against another. It depicts the declaration of independence by a …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:19PMTuesday, August 26, 2014
A POWERFUL PLAY EVEN WITH A PLOT AS POINTLESS AS ITS PEOPLE With Ecstasy, now being revived at A Red Orchid Theatre, a new Chicago theater succeeds at first: Cole Theatre Company establishes…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:16PMMonday, August 25, 2014
BREAKING BETTER He who laughs last laughs best—especially when you overcome an addiction to methamphetamine. So, after recovery, what do you do next? (And I don’t mean Disneyland.) You t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:54PMSunday, August 24, 2014
THE SEAGULL AS AN ALBATROSS At over two hours, it’s almost as long as its source. So it’s a good thing that Stupid Fucking Bird is more than a parody or it would soon lose its welcome. A…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:53PMSunday, August 17, 2014
THE GREAT GAY IMPROVISERS You could call it an action meditation on marriage. As if to sum up his own theatrical legacy, as well as 70 years of gay life and love, Terrence McNally’s valedi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:52PMSunday, August 10, 2014
A REVIVAL WHICH ISN’T FIDDLING AROUND “To Life” indeed. There’s a ton of it, not to mention heartbreak and wisdom, in Rudy Hogenmiller’s warmly wise revival, Light Opera Works�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:54PM 
