Sunday, 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 03:54PMTuesday, July 29, 2014
GLOBE THEATRE EARNS ITS NAME This play really is the thing. Audaciously assuming that all’s well that ends well, the Globe Theatre is celebrating both Shakespeare’s 450th birthday and th…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:14PMSaturday, July 26, 2014
THE OTHER DREAMGIRLS Black Ensemble Theater’s latest summer-long tribute is to a girls group who never quite achieved escape velocity to lasting fame. Reginald Williams’ faithful c…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:41PMFriday, July 25, 2014
SAMUEL BECKETT: MINIMALISM IN EXTREMIS Dark doings on a claustrophobic stage. These are the 80+ minutes at Mary-Arrchie Theatre’s Angel Island. Six short but not sweet offerings by the lat…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:04PMMonday, July 21, 2014
THE THREADS THAT BREAK There’s no doubt why Lynn Nottage’s drama won five national awards for best play, including the Drama Critics’ Circle Award and American Theatre Critics Associat…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:27PMSunday, July 20, 2014
IT’S NOT JUST THE MEAT, IT’S THE MISERY The final searing image in Oracle Theatre’s pile-driving retelling of Upton Sinclair’s muckraking masterwork is a bold take on the Chicago fla…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:43PMSaturday, July 19, 2014
ELEVATED EXPERIMENTS Now in its 14th season, New Dances 2014, Thodos Dance Chicago’s weekend-long premiere at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts is a grueling, ambitious, and often successf…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:01PMWednesday, July 16, 2014
T.M.I. AS DRAMA The Qualms (a cute title that sounds like both a setting and a condition) is basically an Internet forum made flesh, a “truth or dare” confessional in one act. Steppenwol…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:33PMSunday, July 13, 2014
HORTON HATCHES A HIT “Oh! The Thinks You Can Think!” proclaims this joyous romp as it proves what it belts. One of those powerful pensées is: “A person’s a person, no matter how sm…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:26PMSaturday, July 12, 2014
HIDDEN IN THE MASTER’S SHADOW The sardonically named Twain’s World (that hint of amateurism is to be heeded), this year’s week-long LitFest from First Floor Theatre is devoted to the w…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:48PMTuesday, July 8, 2014
MUSICALS LIKE THIS OCCUR ONCE EVERY 100 YEARS What won’t some do to flee the ravages and anguish of war? In 1947, when Brigadoon confirmed the mutual genius of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederic…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:41PMThursday, June 26, 2014
WHILE GENERIC, A SINCERE SHIP HARDLY CAPSIZES The Last Ship, now in a shakedown cruise at Bank of America Theatre, joins a proud list of fervent tributes to blue-collar Brits. These salutes …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:25PMMonday, June 23, 2014
TILL DEATH DO US RECONCILE In little more than an hour Sharr White pulls off a (one) act of forgiveness, reuniting estranged partners in a foul trailer in Paonia, Colorado. The unpromising s…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:42PMA JUICY CLUSTER OF APES There are no simians in Apes of Wrath, Second City e.t.c.’s new revue at Pipers Alley—but then, as always, the jokes are on us. The vague premise behind this tren…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:11PMFriday, June 20, 2014
ORPHANS OF THE RICH No one captures the volatile complexity and fragile bravado of mixed-up young adults better than the angry young plays of the 20th century. In Look Back in Anger, Dealer�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:22AMMonday, June 9, 2014
A FEMINIST FANTASY SOAKED IN WHIMSY In Lifeline Theatre’s semi-delightful 150-minute romp, the war between the sexes is replaced by a war against sexism. The latest adaptation from this li…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:29PMSunday, June 8, 2014
A THREE-HOUR HOME RUN Clearly and cleanly, tried and true director/choreographer Kevin Bellie trusts the heart out of Adler and Ross’ 1952 Broadway classic. Damn Yankees, Light Opera Works…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:14PMFriday, June 6, 2014
HEARKENING BACK TO HAPPY HARMONIES Too sweet to be termed a blast from the past, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s latest reclamation brings back, with all their pep, pizzazz and patriotism, t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:14PMTuesday, June 3, 2014
CYBER COMPASSION, OR PIXELS FAKE PASSION Like his equally probing The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West’s 1933 novella Miss Lonelyhearts all but skewers its subject: the loneliness of crow…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:20PMSunday, June 1, 2014
HOME LOST HOME A world premiere from Sideshow Theatre Company, this curious and lengthy offering feels as familiar as it is threatening. In 145 minutes Kathleen Ackerley (who also co-directs…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:17PMThursday, May 29, 2014
CHINA SOARS OVER LAKE MICHIGAN For a ninth consecutive summer, Cirque Shanghai (its title actually referring to whatever Chinese city produces these performers) has returned to the well-name…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:06PMThursday, May 22, 2014
WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE? No question, Black Ensemble Theatre’s latest offering boasts the usual superb quality control of sounds and notes, casting, performance, ensemble rapport, and mus…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:36PMSunday, May 18, 2014
NOT SINCE THE REAGAN ERA Alas, it’s been 30 years since Paul Taylor Dance Company last played Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. Even more alas, the too-brief weekend return ends today, May 2…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:59AMThursday, May 15, 2014
AN ANCIENT SWEETNESS ON A GOODMAN STAGE Infatuated with alteration, Tony-winner Mary Zimmerman loves transformations, metamorphoses, shape-shifting, and slow to rapid mood swings. Nothing sh…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:25PMThursday, May 8, 2014
BEYOND THE BREACH It honors the text. That’s praise enough for any production, especially when the drama is the world’s greatest propaganda play: Henry V. Shakespeare’s most patriotic…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:25PMSaturday, May 3, 2014
MELTING JIGS INTO DIRGES Whether it’s a Jewish family in Awake and Sing! or a black one in A Raisin in the Sun, poverty grinds down its unloved ones and prejudice finishes the kill. As…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:11PMThursday, May 1, 2014
PROKOFIEV GETS POLITICAL This is not your usual Romeo and Juliet. Truncated and concentrated, Joffrey Ballet’s U.S. premiere of Krzysztof Pastor’s two-act treatment of Profofiev’s cele…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:20PMWednesday, April 30, 2014
WHEN THE MIDDLE CLASS MATTERED The best thing about this well-earned, state-of-the-art revival of Frank Loesser’s Pulitzer-winning masterwork is this: No one dared to update what mus…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:45PMMonday, April 28, 2014
NO CLOSURE IN BIRMINGHAM Originally produced at Goodman Theatre in 1989, Sally Nemeth’s incendiary two-act, 125-minute Mill Fire depicts the origins and aftermath of its title disaster. Th…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:50PMSunday, April 27, 2014
CHARLES DARWIN AND NATURAL AFFECTION With its intentionally contradictory title, In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story is not about the Garden of Eden; it is an earnest but unengrossing wor…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:42PMSaturday, April 26, 2014
PREHISTORIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE PRESENT Extended until mid-May, Theater Wit’s Midwest debut of Madeleine George’s sharp new show has clearly touched hearts and nerves. It’s no secret: F…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:39PM 
