Sunday, September 6, 2015
RECOMMENDED More scary than conventional horror is the play that preys upon its audience with an almost plausible storyline, framed by the believable extremism that lurks in the margins …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:30PMSaturday, September 5, 2015
Since it was first produced more than sixty years ago, N. Richard Nash’s “The Rainmaker†has aged into a kind of blanket statement on the condition of being an American. I…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:45PMThursday, September 3, 2015
You know what they say: Every time a mime speaks a Dickensian orphan gets sucked into a jet turbine and blasted out the other side as just a scream. However, it is that cozy time of year whe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMYou know what they say: Every time a mime speaks a Dickensian orphan gets sucked into a jet turbine and blasted out the other side as just a scream. However, it is that cozy time of year whe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:45AMTuesday, September 1, 2015
By Elle Metz On a warm, sunny Tuesday night, the founders of a new theater company have retreated into the cool, dark Jackalope Theatre in Edgewater. The large storefront windows are covered…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:04AMSunday, August 30, 2015
In the world premiere of Juan Francisco Villa’s “Don Chipotle†it’s difficult to distinguish between the real and the fantastical. And while that may work for Cerva…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:30PMFriday, August 28, 2015
A dark and occasionally funny thriller opens the twenty-seventh season at Profiles Theatre. At first glance, Beth Henley’s “The Jacksonian,†a surreal Southern Gothic tale…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:45AMThursday, August 27, 2015
RECOMMENDED There’s a scene in Myla Goldberg’s “Bee Season†where a character explores a storage locker. Instead of finding the typical packrat arrangement, he disc…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:45AMTuesday, August 25, 2015
RECOMMENDED Strawdog Theatre Company lives up to the theme of their twenty-eighth season, “The Tipping Point,†by thrusting audiences into the basement kitchen of an English aris…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:10PMSunday, August 23, 2015
RECOMMENDED “This House Believes the American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro†is a lengthy title for Zachary Baker-Salmon’s well condensed, seventy-minute a…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMFriday, August 21, 2015
I’d like to offer an analogy that I think Joan Schenkar, the rare American playwright at the European-leaning Trap Door Theatre, would approve of: “The Universal Wolf†is …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:15PMMonday, August 17, 2015
RECOMMENDED Earlier this year Newcity ran a story about the opening of the Windy City Playhouse and the launch of their first season. In it, artistic director Amy Rubenstein called it â€�…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:45PMRECOMMENDED Before the performance of “In Love and Warcraft†began on Sunday night, one of the show’s actors explained Halcyon Theatre’s philosophy of radical hospi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PMFriday, August 14, 2015
RECOMMENDED For the most part, The Inconvenience’s sixth annual “The Fly Honey Showâ€â€™s blatantly burlesque and abounding pop cultural references can make it feel sp…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:00PMRECOMMENDED I’ve never been one to keep a consistent journal, but judging by the expressive content of the readings at Under The Gun Theater’s new monthly show “#TBT,�
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PMUnder The Gun Theater is rife with catchy concepts. Their “Comedy Against Humanity†show was so popular that – despite an informal agreement – Cards Against Humanity …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMThursday, August 13, 2015
By Elle Metz On a bright stage in a dark room at The Annoyance Theatre in Lakeview, two men, bouncing slightly on their toes, peer into the audience. Seventeen people—mostly young and…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:35AMWednesday, August 12, 2015
By Hugh Iglarsh At a time when pop culture often seems like the only game in town, First Floor Theater’s annual literary festival is a refreshing reminder of drama’s richer pos…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:08AMMonday, August 10, 2015
RECOMMENDED Harold Pinter’s plays famously hint at something ominous below the surface of dialogue that poetically chases itself around but ends up nowhere (“They believe in me.&…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PMThe premise of The Public House Theatre’s “Ready for Hillary: The Musical†is simple, if wacky: On the eve of the 2016 presidential election, candidates Hillary Clinton, E…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:15PMSunday, August 9, 2015
RECOMMENDED To some extent, every Cirque du Soleil show is dreamlike. Writer/director Michel Laprise’s “Kurios—Cabinet of Curiosities†is the first I have seen that…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:30PMThursday, August 6, 2015
RECOMMENDED Chicago worships its food, from the temples of fine dining to the red-cooler bar tamales. Every resident has food woven inextricably into their life story, whether it’s jo…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:45PMTuesday, August 4, 2015
With the rowdily interactive dinner theater show “We Gotta Bingo†Chicago Theater Works throws itself into the Belmont theater district with gusto, launching a new space (near St…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:30PMMonday, August 3, 2015
What better way to pass the dog days than with Shakespeare’s canine comedy? This early, patchy and problematic work – whose dramatic summit is the appearance of Crab, the melan…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:45AMThursday, July 30, 2015
By Loy Webb “This is turning into a therapy session,†says actress Angela Alise as she wipes the tears from her eyes. “Which it always does with Erasing the Distance,�
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:10AMMonday, July 27, 2015
RECOMMENDED Walking into the MCL Chicago space for “VAMP: A Music Comedy Drinking Show†is like walking into a raucous house party that’s just getting started. A four-piec…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:15PMRECOMMENDED A brand since 1984, in Chicago since 1987 and in their current digs on Belmont since 2007, ComedySportz has clearly hit on a winning formula, proudly maintaining the title of lon…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMRECOMMENDED Something tells me old Anton might have rather enjoyed “Stupid Fucking Bird†if his body had aged as well as his work. Sideshow Theatre Company’s lofty yet god…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:45AMSunday, July 26, 2015
RECOMMENDED Ever the crowdpleasers, the folks at Hell in a Handbag follow the touchy and pushy “Miracle!†with a loving tribute to Bette Midler, a longtime ally and prominent cul…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMRECOMMENDED “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.†Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words sum up lifeâ€�…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMThursday, July 23, 2015
Rarely in my experience has a play that starts so well gone so flat by the end. The opening scenes of “A Perfect Ganesh†are perfectly hilarious, from the moment old friends Kitt…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:45AM 
