Thursday, December 18, 2014
RECOMMENDED Light as down, raucous as the title bird and quick as the famous Baker Street sleuth’s brain cells, Raven Theatre’s revival of its mystery-cum-musical-cum-sing-along …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:30AMWednesday, December 17, 2014
This twenty-three-person, epic-scale panorama of New Orleans down-and-outers is echt Steppenwolf, overflowing with all that’s best and worst about Chicago’s signature theater company. Pl…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMTuesday, December 16, 2014
RECOMMENDED I must confess that I came to this year’s production of The Ruffians’ “Burning Bluebeard” as an in-the-tank fan. Since seeing it last year, any conversation I have had co…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PMOpera impresarios must find themselves at a singular disadvantage in an era when audiences can drive to their local multiplex and watch opera singers up close, live and sweating, every uniqu…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:30PM RECOMMENDED The problem that any company encounters when producing “The Mikado” is—to put it bluntly—it’s kinda sorta maybe pretty undeniably racist. And as it i…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMMonday, December 15, 2014
RECOMMENDED It’s easy to go into “Newsies” at the Oriental Theatre with a cocked eyebrow and a cynical smirk. The show, like the nineties movie it’s adapted from, is …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:00PMRECOMMENDED It was the trio kazoo-version of “Carol of the Bells” that completely did me in. No one can make a pretty face with their lips wrapped around a kazoo. I couldn’t even appla…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PMThursday, December 11, 2014
It’s not a bad script that renders “Twist Your Dickens, Or Scrooge You!” an unfunny, lackluster mess. It’s a terrible script. Penned by Peter Gwinn and Bobby Mort (Emmy Award winners…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:30PMRECOMMENDED Whether you are of the camp that considers “Pericles” a Shakespearean romance or a “problem” play (or both), it is impossible to delve into this dynamic story without…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMWednesday, December 10, 2014
RECOMMENDED Remy Bumppo’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s “The Clean House” is presented with a spotless understanding of the playwright’s sense of a compositional freedom of space and …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMMonday, December 8, 2014
RECOMMENDED In a city like Chicago, it’s hard to imagine not being able to get anything at practically any time. The internet and online sales make it even easier. Yet, back in the early t…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PMRECOMMENDED There’s an internal tension with the holiday season between what everyone is supposed to feel—joyous, thankful and free—and how everyone actually feels—miserable, stresse…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMRECOMMENDED If you haven’t had the chance to see Commedia Beauregard’s “A Klingon Christmas Carol,” well now is the time. The current incarnation of the show, its fifth, will apparen…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMSunday, December 7, 2014
RECOMMENDED As the title suggests, the writer/performers of this 103rd Second City Mainstage revue don’t just throw bits together based on recent headlines, they very carefully string them…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PMSaturday, December 6, 2014
Things are not exactly going as planned for the matriarch in Sheila Callaghan’s “Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake).” One year after being widowed by a freak Christmas Day accide…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PMThursday, December 4, 2014
RECOMMENDED First, he turned “Pirates of Penzance” into a beach-bum sing-along. Next, he took “The Mikado” and made a three-ring circus with all three rings overlapping, like a Venn …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:30PMTuesday, December 2, 2014
Last year, Seanachai Theatre Company—recently reborn as Irish Theatre of Chicago—brought to life one of the most pleasing Christmas-adjacent shows that this town has seen in recent memor…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMRECOMMENDED What happens when four guys from failed bands join together, make a deal with the devil and pledge their souls to Satan in order to find fame and fortune? When it takes place in …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMMonday, December 1, 2014
RECOMMENDED The first thing that strikes you about Strawdog’s restaging of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” is the sheer number of books taking up the stage. They are stacked up…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMRECOMMENDED In a world where Christmas shows are a dime a dozen, and productions of “1940s Radio Hour” are a staple of community theaters around the country, one may be forgiven for taki…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMSunday, November 30, 2014
RECOMMENDED Some of the most cherished moments of my childhood were story times with my mom. During those times with the turn of a page, the walls would disappear and voila! Me and my sister…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PMFriday, November 28, 2014
By Aaron Hunt Earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending the first outing of the new incarnation of Chicago’s “Opera on Tap” chapter, “Introducing…Opera on Tap!” at the H…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:22AMThursday, November 27, 2014
RECOMMENDED Few films have the generational popularity of Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life,” which has now been broadcast on television for decades during the holidays. Familiar …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMWednesday, November 26, 2014
On my way to the theater I noticed the red-and-green lights burning Christmas-y atop the Hancock and her sister-skyscrapers; maybe this caused me to feel a little Grinch-y. Maybe my fingers …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PMTuesday, November 25, 2014
RECOMMENDED Nobody could dislike the 2014 version of “Lookingglass Alice,” not even a Scrooge who had wandered away from one of the several “Christmas Carols” playing nearby. Looking…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:30PMRECOMMENDED Tales of troubled youth and the teachers who want to get through to them have long been illustrated in books, plays and films. Those stories remain relevant because violence by a…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMMonday, November 24, 2014
Revealing the twisted and sometimes supernatural underpinnings to events both historical and contemporary, “Improvised Twilight Zone” takes the format of the legendary series and transl…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:00PMRECOMMENDED Recently a friend asked me what my favorite show of 2014 was. I didn’t have a good answer for him. This has a lot to do with the fact that I see more shows than the average the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PMRECOMMENDED Christmas is fast approaching. For those unfamiliar with the season, in the world of “It’s Christmas Goddamnit!” it’s that merry time of year when even the kookiest of fa…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMPatsy Cline was a true country gal. Born and raised in Virginia, she began entertaining at a young age. Some accounts say she started performing for friends and family by the age of three. H…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMSaturday, November 22, 2014
RECOMMENDED The tale of an old miser who has no interest in the holiday spirit until his past, present and future come haunting him one Christmas Eve is fairly well known. Though the story i…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00PM 
