Wednesday, October 16, 2019
My 16th birthday proved transformative. No, it wasn’t being given the keys to the family mini-van with wood grain paneling after securing my driver’s license. Nor was it my Eagle Scout c…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 06:54PMFriday, June 7, 2019
“There is greatness in me!” When the unflappable Barbara E. Robertson – with her fiery eyes and large, expressive mouth – bellows this mere feet from a rapt audience, you have no cho…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 04:18PMMonday, April 15, 2019
It’s hard to think of a show more iconic than A Chorus Line. Michael Bennett’s athletic, razzle-dazzle touch is all over it. Marvin Hamlisch’s pulsating score is peppered with tunes th…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 11:43AMSaturday, March 30, 2019
Gypsy. Sweeney Todd. Chorus Line. Chicago. Great American musical theatre rallies around a common theme: Desperation – and the great lengths we go to get what we want. Hands on a Hardbody …
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 08:22AMThursday, October 25, 2018
In a recent Chicago Tribune interview, the iconic Betty Buckley – who’s starring in the first national tour of Hello, Dolly! – told critic Chris Jones that even if she has to “put up…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 08:54AMThursday, October 18, 2018
Gypsy is my favorite show. I’ve seen dozens of performances and productions. I can confidently say I know this show inside and out. That is, until I saw E. Faye Butler as Madame Rose in Po…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 05:48PMSaturday, September 15, 2018
It’s been a hot second since I’ve written here, but the passing of one of my very favorite performers awoke the muse. If you’ll indulge me… We all have those voices we’v…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 04:54PMThursday, June 14, 2018
I can’t imagine a more utterly charming musical than Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music. Like a bubbly glass of crisp Champagne, even the most middling Night Music …
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 07:48PMSunday, April 22, 2018
The musical Grand Hotel is, in many ways, an anomaly. Based on a 1932 MGM movie about the inner dramas occurring in an opulent Berlin hotel in 1928, this relentlessly dark show did not feel …
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 05:06PMSaturday, April 7, 2018
As a hard-worn musical theatre nerd, it’s a very rare thing when I encounter a nearly two-decade old, critically praised musical in which I’ve neither seen the source material nor heard …
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 10:02PMTuesday, March 13, 2018
I love me some Theo Ubique – the scrappy, award-winning storefront that’s made quite a name for itself (and also a new home, opening shortly up the road from its current residenc…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 01:24PMTuesday, March 6, 2018
I tried to hold myself back. I really did. Out of the two shows presented Monday evening as part of Steppenwolf’s “Lookout” series, I very reasonably bought tickets for t…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 05:43PMSaturday, February 17, 2018
It’s a rare thing where a show you’ve literally been anticipating for a decade arrives as a full-out, first-rate tour in basically your back yard. Yes, back in 2008 my friends and I wild…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 10:14AMSaturday, February 3, 2018
Growing up. Trying things, being flexible, bending with the road. Adding dreams when the others don’t last. Growing up, understanding that growing never ends. Like old dreams, some old…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 11:43AMSunday, May 21, 2017
If anyone is reading this, check out my blog on The Huffington Post for the latest reviews and such. xoxxoox
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 08:24PMThursday, April 20, 2017
Perhaps you’ve heard about a little show taking the world over by storm. And Chicago is lucky enough to have it, eight nights a week for the foreseeable future, at the PrivateBank Theatre.…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 09:12PMSunday, November 6, 2016
Fun Home is a special show. The 2015 Best Musical Tony winner features a female, lesbian protagonist (the remarkable Kate Shindle playing graphic novalist Alison Bechdel), and an emotionally…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 01:48PMThey just don’t write ’em like that anymore. This phrase could be aptly applied to the classic musical comedy Wonderful Town, now getting a major revival at the Goodman Theater, …
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 01:48PMFriday, July 22, 2016
I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been salivating at seeing the new musical War Paint, which is based on the PBS documentary The Powder and the Glory celebrating makeup moguls and…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 05:28PMThursday, May 12, 2016
Gilded scenery, an exquisitely sung classic American songbook score, parades of hoop skirts and exotic Eastern textiles, and an unconventional love story. What’s not to adore in Lyri…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 07:48PMTuesday, April 19, 2016
I almost skipped Dreamgirls at Porchlight. I’ve seen and enjoyed the movie, I saw a very decent (if emotionally neutral) touring production 6 years ago, I’ve watched Jennifer H…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 06:58PMTuesday, March 29, 2016
When I visited London around five years ago, I made the grave mistake of choosing Ghost: The Musical over a newer show which I inaccurately assumed as a twee, commercial-friendly childr…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 11:37PMTuesday, December 8, 2015
Abby Mueller stars in “Beautiful – The Carole King Musical” Jukebox musicals. Such a phrase makes those who love musical theatre shudder with a wave of disgust, as it exemp…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 09:22PMMonday, December 7, 2015
Renee Fleming and Thomas Hampson star in Franz Lehar’s “The Merry Widow” Ooh-la-la! As John Oliver mentioned in response to the recent attacks on France’s capital, Pa…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 08:00AMTuesday, September 22, 2015
Colleen Fee, Brit-Marie Sivertsen and Evan Tyrone Martin in Porchlight’s “Side Show” A lucky handful of commercially-produced shows become flat-out hits that run for decade…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 12:34AMSunday, August 23, 2015
Christopher Tierney and Gillian Abbott get their dirty on I’m supposed to write a review about the stage version of Dirty Dancing, currently playing at the Cadillac Palace Theatre th…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 05:30AMWednesday, August 12, 2015
Chris Logan and Michelle Lauto as Peter Allen and Liza Minnelli in Pride Films and Plays’ “The Boy From Oz” In an age of reality TV and viral videos, star-making stage turn…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 05:15PMMonday, May 25, 2015
Peter DeFaria and Randy Steinmeyer in “A Steady Rain.” Officer Denny’s the hot-headed one. When stabbed in the leg with a sharpened broom handle while on duty, he pours rub…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 05:58PMFriday, May 1, 2015
Editor’s note: I had to bow out of reviewing this production due to a massive sinus infection, but the lovely book nerd Jamie Prahl, who is a huge fan of Jane Austen’s, stepped i…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 07:38AMThey say tragedy is easy, yet comedy is hard. And in watching Porchlight’s delightful production of the hit 1962 musical comedy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, I took …
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 07:19AMWednesday, April 15, 2015
Faith Prince. Those two words served as the motivation for me to visit this pre-Broadway tryout of The First Wives Club: The Musical. I consider Prince among the very best musical comedy sta…
Linked From Chicago Theatre Addict at 01:29PM 
