No matter your views on Christmas and the bulging Santa’s sack of psycho/socio/political/familial drama wrapped up in the sparkle-plenty holiday, this much I know is true: If you aren’t …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 05:02PMAs the single most-produced contemporary playwright in the Goodman Theater’s history, Rebecca Gilman has provided audiences with some truly perceptive, unflinching depictions of life’s v…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:55AMIf you’re a fan of The Notebook—either the romantically waterlogged, sugary-sentimental 2004 movie or the Nicholas Sparks novel that prompted it—you’ll probably be swept away by the …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 02:58PMAny thoughtful or true exploration of mental illness and how it manifests is cast aside in favor of the increasingly gory encounters that torment Rose. The post Smile appeared first on Chica…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:00PMThe sound design hits you first in Alma, Benjamin Benne’s 70-minute two-hander that uses a mother-daughter relationship to depict precisely how inextricable the political is from the perso…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:12AMI’ve seen bloodier stagings of Sweeney Todd than the current incarnation from Kokandy Productions at the Chopin Theatre’s downstairs space, directed and choreographed by Derek Van Barham…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:50PMIt’s a fool’s exercise, listing the Chicago theaters that have come and gone over the past quarter century. I tried but gave up when I hit 24 at 17 years […] The post Northlight plans …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:04AMThere’s a reason you rarely see Zorro: The Musical, the 2008 show inspired by a masked Spanish hero (conceived of by Johnston McCulley in 1919 and since the subject of numerous […] The …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:26AMIt’s a story about a storyteller who is creating a story about how mythology (stories) are created. It is also an acute reminder of how easy it can be to hide secrets in plain sight. The p…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:50PMThe cliché has it that life is what happens when one is making other plans, but that’s clearly preposterous. In the main, it’s death that happens when we’re making other plans. Even i…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:14PMIf you’re going to title your movie The Sea Beast, you need to commit to a beast that earns its billing. The post The Sea Beast appeared first on Chicago Reader.
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:30AMWhen Luis Carreon takes the stage at the Chicago Magic Lounge, he’s pure old-school vaudeville, an elegant throwback in silver-toed boots and a tuxedo subtly imprinted with crushed velvet …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:11PMWhen it took the Tony triumvirate of best musical, original score, and original book in 2004, Avenue Q (music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, and based on an o…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:15AMIn Pearl’s Rollin’ With the Blues, Felicia P. Fields gets a showcase for her indomitable vocals. The Tony nominee (for The Color Purple) is a bona fide star in the land of musical theate…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:34PMWatching the 80s through the lenses of its superstars is its own glossy and compelling reward, but Freedom also depicts the carnage of the decade. The post Freedom Uncut appeared first on Ch…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 08:49PMHustle spins a familiar plot into a story that’ll keep you invested even if you don’t know a hoop dream from an embroidery hoop. The post Hustle appeared first on Chicago Reader.
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 05:12PMHans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid,” is a load of hooey. Consider: The titular mermaid throws herself on a dagger in the end, because she can’t bear to go on a…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:57AMHere’s the TL;DR version of what to expect from Ain’t Too Proud, the new jukebox musical about soul/blues/disco/rock hitmakers The Temptations, whose catalog of songs spans the 1960s and…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:25PMAn immersive art exhibition in DuPage County brings the Sistine Chapel to the former site of the Sears store at Oakbrook Center. It had been almost exactly 30 y…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:19PMCabinet of Curiosity sets sail with a new live show about mermaids, whales, sharks, seagulls—and climate disaster It begins, as many wonderful things do, with …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:15PMEschaton host Tony Grayson rolls out the willkommen mat for a livestream variety show. If the great surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and iconic LSD proponent Ti…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:15PMAbout Face Theatre takes the mystery out of training next-generation LGBTQ+ artists—while putting it into a streaming production. Read from the scroll of off-L…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:45PMThe full musical at Chicago Shakes is on hold, but you can see a streaming mockumentary based on the OG aliens-in-the-desert flick. Bow down to It Came from Oute…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:45PMKristine Thatcher and the late Larry Shue's Waiting for Tina Meyer celebrates barfly connections. Playwright Kristine Thatcher picked up where she and actor-play…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:15PMAfter a year of heartbreak, Heather Chrisler is back to acting, as well as writing and illustrating. In March 2020, playwright Heather Chrisler was holding audit…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:00PMAmerican Music Theatre Project unveils three student-created pieces in this year's online Capstone Festival. Since 2005, Northwestern University's American Music…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:00PMWeirdness and wonder abound in Matei Vişniec's Decomposed Theatre at Trap Door, but be prepared for creepiness, too. With nearly 40 actors, eight directors, and…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:45PMThis interactive performance-piece-by-phone offers a daily dose of oddness. The operatives at The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries (now making their Chicago debut w…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:00PMThe annual festival of storytelling offers the freshest catches for COVID days. In the Before Times—before the Moth, before the Stoop, before the phrase "live …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 09:45AMTheatre Above the Law's production lets its leads drop the masks for one moment in time. In COVID times, gestures that would have been banal and forgettable a ye…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:00PMJon Tai's intimate take on magic and storytelling comes (virtually) to A Red Orchid. Jon Tai is something of an antimagician. Tricking you, he says, isn't exactl…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 02:00PM
