Friday, August 14, 2020
What it’s like to explore a familiar place under unfamiliar circumstances.
When it was announced the Art Institute of Chicago was reopening I swore I wouldn't …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:45PMTuesday, March 3, 2020
TUTA gives Ibsen's classic a contemporary musical update.
Lauren Demerath rages, leers, screams, flirts, and, best of all, sings her way through an unforgettable…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:15PMTuesday, February 25, 2020
The cast in Redtwist's drama about a police shooting makes the heavy lifting look easy.
Ruby (Brooke Reams) and Wilson (Kevin Tre'Von Patterson) seem to have a p…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:40PMHis debut collection, Stateway’s Garden, captures the city’s unique, ugly beauty.
It's not often that a writer will make me see Chicago in a new way, but wit…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:15PMTuesday, February 18, 2020
JFK's eldest sister pays the price for nonconformity in Trap Door's production.
Kate Hendrickson directs the Chicago premiere of Krista Knight's Lipstick Lobotom…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:30PMTuesday, February 4, 2020
An "empathy coach"' tries to fix a toxic workplace in A Red Orchid's latest.
Jess McLeod directs the Chicago premiere of Do You Feel Anger?, Mara Nelson-Greenber…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:20PMTuesday, January 28, 2020
Sean Graney's production offers a visually clever update of Agatha Christie's classic whodunit.
Sean Graney directs a revival of the most commercially successful…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:15PMWednesday, January 22, 2020
But Theatre Y's staging covers up the Romanian prison camp story with too many needless additions.
As the audience enters The Ready storefront space in Lincoln S…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:30PMTuesday, December 10, 2019
Karel Čapek's rarely produced parable feels like a timely tragedy at Trap Door.
Nicole Wiesner directs Karel Čapek's 1937 parable (translated by Peter Majer an…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:55PMTuesday, November 26, 2019
Lauren Gunderson's 2012 play trades in tropes, but Joy Productions' cast is strong.
Joy Productions' inaugural show, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, begins with a compe…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:05PMTuesday, November 12, 2019
Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale is moving and magical.
Marionette-like figures in colorful, exaggerated costumes dance on a…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:15PMWednesday, October 30, 2019
Prop Thtr's devised ensemble piece is a timely reminder of the importance of remembering the past.
Anna Gelman directs the world premiere of I Am Going to Die Al…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMSid Feldman's adaptation has relevance on its side, but not brevity.
Wm. Bullion directs Sid Feldman's update of a 1970 Dario Fo comedy about a chameleon-like ch…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, October 9, 2019
Encroaching fascism and gender fluidity make for a timely revival with Cowardly Scarecrow.
Cowardly Scarecrow Theatre Company turns Chief O'Neill's Attic Bar int…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, October 2, 2019
Jeffrey M. Jones's 1990 play about the horrors of disintegrating relationships gets a rare revival with a brand-new company.
For its inaugural production, direct…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, September 25, 2019
Hannah Ii-Epstein's second play in a trilogy about the Hawaiian drug trade dances around the issue of mental illness.
Staged in the coach house of a Chicago Park…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:00PMWednesday, September 18, 2019
Trap Door's production captures the narrative of no narrative in the Internet age.
Kim McKean directs Caryl Churchill's 2012 assault on the senses disguised as a…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, August 21, 2019
A large cast and full orchestra can't breathe life into the Disney musical at Music Theater Works.
Music Theater Works presents a stage musical adaptation of the…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, July 24, 2019
Black Button Eyes gives Dave Malloy’s gleefully haunting song cycle an absorbing production.
Black Button Eyes Productions presents the Chicago premiere of Dav…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMEclipse Theatre Company can’t resolve the ancient problems with Christopher Durang’s early comedy.
Eclipse Theatre Company presents Christopher Durang's badl…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, July 17, 2019
Too many hot-button topics pile up in Dandelion Theatre's world premiere.
Dandelion Theatre presents the world premiere of Brynne Frauenhoffer's plaintive, often…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, June 5, 2019
Trap Door's production of Ionesco's absurdist farce works best when no one is talking.
Eugène Ionesco's loud, absurdist farce about an everyman desperately atte…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, May 22, 2019
How and why do you go on making art in the face of indifference?
Theater Oobleck presents the world premiere of Mickle Maher's latest hilarious tragedy. In the b…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 12:00PMMonday, May 13, 2019
With his new self-published book, patron of public art Daniel X. O’Neil displays what he’s bought from street artists and swiped from light posts.
"Basicall…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 02:03PMThursday, May 2, 2019
Walnut Spaceship Studio in the Bridgeport Art Center makes its debut.
Barrie Cole presents a series of overheard phone calls on the CTA that add up to a beautifu…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 12:00PMWednesday, April 24, 2019
It's only pain and darkness there.
Like a cross between The Santaland Diaries and Sunset Boulevard, Jonathan Tolins's 2013 one-man comedy sends up the lifestyle …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMThursday, April 18, 2019
Emily Schwend's drama is a resonant portrait of life in the shadows of the American dream.
Interrobang Theatre Project presents the midwest premiere of Emily Sch…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMTuesday, April 9, 2019
An excerpt from Music to My Eyes
The day before Protomartyr played at Schubas, I had a meltdown at the Pitchfork Music Festival.…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 04:00PMFriday, April 5, 2019
He doesn’t offer solutions, but he’s an empathetic witness to the damage done by violence.
"I'm not afraid of dying. What I'm afraid of is losing my mother, …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMThursday, April 4, 2019
It starts as grotesque comedy but ends in tragedy.
What happens when people are truly left to their own devices? The first minutes of Anna Jordan's 2015 play abo…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMMonday, April 1, 2019
Sitting through this play is like spending an hour and a half with a Greenpeace volunteer on the street.
The Jacaranda Collective's inaugural production is a one…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM 
