Friday, May 10, 2013
There is churchly ambience to “Henry VIII,” which opened Wednesday night at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Catholic clergymen clad in red vestments descend the central aisle to the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:46PMRECOMMENDED One hopes the producers and creative team of the deeply problematic “Big Fish,” which recently completed its pre-Broadway tryout here in Chicago, caught a preview of “Ivywi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:14PMMonday, May 6, 2013
The sturdiest moments of “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark,” which opened on Monday night at the Goodman Theatre, have the audience gazing up at the stage, eyes fixated on actress Tamberla Pe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00PMThere’s disagreement on exactly what mood House Theatre is trying to achieve within its campfire concert, “Ploughed Under: An American Songbook.” The upstairs theater at the Chopin is …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:20PMSaturday, May 4, 2013
RECOMMENDED Rick Cluchey’s performance in Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” is a surreal exploit that goes far beyond docile entertainment and way past profundity; it’s living…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:43PMThursday, May 2, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski David Adam Moore is an anomaly in the cast of Lyric Opera’s upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” A baritone who performs …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMTuesday, April 30, 2013
RECOMMENDED Writing a play of divisive issues is no small feat. Some critics will decry the work as preachy, manipulative and disguising the playwright’s political agenda, while others mig…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:59AMMonday, April 29, 2013
RECOMMENDED A blizzard rages outside of an Indian restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio. Weather being nature’s indicator of theatrical tumult yet to come, the wind howls maliciously. Unlike Tenne…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:35PMSunday, April 28, 2013
RECOMMENDED A two-act playlist of familiar tunes, an average production of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” dusts off your great grandad’s old gramophone for a quaint fe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:59PMSaturday, April 27, 2013
Spotted: Chicago cozying up to Scottish playwright David Greig. Ever since the two lovebirds first met during the National Theatre of Scotland’s touring “The Strange Undoing of Prudencia…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:27PMFriday, April 26, 2013
Singing-dancing mischief-maker Joey Evans is the ideal match for two-faced Chicago, its organized crime and morals-be-damned nightlife, or so says composer-lyricist team Richard Rodgers and …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:52PMWednesday, April 24, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski “Three generations,” points out director and actress Mary Ann Thebus. She’s sitting on a couch against the back wall of the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater lobby …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:00AMTuesday, April 23, 2013
Lookingglass Theatre Company has a proven flair for effectively incorporating visual effect into scenarios and scripts that don’t outright scream for it. And after “Eastland,” …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:24PMBy Johnny Oleksinski The 2013 Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations have been announced, with Bohemian Theatre Ensemble and The Hypocrites leading with fourteen and twelve nominations respective…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:17AMMonday, April 22, 2013
Warming up to the characters in Quiara Alegría Hudes’ new play “The Happiest Song Plays Last,” which opened tonight at the Goodman Theatre in association with Teatro Vista…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:03PMTUTA has transformed its Studio Theatre into a bohemian tent draped with patterned fabrics and littered with crates and seemingly discarded light fixtures. Is there any better landscape for …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:35PMSunday, April 21, 2013
In a classic sketch from the inexhaustible British comic duo French & Saunders, the comediennes dressed as English schoolgirls pester an invisible teacher from the back of the classroom…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:47PMSaturday, April 20, 2013
“Part epic tale/ Part fire sale/ But all sincere/ And standing here.” And all true, I might add, of the new musical “Big Fish,” which opened last night at the Oriental Theatre ahead …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:48AMThursday, April 18, 2013
RECOMMENDED Seated behind me on Monday night at Victory Gardens Theater was a woman laughing uncontrollably while a six-hundred-pound man choked on a sandwich. My jaw dropped to the floor. T…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:41PM“Don’t wanna be an American idiot!” I can commiserate. Since seeing the concert-like show—playing a brief and generally enjoyable touring engagement at the Cadillac Palac…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:54AMMonday, April 15, 2013
Playwright Samuel D. Hunter is enduring an impressive national swell in popularity. His “The Whale,” now being given a Chicago premiere by Victory Gardens Theater, has been making the re…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:22PMSecond City’s Dalmatian-free one hundred first revue, “Let Them Eat Chaos,” hits the hyperactivity of its titular chaos squarely on the head, but, for all its unneeded projections, …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:09PMLionel Bart’s “Oliver” is always, first and foremost, about the kids. And when it comes to singing, dancing, mischief-making rapscallions, director Rachel Rockwell’s …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMThursday, April 11, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski “I’m a sock guy. I love socks,” says Tarell Alvin McCraney, glancing down at my feet. I’m wearing striped socks with an alternating spectrum of pinks divided by …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:30AMTuesday, April 9, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski The 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville has come and gone. It was the first Festival of Les Waters’ artistic directorshi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMMonday, April 8, 2013
RECOMMENDED “Maria/Stuart” begins as a dark comedy. Screaming “Hep! Hep! Hep!,” a small red-vest-clad woman traveling in steel-straight lines and muttering menacingly…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:54PMPlays that center around a person’s death are frequently written. What better way is there to showcase a contrast in characters’ points of view than by giving them a mutual target to eac…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:02PMWednesday, April 3, 2013
Court Theatre in Hyde Park has announced its 2013-2014 season (also its fifty-ninth), which notably features the Chicago premiere of 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner “Water By The Spoonful&#…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:40PMMonday, April 1, 2013
RECOMMENDED The Building Stage has done something unavoidably moving for its swan song. After eight years of producing in its West Loop venue, its final show, “Dawn, Quixote,” addresses …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:03PMThe sixties is a decade rife with fictional opportunity. The example du jour on television is “Mad Men” with its cigarette-smoke clouds and ream upon ream of red velour, but the powder-k…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:02PMWednesday, March 27, 2013
Much in the same way the cinema is using spectacular 3D films and the enormity of IMAX to rip potential patrons from the warm embrace of their plasma screen, legitimate theater is looking to…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:47PM 
