All stories by Kerry Reid on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Riding the waves by Kerry Reid

The same day I saw Aurora Real de Asua’s Wipeout at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, I read an essay by onetime Reader staffer Heather Kenny about women finding midlife empowerment in outdoor s…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:55AM

The birth of the 12 steps by Kerry Reid

Ronnie Marmo has been extremely candid about his struggles with addiction, especially in the context of playing Lenny Bruce, as he has for several years in his show I’m Not a Comedian . . …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:03AM
Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Movement and memories by Kerry Reid

Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble’s Meditations on Being is a sampler platter of eight pieces that in some way “reflects on what one remembers.” Not all the work on display here necessarily…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:59AM

Science, faith, and Elvis by Kerry Reid

Deborah Zoe Laufer’s 2007 dramedy, End Days, has intermittent moments of charm woven into a premise that is trying way too hard for profundity and whimsy. (When a show begins with someone …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:48AM
Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Reclaiming history by Kerry Reid

Charles Smith writes historical plays with lively consciences that provide ample opportunities for his characters to debate. But first and foremost, he writes plays about people who are nego…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:01PM

Jackalope’s The Smuggler is a mix of thriller and morality play by Kerry Reid

Ronán Noone’s 2019 solo play, The Smuggler, now in a local premiere with Jackalope Theatre Company, seems to carry the DNA of early Conor McPherson plays in its bones. In particular, Noon…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:34AM
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Bearing witness by Kerry Reid

Wendy Kesselman’s 1997 adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank did some things that original adapters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett didn’t back in 1955 (slightly more than ten years …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:28PM

Coal miner’s dancer by Kerry Reid

I spent a semester studying in London in the winter of 1985, and one of the first concerts I attended was a benefit at Brixton Academy for the striking coal miners, featuring Aztec Camera an…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:01PM

Harmony in the Middle East by Kerry Reid

Scheduled long before the current conflagration in the Middle East, Writers Theatre’s lovely, intimate staging of The Band’s Visit, the multiple Tony Award–winning musical, which premi…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:09PM
Friday, February 16, 2024

Girl From the North Country brings together the Great Depression and Bob Dylan by Kerry Reid

Conor McPherson’s Girl From the North Country draws on some of the same narrative tropes that the Irish playwright has used in the past in plays like The Weir and The Seafarer. A group of …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 09:05AM
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Waiting for Lefty delivers with Gwydion Theatre by Kerry Reid

Gwydion Theatre Company is a relatively new addition to the Chicago storefront scene (they moved here from Los Angeles last year), but their current revival of Clifford Odets’s Waiting for…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 02:38PM

Richard III at Chicago Shakespeare is flashy and fun by Kerry Reid

The night before seeing Edward Hall’s stylish, arresting—but not totally convincing—production of Richard III at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, I finally caught up with Danai Gurira’s …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 02:17PM

Antigone is a stirring conclusion to Court’s Oedipus Trilogy by Kerry Reid

Back in college, when I mentioned I was writing a paper on Antigone as presented in both the Sophoclean original and in Jean Anouilh’s 1944 French Resistance–era update, a dorm friend ro…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 01:29PM
Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Mommy wars by Kerry Reid

Anna Ouyang Moench is having a moment on Chicago stages right now; her play In Quietness, about women at an evangelical Homemaking House, is playing at A Red Orchid Theatre. Now Gift Theatre…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 02:28PM

Dogs, kitties, and fish . . . oh my! by Kerry Reid

Dav Pilkey’s popular series of kids’ books about a crime-fighting superhero mutant dog form the basis for this touring TheaterWorks USA musical production, which has settled in at the St…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 01:27PM
Thursday, February 1, 2024

The best things we saw at the 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival by Kimzyn Campbell, Irene Hsiao and Kerry Reid

The 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival swept through Chicago as vigorously as the cold front that accompanied much of it, and puppets dominated venues all around Chicago for t…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 02:34PM

Her biggest fan by Kerry Reid

The deepfake AI-generated images of Taylor Swift swirling around the Internet inevitably came to mind on opening night of Goodman’s Highway Patrol—if only to make me think that, all thin…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:46AM

High water, oh mama by Kerry Reid

What if you took Winnie and Willie from Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days and ran them through a blender with a Neil Simon midlife urban comedy, like The Prisoner of Second Avenue, tossing in a …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:43AM
Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Champion puts the life and trauma of Emile Griffith in the ring by Kerry Reid

Seventeen blows in seven seconds.  That’s what it took to end Benny Paret’s life, and forever change Emile Griffith’s. The two men met for the third and final time in the ring on Marc…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 05:14PM
Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Hit Me Like a Flower lands in unexpected places by Kerry Reid

I’ve been seeing Beau O’Reilly’s plays for over 30 years. But somehow it never occurred to me until taking in the current revival of O’Reilly’s 2003 play, Hit Me Like a Flower, how…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 09:39AM
Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Just One of Those Things (and More) is a loving tribute to Nat King Cole by Kerry Reid

Gregory Stewart’s tribute to Nat King Cole doesn’t break the predictable mold of biographical concerts/plays, but in the cozy environment of the Venus Cabaret space at Mercury Theater Ch…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:45AM

American Blues Theater opens their new home with It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago! by Kerry Reid

As small miracles go, American Blues Theater opening their lovely new two-theater venue on North Lincoln just in time for their annual presentation of It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicag…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:27AM

Dial M for Murder rings out the year at Northlight by Kerry Reid

Originally a 1952 teleplay, Frederick Knott’s thriller hit the West End before being turned into a 1954 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Dial M for Murder got another theatrical makeover from Jef…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:03AM
Thursday, December 7, 2023

Promises, Promises gets a rare revival with Blank Theatre by Kerry Reid

Don’t ask me how many times I’ve seen Billy Wilder’s Academy Award-winning 1960 film The Apartment. I honestly couldn’t tell you. I can tell you it’s my favorite movie, and it shou…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:58AM

The Other Cinderella still has soul and sparkle to spare by Kerry Reid

It’s been a minute since I’ve visited the Kingdom of Other: 13 years, to be precise. The last time I saw Jackie Taylor’s The Other Cinderella was in 2010, before Black Ensemble Theater…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:38AM

Islander loops together a minimalist but enchanting Celtic tale by Kerry Reid

If Laurie Anderson had done a mash-up of Scott O’Dell’s young adult classic Island of the Blue Dolphins and the 1994 John Sayles Celtic magic realist film, The Secret of Roan Inish, the …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:26AM
Thursday, November 30, 2023

Paramount’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adds a touch of bitter to the sweet by Kerry Reid

Whether you’re waiting anxiously to see Timothée Chalamet in Wonka (the musical prequel to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), or are rolling your eyes in anticipatory disg…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:18PM
Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas has charm and heart galore by Kerry Reid

If you want a charming and heartwarming family show for the holidays, look no further than Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, now bringing all the sweet quiet magic of the Jim Henson 1977 t…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:20AM
Friday, November 17, 2023

POTUS is painfully funny by Kerry Reid

There’s a memorable moment in an episode of Mad Men between office manager Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) and copywriter Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss). The former, fed up with the cons…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:26AM
Thursday, November 16, 2023

The Lifespan of a Fact tackles truthiness by Kerry Reid

The complicated backstory of the play The Lifespan of a Fact, now in its local premiere at TimeLine, reads like a series of “begats” out of the book of Genesis.  Ready? Here goes. John …

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:42PM
Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Wise Guys: The First Christmas Story turns the journey of the Magi into a buddy adventure. by Kerry Reid

Leave it to Factory Theater to come up with a twist on the story of the Magi that’s smart-assed and sincere at the same time. In Chase Wheaton-Werle’s Wise Guys: The First Christmas Stor…

SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:00PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards