Thursday, July 18, 2024
In the tradition of rom-coms like the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Sliding Doors, Audrey Cefaly’s The Last Wide Open uses the conceit of what-ifs to take us through a missed-it-by-that-muc…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 02:08PMHaven Chicago is going out the way they came in 11 years ago—sweaty, sexy, sinuous, and unapologetic. In 2013, the company announced their presence with a production of John Cameron Mitche…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 01:06PMWednesday, July 3, 2024
Romeo and Juliet has been on my mind lately, ever since I saw the lovely made-in-Chicago indie film Ghostlight earlier this summer. In that movie, Dan, a middle-aged construction worker (Kei…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 06:05PMThe Revival celebrates its new South Loop location with Blank! The Musical, an off-Broadway hit created a decade ago by Michael Girts, T.J. Shanoff, and Mike Descoteaux. Shanoff, who also di…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 05:51PMTuesday, July 2, 2024
Cooking as the crucible for family and friendship, as well as self-discovery, is familiar territory in theater and film. Whether it’s Jenna in Waitress working out her personal angst throu…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 05:17PMTuesday, June 18, 2024
Going into a Second City revue during an election year always feels like an anxiety-making proposition and that feels even more true this year. We already know what’s at stake—do we real…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:59PMFleetwood-Jourdain Theatre moves into movement (and movements) for their summer season; next month, they open Ntozake Shange’s classic choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suic…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:42PMKhaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel, The Kite Runner, about the diverging paths of two boys in Kabul during the 1970s and after, is a moving and sorrowful story of how geopolitical, class, and re…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:27PMWednesday, June 12, 2024
If you’ve ever imagined how Oscar Wilde would fare in contemporary queer Chicago life, look no further than Strawdog Theatre’s sparkling and delightful adaptation of The Importance of Be…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 02:19PMMartin Crimp’s 1997 play, Attempts on Her Life, won international acclaim. But Crimp, like fellow controversial 90s Brit playwright Sarah Kane, remains more talked about than seen onstage,…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 01:28PMWednesday, June 5, 2024
Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael) has seemingly existed in popular culture mostly as a footnote to other, better-known civil rights figures. In George C. Wolfe’s Rustin and Ava DuVe…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:53AMWednesday, May 29, 2024
Right after the curtain call at First Floor Theater’s world premiere of Pro-Am, a colleague sitting behind me leaned over and asked, “Have you ever seen Stage Door?” Despite the fact t…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:40PMJoshua Allen’s third installment in his Chicago-set “Grand Boulevard Trilogy” (after The Last Pair of Earlies, which alternated between 1921 and 1938, and October Storm, set in 1960) t…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:23PMEverything about Jay Stull’s The Singularity Play, now in a world premiere at Jackalope Theatre (directed by Georgette Verdin) should feel timely and tense. It’s about the effects of AI …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:57PMThursday, May 23, 2024
Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit has found many reimaginings since it was first produced in 1956. The story of a wealthy woman returning to the town that once scorned her…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:48AMWednesday, May 22, 2024
First coproduced in 2014 by Court Theatre and American Blues Theater, Nambi E. Kelley’s adaptation of Richard Wright’s 1940 novel Native Son is now in a stirring revival at Lifeline unde…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:43PMWith stories of migrants and climate change in the news every day, Chicago playwright Dolores Díaz’s Black Sunday couldn’t be more timely—even if it is set in 1935. TimeLine Theatre�…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:05PMMonday, May 20, 2024
What was in the water in Hollywood in the late 80s and early 90s to instigate so many films (Fatal Attraction, She-Devil, Soapdish) about obsessed and vengeful women? Was it just part of the…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 04:24PMFriday, May 17, 2024
If you’ve been looking for the 21st century’s answer to Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, your wait is over. Levi Holloway’s Turret, now in a world premiere (also directed by the playwright)…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:00AMFriday, May 10, 2024
My only memory of a Thanksgiving play from my school days stretches back to first grade, when I was asked to play a young Pilgrim boy instead of a girl—because there were more girls than b…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:39AMEditor’s Note: Since all the plays presented in Hamburgers & Disappointment are for two people, we thought it made some sense to have two critics writing about the festival. Capacity a…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 09:51AMWednesday, May 8, 2024
“Jerry, just remember, it’s not a lie, if you believe it.” Jason Alexander doesn’t repeat this famous George Costanza line from Seinfeld in Rob Ulin’s morality comedy, Judgment Day…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 09:39AMWednesday, April 24, 2024
There have been several intriguing plays about siblings dealing with loss onstage this year, including Leah Nanako Winkler’s The Brightest Thing in the World at About Face Theatre and the …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:07PMA one-person take on Hamlet starring a famous comedian sounds like a recipe for self-indulgence. (Or the opening premise for a deliberately off-kilter affair, as in the ridiculous and sublim…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:46AMIt’s tempting to say that Neil Simon’s 1963 romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park hasn’t aged well. But even when it premiered on Broadway with Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley as ne…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:43AMFriday, April 19, 2024
Chicago Children’s Theatre’s (CCT) first production, back in 2006, was the Tony Award-nominated A Year With Frog and Toad, created by brothers Robert (music) and Willie Reale (book and l…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 11:09AMWednesday, April 17, 2024
Hershey Felder first played Frédéric Chopin at the now-closed Royal George Theatre in 2005—one of several solo shows about great composers that Felder has created over the years (he’s …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 12:42PMWednesday, April 3, 2024
British playwright Simon Stephens has been produced here so often, he’s practically an honorary Chicagoan. So it’s perhaps puzzling that his adaptation of Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel, The…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:44AMAll the ingredients for a whimsical look at unlikely love are in place in Nick Robideau’s Inanimate, now in its local premiere at Theater Wit under Jeremy Wechsler’s direction. But like …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 10:13AMWednesday, March 27, 2024
The early moments of Leah Nanako Winkler’s The Brightest Thing in the World, now in a heartfelt midwest premiere with About Face Theatre under Keira Fromm’s direction, reminded me a bit …
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:11PMThursday, March 21, 2024
As her name suggests, Cloudia has been obsessed with clouds her entire life. In particular, she’s always wanted to see a legendary Cloud Man for herself. So she moves into a cabin on Cloud…
SOURCE: chicagoreader.com at 03:15PM 
