Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Theo Ubique's staging celebrates the dignity of everyday labor.
As the populist question goes, "If work's so great, how come they have to pay you to do it?" That…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:45PMTuesday, December 10, 2019
The beautiful Lincoln Park Conservatory setting is just one reason to see this returning production.
William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is only nominally a holi…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:50PMSteven Strafford's Crumpet is delightful, but the material feels dated.
In the season opener of Abby McEnany's new Showtime series, Work in Progress, McEnany run…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:40PMAn 80-minute 'ad-rap-tation' tells Scrooge's story without missing beats.
The "ad-rap-tation" of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, created by the Q Brothers C…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:30PMStrawdog's family-friendly holiday show returns for a second year.
Hanukkah shows are hard to find, relatively speaking, but there are two running locally right …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:15PMTuesday, December 3, 2019
The inaugural show from Chicago Immersive is empathetic and wise.
Immersive holiday shows in Chicago usually mean Halloween fare—haunted houses lend themselves…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:40PMHell in a Handbag's franchise decks the halls with campy good feelings.
Trivia time: what Golden Girls character still believes in Santa? You don't need multiple…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:25PMTuesday, November 26, 2019
December performing arts aren't just about the holly jolly.
THEATER PICKS (KERRY REID) Good Grief…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:30PMA rag doll yearns for a forever friend in this new musical.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's Dolly isn't the only rag doll hoping for a forever home. In Eleanor'…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:55PMHarmony France and Christina Hall trade off the two roles in this warmhearted story based on real events.
Since Firebrand's production of Always . . . Patsy Clin…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:50PMLee Edward Colston II's play leaves it all on the table—and the floor.
"Go back to where you started, or as far back as you can, examine all of it, travel your…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:35PMTuesday, November 19, 2019
The House Theatre's annual tradition remains one of Chicago’s best seasonal offerings.
It took me nine years to get out to the House Theatre's annual nonballet…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:29PMSteppenwolf's latest collaboration with Ladysmith Black Mambazo has too much story, not enough song.
Steppenwolf's long association with Ladysmith Black Mambazo,…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:20PMTuesday, November 12, 2019
The central characters feel like an afterthought in Barbara Gaines's contemporized version.
Setting Romeo and Juliet in a contemporary urban setting inevitably d…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:00PMAguijón Theater's production of Nilo Cruz's drama is searing and sharp.
Nilo Cruz's plays often center on people suffering displacement and trying to find distr…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:40PMIn its 108th main-stage revue, Second City tries to get a handle on our crazy times.
A year ago, Second City unveiled Algorithm Nation or the Static Quo, a grim …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:32PMA white Canadian pop star and two Black hip-hop artists share a reality-TV crib.
There are two specific places in Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's P.Y.G. or the Mis-…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:20PMWednesday, November 6, 2019
Githa Sowerby's tale of a grasping patriarchal capitalist still has resonance today.
If you've never heard of Githa Sowerby, don't feel bad. When she died at 93 …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 08:32PMProp Thtr and Haven
When the big theaters have a changing of the guard in artistic directors, it's understandably big news.…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 01:00PMKatori Hall's play takes its time but weaves a spell.
"I lost my song. I lost it because I didn't know what it was worth," laments a young bluesman freshly retur…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, October 30, 2019
1938 Italy provides the fascist framework for this Invictus staging.
With anti-Semitism on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, it might make perfect sense to revisi…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:15PMShpiel Performing Identity produces this eight-day event as part of the Alliance for Jewish Theatre Conference.
The attack on Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 06:30PMAmerican Sign Language adds a cunning layer of commentary to Red Theater Chicago's dark romantic fable.
Jeremy wants a girlfriend more than anything, but can't g…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMA musical based on the true-life "Slender Man" attack raises more questions than it answers.
Last week, Payton Leutner, the victim in the Wisconsin "Slender Man"…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMThe table is set this month with theater world premieres, dance works in progress, and comedy with cured meat.
NOVEMBER THEATER PICKS (Kerry Reid) Laura and the …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 05:00AMWednesday, October 23, 2019
Leah Nanako Winkler's raucous and poignant family drama gets a stellar local premiere with the Gift Theatre.
The homecoming prompted by weddings and funerals is …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, October 16, 2019
Barrens Theatre's inventive immersive church staging is just the right amount of creepy.
When it comes to infamous female serial killers, Aileen Wuornos has noth…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMSilk Road Rising and International Voices Project collaborate on this world premiere comedy.
Three women—one an MBA student in her early 30s, one a painter and…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMA pregnant woman seeking an abortion and her Christian captor face off in Jane Martin's still-relevant 1993 play.
The pseudonymous Jane Martin (long rumored to b…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMWednesday, October 9, 2019
Even without a door slam, Henrik Ibsen's classic hits home.
To view Nora Helmer's girlish high spirits as proof of immaturity is as much a mistake as viewing Bla…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AMRaven's production has heart, but doesn't fully connect the pieces.
Twin sisters—an academic with a Fulbright and a struggling songwriter—return from New Yor…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM 
