Wednesday, July 26, 2017
How you feel about They're Playing Our Song will depend on how you feel about Neil Simon and the 1970s. Simon wrote the 1970s-set script, Marvin Hamlisch the music. Luckily, Brown Paper Box …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:36PM[SHARE]Thanks to excellent direction and choreography from one of Chicago's best, Rachel Rockwell, as well as stunning production values and a great cast, this flashy production at Navy Pier will n…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:48AM[SHARE]Monday, July 24, 2017
In a nutshell, the musical Triassic Parq is *Jurassic Park* from the perspective of the dinosaurs who eventually escape their quarters and turn a dream theme park into a disaster. What ensu…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 09:42PM[SHARE]Thursday, July 20, 2017
Steep Theatre's Lela & Co. is a difficult but vital watch. The title character presents her life story through the eyes of the men in her life as compared with what she actually experie…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:54PM[SHARE]Eclipse Theatre's mission of *one playwright one season* allows the audience to delve into a specific playwright's body of work. With the world premiere of Megastasis, playwright Kia Corthro…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:36AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Step into a lonely Amsterdam bar in 1959. What will you find? If you are the team behind Jacques Brel's Lonesome Losers of the Night, the answer is: an openhearted bartender, two winsome sol…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:36PM[SHARE]Thursday, July 13, 2017
The Bridges of Madison County is well worth the jaunt outside of Chicago. The story is simple, the direction stellar, the music hauntingly beautiful and the actors stunning. Bridges is an in…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:04PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Now in its sixth season of presenting free Shakespeare in Chicago parks, Midsommer Flight both keeps Hamlet simple and dives into the complexities of mental illness, violence and the consequ…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:18AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 9, 2017
Douglas Carter Beane's The Nance, a play exploring the gay-stereotypes used in 1930's New York vaudeville, premiered on Broadway in 2013 starring Nathan Lane " an actor who himself has playe…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:36PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Chicago Tap Theatre first staged Changes, its sci-fi tap tribute to David Bowie, 11 years ago in the company's infancy, and re-staged it 5 years later. Despite *Changes* being their most req…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 03:32PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Akvavit Theatre's Hitler on the Roof creates a stunning mural of physical theater where the action is darkly beautiful and the stage picture constantly changing. Taking place in a basement p…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Beautifully adapted by Jeff Award-winner Robert Kauzlaric, Her Majesty's Will, based on the novel by David Blixt, imagines Shakespeare's early years as a swashbuckling adventure full of intr…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:54PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 20, 2017
With Strawdog Theatre's The Night Season, playwright and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz's creates a fable of a dysfunctional Irish family and the English actor who finds himself smack in th…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:12AM[SHARE]Thursday, June 8, 2017
Johnny 10 Beers' Daughter, brought to us by Something Marvelous, profiles individuals in war zones " in this case a father and daughter " but instead of intelligent and unpredictable, this s…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Thoughtfully penned, directed and acted, AstonRep Theatre's Time Stands Still features a complex female lead, whose actions affect those around her in realistic and surprising ways. Highly R…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:06PM[SHARE]Sunday, May 28, 2017
Theresa Rebeck's Seminar feels like a wannabe literary adaptation of "The Paper Chase." Instead of the law students, however, Seminar protaganists are wannabe novelists, living in New York w…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:36PM[SHARE]Monday, May 8, 2017
La Havana Madrid clearly is a labor of love for Sandra Delgado and Teatro Vista, but is never self-indulgent. Rather, it's a much-needed history lesson for some, a relatable reflection for o…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:24AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 7, 2017
If phenomenal songs and excellent performances were enough to save a show, Underscore Theatre's world premiere My Name Is Annie King would have a higher rating from me. Unfortunately, the cu…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:36PM[SHARE]Director Michael Pogue is clearly emotionally invested, but overwhelmed starting with Kia Corthron's heavy, meaningful play. It's unfortunate, because Eclipse Theatre's Force Continuum conta…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 03:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, April 9, 2017
In To America is a stark, complex and emotional reminder of what truly makes America great, with stories ranging from heartbreaking to funny and everything in between: scrappy street urchins…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:24PM[SHARE]Sunday, April 2, 2017
Over the course of 85 minutes, I was totally immersed in the action - when the characters jumped, I jumped. I gasped when a knock on the door signaled a turning point in their collective fat…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:02AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 26, 2017
Sideshow Theatre's truth and reconciliation isn't perfect, but it is incredibly ambitious. On the whole it succeeds, exploring the nuance and humanity behind conflicts small and large. With …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:36PM[SHARE]Thursday, March 23, 2017
Always teeming with enthusiastic and grateful fans, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a belated Christmas gift to Chicago. Dancers who defy gravity, choreographers who make thoughtful an…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:32PM[SHARE]Shakespeare's Henry V is one of the more beloved history plays, and Babes With Blades seeks to give the script a modern twist with an all-female cast and realistic stage violence, as Directo…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:36PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 19, 2017
Chicago playwright Barbara Lhota's world premiere Phantom Pain could have been a nuanced portrayal of friendship, race and privilege, but instead is unfortunately a thin one-dimensional ploy…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:03PM[SHARE]Gentle doesn't appear to have much of a point, nor does it dig especially deep into its antihero's psyche. Thankfully, the material is elevated through stellar production values and first-ra…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:03PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Despite trying to hard at times, Writer-Performer Cathy Schenkelberg is charismatic and winning, and the audience roots for her the entire fast-paced 80 minutes. Squeeze My Cans offers a rar…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:18AM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 14, 2017
"... the cast is phenomenal: a well-oiled machine who work together beautifully while also standing out in their own right...they are gorgeous to watch. Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble's main c…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:42PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 12, 2017
Circle Theatre's provocative and stunning Venus in Fur and its themes of domination, submission and performance are still with me in the days after the premiere. What could have been disastr…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:54PM[SHARE]Friday, March 10, 2017
With a bloated running time of three hours, Mike Bartlett's "Earthquakes in London" tries to present a gripping saga of family and natural phenomena. Instead, it's dull, overly long and by t…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:42PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 1, 2017
This world premiere play, based on one family's Holocaust story " equal parts frustrating, satisfying and full of unanswered questions " has compelling, inspiring roots and is beautifully ac…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:06PM[SHARE] 
