Thursday, December 12, 2024
A new adaptation by Lauren Gunderson, premiering at Northlight Theatre, avoids the sentimental piety that mars some versions by using more language from Alcott’s astonishing book.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMMonday, November 25, 2024
“The Secret Garden” is healing: If you come into this show like Mary, cross and wounded, you may come out warm and blooming.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMThursday, November 7, 2024
This is a moving and magical show, exploring the idea of human genius and transcendence.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMFriday, November 1, 2024
This 2016 play by Rockford-born Nathan Alan Davis asks what justifies violence, a question that resonates with today’s global struggles.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, October 29, 2024
There is magic in the setting for Kokandy Productions’ fine and intimate telling of Stephen Sondheim’s 1986 musical “Into the Woods”—a tale of wishes, spells and deadly danger.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, October 15, 2024
The production has many appealing qualities, but the play doesn’t quite satisfy. It needs more—more music, more convincing dialogue. I wanted the full pierogi plate, but left feeling a l…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMWednesday, October 9, 2024
If you like Stephen King or psychological thrillers in general, don’t miss this show. There’s magic here.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, October 8, 2024
It’s a powerful and rare play that puts a spotlight on a regular working-class woman, bravely negotiating a difficult life.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, September 17, 2024
“Henry V” is like one of those M.C. Escher prints where sometimes you see fish and sometimes ducks—it plays with your perception.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMMonday, September 9, 2024
Yando, who played Scrooge in The Goodman Theatre’s “The Christmas Carol” for sixteen years and is known for playing complicated, dark characters, will take on the prickly Severus Snape…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMMonday, August 26, 2024
The performances are real, and the play doesn’t feel like a gimmick but a true portrayal of how life works. It’s like cubism in story form—the variations are altogether at once.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMThursday, August 22, 2024
“The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool” is a bawdy, witty, fast-paced tragicomedy, brilliantly acted and expertly plotted.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMWednesday, August 21, 2024
There’s no time wrong for “King Lear,” and if you haven’t seen a live performance, American Players Theatre’s production is a great place to start.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, July 30, 2024
“The Lord of the Rings” musical, now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is a disappointing muddle. Despite some lovely music and amazing puppetry, it doesn’t satisfy.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, July 23, 2024
If you haven’t seen this show before—this is the production to experience it. And if you’ve seen it a dozen times, come to Aurora and see it again.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMThursday, July 11, 2024
“Midnight” is a sparkling, engaging night at the theater, and will make you want to book a weekend in Savannah. It’s worth seeing, especially for Ghee.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMFriday, June 14, 2024
The new play by Nambi E. Kelley is currently running at Chicago's Court Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:24PMTuesday, June 11, 2024
It felt like the end of an after-school special—we all learned something tonight. I’m glad this show is bringing young people into the theaters. And I hope they come back to see somethin…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMFriday, June 7, 2024
“A Little Night Music” celebrates mature love—the kind that happens after you’ve been around for a while; less fireworks, more bemusement.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMFriday, May 24, 2024
Lifeline Theatre’s new production of “Native Son” is brutal, powerful and relentless. Like a big, stiff drink, it hits you right in the gut, and you leave the theater reeling.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMWednesday, May 8, 2024
With the abundantly talented Tiffany Topol as Carole King, backed by a great cast, the new production of “Beautiful” at Aurora’s Paramount Theatre is irresistible.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMWednesday, May 1, 2024
In Judgement Day at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Alexander plays a corrupt lawyer who may be looking for forgiveness.
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:18PMTuesday, April 16, 2024
This show is alive. For the two hours spent in the tiny Bucktown theater, you can imagine you have stepped into a Toulouse-Lautrec painting—drinking absinthe and watching the can-can.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMFriday, April 12, 2024
Lennix, known for his work on television’s “The Blacklist” and “Dollhouse” and movies like “The Five Heartbeats” and “Ray,” is a busy man around Chicago these days. He’s …
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMThursday, April 11, 2024
Too much of Tom Stoppard’s absurdist, existential tragicomedy about two minor Shakespearean characters has been trimmed from this production, which is too bad, because the play is brillian…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMThursday, March 28, 2024
This is a moving, beautifully written and honest play that discusses generational conflict—between old ideas of “purpose” and spirituality and new ones, between the need for truth and …
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, February 27, 2024
This play sees the contradictions at the heart of this country—the tragic infrastructure under its noble façade. Monticello won’t look the same when you think of all the people who were…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, February 13, 2024
You don’t come to “Richard III” for history—you come for spectacle and gore, and Chicago Shakespeare delivers.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMMonday, February 12, 2024
In presenting the words of real people talking about America’s troubled education and criminal justice system in her 2015 play “Notes from the Field,” writer and actress Anna Deavere S…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMMonday, February 5, 2024
The social media world is a "cool" place (in Marshall McLuhan's term)—you have to fill in the details. The story might work better in a cooler medium, like television.
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AMTuesday, January 30, 2024
In its Chicago premiere, “Champion” has strong vocal performances, exuberant dancing and a creative, multi-level set by Allen Moyer, which uses projected images of real newspaper headlin…
SOURCE: www.newcitystage.com at 08:00AM 
