RECOMMENDED In Regina Taylor’s thrilling new play “stop. reset.” aging businessman Alexander Ames (Eugene Lee) tells the story of his most precious possession—his family bible. This …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:35AMRECOMMENDED Don’t get too comfortable in the plush space of the new Windy City Playhouse. With the smooth jazz filling the air and comfy leather chairs that hug your body like a lover afte…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:45PMScience fiction, fantasy, and comic books are lousy with circuses. From the Flying Graysons to the Circus of Crime to whatever creepy clown Stephen King last wrote about, nerds seem to love …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:25PMBy Dennis Polkow Gloria Estefan has made an international career out of singing and dancing, the very essence of what happens in a Broadway musical. As such, it might seem she would be a nat…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:04AMPolish critic Jan Kott likened Hamlet to the surly, punky James Dean, flaunting his alienation like a fashion accessory. Director Dennis McLernon pushes the action a decade later, setting it…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:02AM“The Wild Duck” is an incomparable masterpiece. 120 years ago, George Bernard Shaw wrote, “Where shall I find an epithet magnificent enough for ‘The Wild Duck!’” At the Halcyon T…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:35AMCurrently playing at Angel Island, Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company’s production of Colleen Murphy’s “The December Man (L’homme de Decembre)” tells the story of a family dealing with t…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:45PMRECOMMENDED Those who say punk rock is dead have been spending too much time at the Wicker Park Urban Outfitters and not enough time right down the street at the Flatiron Arts Building, wher…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:15PMBy Mary Kroeck Emjoy Gavino, Michael Patrick Thornton and Chay Yew are familiar names in the Chicago theater circuit. Gavino is a teaching artist with Barrel of Monkeys, ensemble member of R…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:09AMRadium has a half-life of about 1,600 years, losing half its radioactive potency over that period. If evil and infamy have a half-life, then the tale of the “radium girls” will still be …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:30PMWith “Our New Girl,” a show that’s ostensibly about a nanny that shows up unexpectedly on an overwhelmed (and very pregnant) mother’s doorstep and then insinuates herself a little to…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:05PMRECOMMENDED Initially, Trap Door Theatre’s “The Woman Before” feels like a sitcom. Wife and husband, Claudia and Frank (played by Loretta Rezos and Kirk Anderson, respectively), are pa…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMRECOMMENDED Midway through Michele Lowe’s “Inana,” an Iraqi museum curator (Demetrios Troy) argues that the value of art cannot be properly assessed without historical context. His int…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:30PMRECOMMENDED “You are all complicit in our little adventure,” intones the smarmy MC of the hit game show “False,” where “perception is reality.” Indeed, viewers become part of the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:02AMRECOMMENDED If all theater is a lie, as repeatedly asserted by co-creators Dan Kerr-Hobert and Phil Ridarelli, then “Trust Us/ Screw You” is a masterpiece of manipulation. It is also an …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PMWith its raft of good intentions, talented cast and relevant theme, this is a play that one very much wishes to like. But PJ Paparelli’s and Joshua Jaeger’s interview-based documentary t…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMRECOMMENDED It takes a certain kind of integrity—or perhaps better still, gall—to stage a production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt: A Parable” in an actual church. And while Gle…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:15PMRECOMMENDED Oh the joys of being a teenager. Making reckless decisions without contemplating an ounce of repercussion. Thinking you know everything but in actuality knowing nothing. Discover…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PMBy Dennis Polkow Composer Ricky Ian Gordon has written instrumental music over the years, but “there’s no getting around it,” he admits, “I’m most excited by the voice. My mother w…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:05AMBy Hugh Iglarsh The area premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s “Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical” at Evanston’s Piven Theatre Workshop is a big event in a small venue, and therein lies a tale. …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:33AMRECOMMENDED In college, the old adage goes: sleep, work, social life; choose two. For Anton Chekhov, a similarly triangular logic exists: happiness, knowledge, safety; choose two and constan…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:45PMRECOMMENDED Coming on the heels of their insightful production of “Sondheim on Sondheim,” Porchlight Music Theatre provides just enough silly to make “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:15PMWritten and directed by Ruben D. Echoles, “Sounds So Sweet” follows the Harris family on their journey to lay their matriarch to rest. As the Harris’ gather in Mississippi to h…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMRECOMMENDED Satire works best when it has enough of a bite that even those laughing can feel the teeth marks. Too gentle and the jokes just feel safe and congratulatory for those in agreemen…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMRECOMMENDED If you’re looking for an enchanting emcee who can walk the fine line between low-key and high class while sipping a giant martini, look no further than MsPixy, the quick-witted…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMA high school student in Germany, alienated by the hypocrisy and materialism of his surroundings, turns to religious literalism. Soon, he becomes a gleaming-eyed fanatic at war with society …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:30PMRECOMMENDED We all have secrets. Some bind us to others; some keep us bound in silence to ourselves; very few remain concealed. “Between You, Me and the Lampshade,” a world premiere writ…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:30AMBy, Mary Kroeck The arts community lost a staggering number of incredible talents in 2014. Arguably, no death caused the world so much shock as the suicide of Robin Williams. He and his wo…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:07AMSome people, when moved to frenetic laughter, are prone to requiring so much air to replace the air lost due to their audible guffaws that they suck in through their noses, creating a snorti…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:15AMRECOMMENDED The depth of a woman’s love is unmatched. For the man lucky enough to capture a woman’s heart, she will move heaven and earth for him, even at times to the detriment o…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:15AMBy no coincidence whatsoever, my saddest, oldest, drunkest (SOD) friend is a big fan of pro wrestling, so a trip to the Annoyance to see some ladies go at it seemed like just the ticket. Dir…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 02:00PM
