Friday, December 26, 2014

Fresh Air: My Best Theater of 2014 by Francis

After what I thought was a dismaying year in 2013, Chicago theater bounced back with impressive aplomb this year.  There were a lot of world premieres (some much readier for primetime than …

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 01:06PM
Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Starry Tables: My Best Meals of 2014 by Francis

It’s a big, tasty world out there.  I know, I know, this sounds like quite the headscratchingly obvious statement, but sometimes, as I go through my daily perusal of online articles and s…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 03:36PM
Sunday, December 14, 2014

Shining Through by Francis

I’m back! And no, I wasn’t cocooned inside Noma’s Nordic Food Lab trying to make edible moss or permanently ensconced as family butler in the Dustin Lance Black-Tom Daley household for…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 07:00PM
Thursday, November 20, 2014

What Lies Beneath by Francis

We’re very fortunate that Chicago has become quite the incubator of new plays for the national theater scene. But that’s a double-edged sword: as I’ve said on this blog over the years …

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 09:53AM
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Women on the Verge by Francis

If you’ve been around these blog parts for years, you’d know I’ve outed myself as an inveterate lover of Greek tragedies years ago. One of the most indelible and enriching cultural exp…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 05:09PM
Friday, October 31, 2014

Tough Mudder by Francis

If you’ve been hanging out in these blog woods for a while, you know I’m never one to shy away from a challenging theatrical experience. Over the years I’ve cheered and rabble-roused f…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 05:39PM
Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Hit List, Part Two: Titanic by Francis

Continuing my musical theater queen recertification process (not that I ever lost my designation as beloved BFFs and theater buddies can attest), the third musical I saw this past week was G…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 12:20PM
Monday, October 27, 2014

Hit List, Part One: The Wild Party and Parade by Francis

When I first started seriously going to the theater in Chicago way back when in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, full-blooded musical productions outside of the avowed musical theater specialis…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 05:36PM
Friday, October 24, 2014

2014 Chicago International Film Festival, Final Entry by Francis

The 50th edition of the Chicago International Film Festival ended last night with the screening of Reese Witherspoon’s Oscar hopeful, Wild. With the marked improvement in both audience exp…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 11:49AM
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

2014 Chicago International Film Festival, Part Two by Francis

I’ve been derailed from posting on the films I’ve seen at the Chicago International Film Festival by a major customer proposal I’ve been working on in my day job. But rest assured thou…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 03:27PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2014

2014 Chicago International Film Festival, Part One by Francis

I just got through the first weekend of the 50th edition of the Chicago International Film Festival and I’m pleased to report that everything is running like a well-oiled, gently-humming m…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 12:10PM
Friday, October 10, 2014

Mad Men by Francis

Actually, I’m probably the mad man as I try to fit in as many theater and arts events before all of my waking time (well outside of working and eating) is taken up by the exciting 50th edi…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 04:11PM
Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Preview of the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival by Francis

It is the first day of October, and other than wondering truly where the year had gone (it seemed just like yesterday that we were calling the Polar Vortex the worst thing that had happened …

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 06:04PM
Monday, September 29, 2014

The China Syndrome by Francis

In the May 2014 issue of Travel and Leisure magazine, one of my favorite writers Gary Shteyngart writes an astringent yet admiring profile of Beijing and says “This is where it’s at. Bei…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 06:59PM
Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Ain’t Amour by Francis

I’m back! It was a hectic summer where I was literally everywhere, from San Diego to Sao Paulo, from New York City to San Francisco.  But I’m staying put in Chicago for the next several…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 06:55PM
Friday, July 11, 2014

The Vanishing by Francis

Once a long, long time ago (well, the 1940s and the 1950s) the word musical theater didn’t really mean a collection of jukebox hits that your parents listened to, or a musical version of e…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 05:16PM
Sunday, July 6, 2014

Starry Night by Francis

With the number of nationally-anticipated/written-up/reviewed theater productions this summer in Chicago, you’d expect there to be more people coming into town to see a show than to go eat…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 08:03PM
Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Singing and Dancing by Francis

It’s been another hectic theatergoing weekend. Despite the maddening fluctuations of Chicago not-yet summer weather (alternating hot weather and thunderstorms), audiences continue to flock…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 04:41PM
Friday, June 20, 2014

Freaks and Geeks by Francis

For hard-core musical theater queens there are few shows that have the  same mesmerizing cult status pull as that of Side Show,  Harry Krieger’s and Bill Russell’s (of Dreamgirls fame)…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 03:59PM
Thursday, June 12, 2014

First Look by Francis

Chicago theater audiences are a lucky bunch. With the abundance of world premieres in this city, we are almost always able to say, “Yep, I saw that first.”  The Chicago Tribune just rep…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 12:00PM
Thursday, June 5, 2014

Blood Bath by Francis

Every musical theater queen worth his or her salt talk about the dubiously legendary Carrie: The Musical in reverentially snarky tones usually reserved for mausoleums of dictators’ wives.�…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 05:38PM
Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Rarities by Francis

I’ve been run ragged by my consecutive three-play weekends (hmm, dear readers, although it seems like I’m at a theater all the time, I do have a normal, regular day job to go to during t…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 12:33PM
Thursday, May 22, 2014

Un Bel Di by Francis

A theater-lover just doesn’t spring from the ground fully-formed reciting Shakespeare and high-kicking it to “Oklahoma”.  It takes years and years of watching and re-watching plays to…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 07:15PM
Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Ain’t Got No by Francis

I was in Portland last year for the first time and when I got back to Chicago some of my friends who’ve never been to the city asked, “Were there a lot of hippies?”  I guess they were…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 04:02PM
Friday, May 9, 2014

#PinoyPride by Francis

Most of the time when people talk to me about Filipino food, they start off with the question “Have you had balut?”  I tend to shut down pretty quickly any talk about balut, the boiled …

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 03:39PM
Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Writers Block by Francis

As I’ve always said all these years on this blog, theater is ultimately for me a writer’s medium.  You can have all the life-sized war horses, swinging chandeliers, flying helicopters, …

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 08:15PM
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tragedy, Comedy, Tonight by Francis

I’ve been flying to Charlotte a couple of times a month since the beginning of the year for my day job.  Sometimes I’d scan the performing arts listings of Creative Loafing, their equiv…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 06:28PM
Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Rapturous by Francis

As I’ve previously mentioned on this blog, I saw my first play at 10 years old when I was growing up in Manila, thanks to my mom who loved musical theater with a passion.  Since then I’…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 09:40PM
Friday, April 4, 2014

Fearless by Francis

A couple of weeks ago I was at a party with my dear friend Jonathan (who has traipsed through these blog pages before) and after several gushy mentions of shows currently playing, he (cattil…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 04:55PM
Sunday, March 23, 2014

Reinvention by Francis

During the Middle Ages (actually 2003), I rushed back to Chicago from wherever I was commuting to at that time for work (New Jersey, which was and continues to be seemingly stuck in the Midd…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 11:51AM
Thursday, March 13, 2014

Notes from the Front Row by Francis

There was a brief tease earlier this week that this winter of 2014, the harshest one I’ve experienced in my 16 years of living in Chicago, would finally leave us alone. As I write this blo…

SOURCE: From the Ledge at 02:54PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards