NOT IN THE CARDS Northlight audiences should cut the theater's revival of The Odd Couple some slack. The production took a major hit when co-star George Wendt was forced to drop out of the s…
A FELLOWSHIP IN THE RING The Opponent is a play about the gritty world of small time boxing. Brett Neveu's world premiere two-hander at A Red Orchid Theatre explores the relationship between…
A POWERFUL WASTELAND AT TIMELINE Wasteland is a two-character play but the audience only sees one in this drama about two American soldiers held as prisoners during the Vietnam War, now rece…
SMOKIN' When Smokey Joe's Café opened on Broadway in 1995, the critics were only mildly impressed and suggested that this revue of rock "n" roll songs composed by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stol…
NOT AS BLOODY AS THE TITLE IMPLIES Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is an audacious rock musical tracing the life and times of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States. The show is…
NOTHING EQUIVOCAL ABOUT IT In Bill Cain's entertaining, stimulating Equivocation, William Shakespeare (spelled Shagspeare in the play) doesn't radiate awe-inspiring genius. Instead, he's a r…
NEITHER WILLIAMS OR THE GOODMAN AT THEIR BEST Sweet Bird of Youth is not top drawer Tennessee Williams. The play has some of Williams’ lyricism and humor, and at least one sharply etch…
INTO THEÂ WOODY American folksinger/composer/political activist Woody Guthrie lived during the Great Depression of the 1930's and the turbulent wartime and postwar years of the 1940's. In …
GOOD PEOPLE; GREAT PLAY; AMAZING PRODUCTION David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People is a wonderful play receiving a terrific production at the Steppenwolf Theatre and headed by a magnificent perf…
THIS ISN’T GREAT THEATER, BUT IT’S TERRIFIC NOSTALGIA The American novelist Peter De Vries once wrote that nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Maybe he would have modified his ob…
THE DANE'S THE THING The oft-produced Hamlet demands countless choices by a director and Michael Halberstam has met all the challenges; instead of overloading the evening with grandiose dire…
ENTERTAINING, BUT WITHOUT THE COMIC SIZZLE In 2009, Xanadu opened in downtown Chicago that turned out to be one of the delights of the season. It was a silly musical, but hip, satir…
YOU BETTER CATCH THIS BEFORE IT REALLY IS THE LAST SESSION Mike Nussbaum is probably weary of hearing himself called the Grand Old Man of Chicagoland Theater and a local treasure, like Wrigl…
IT’S ALL GREEK TO MEE Charles Mee's plays are audacious, imaginative, weird, sometimes funny, and more often than not, powerful and thought provoking; they are not for all tastes, but …
UNRESOLVED USE OF STORY James Still's 80-minute play, Illegal Use of Hands, set in an old rural-American home, opens in the middle of a late-October night; an old man is reading in an armcha…
MORE THAN JUST VARIATIONS ON A THEME 33 Variations starts out with a character asking the question, "Why did the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven write 33 variations on a trivial l…
THE CAST IS GREAT, BUT THE BOOK AND THE STAGING ARE NOT SO DREAMY Dreamgirls is based on the rise of the Supremes, America's premiere girl singing group of the 1960's. The musical opened on …
A DINNER IN REAL TIME Richard Nelson's Sweet and Sad at the Profiles Main Stage has six characters gather around a dining table for 95 minutes of uninterrupted talk on a Sunday afternoon din…
A HEARTBREAKING, FUNNY, AND COMPASSIONATE TALE FROM A PLAYWRIGHT WHO IS SORELY MISSED The audience never sees Marvin, the title character in Marvin's Room. He's an old man ravaged by cancer …
IT'S A PLEASURE TO BE IN HARMS' WAY It's been quite a year for veteran Chicagoland actor James Harms; after receiving critical acclaim nationally for his performance in The Iceman Cometh at …
TRASHY FUN Audience expectations need to be adjusted for a show like The Great American Trailer Park Musical. The title lets patrons know what they are in for: The topic will be trailer tras…
THE THEATER WAS HOME TO THE LUNTS, BUT THIS WAS THEIR HOME FROM THE THEATER From the 1920's through the 1950's, the husband and wife team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the First Coup…
THE SKY PARTS FOR THE ROYALS There are few regional theater pleasures more delectable than attending the outdoor American Players Theatre on a balmy afternoon or evening. The theater, about …
CAMPY BUT ARTISTIC Take a handful of world class circus acts, add a bit of cabaret and burlesque, and you have La Soiree, the entirely enjoyable show in town for two weeks at the Riverfront …
REEFER MADNESS IS SUCH A HIGH THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE STONED TO ENJOY IT In 1936, a church group sponsored a motion picture aimed at warning young people about the dangers of marijuana. Th…