Imagine an August Wilson play performed by the African American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and you're getting close to the feeling evoked by Nambi E. Kelley's lyrical "For Her…
In the age of the selfie, body dysmorphia is king. Then again " hating our physical containers dates back long before the invention of photography, let alone smartphones. Somewhere there's p…
The weekend of a "blood moon" seems an auspicious time to open a show about the American master of horror. But since First Folio Theatre's "The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story" is o…
Long before Black Lives Matter, there were the Scottsboro Boys. And not long before there was "The Scottsboro Boys," there was "Direct from Death Row The Scottsboro Boys." If you go to Raven…
"I need my space" is as familiar as "It's not you, it's me" in the lexicon of troubled relationships. But what if actual, literal living space is the problem? That's the question posed in Na…
Roll up the beach blankets and break out the warm blankets. Fall will be here before you can say "pumpkin spice" and that means a harvest of fine theater. Below are 50 promising shows to fil…
Roll up the beach blankets and break out the warm blankets. Fall will be here before you can say "pumpkin spice" and that means a harvest of fine theater. Below are 50 promising shows to fil…
Moonshine, mothers and music - and ultimately mayhem - swoop and soar in Damon Kiely's "The Revel," his Appalachian approach to Euripides' "The Bacchae," now in a foot-stomping world premier…
Through Sunday, the sixth annual Chicago Fringe Festival takes over a variety of venues in Jefferson Park with 46 shows and 192 total performances. The acts are selected by lottery, rather t…
With drought reaching historic proportions in California and other Western states, a guy like Bill Starbuck might just be poised for a comeback. The eponymous character of N. Richard Nash's …
Familiar types - or should I say avatars - run rampant throughout Madhuri Shekar's "In Love and Warcraft." "Cyrano de Bergerac" is one obvious antecedent. Those who saw Rolin Jones' "The Int…
Those who bemoan the tendency of theater producers to play it safe by staging familiar movie products probably have "Dirty Dancing" tucked away in their prosecutorial evidence files. This sh…
In one of my favorite episodes of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David got in trouble for yelling a remark to Wanda Sykes that made reference to a portion of her anatomy, resulting in a…
"I wanted to meet different kinds of people and find out if I liked them," says Nellie Forbush early on in "South Pacific," explaining why she became a Navy nurse and ended up far away from …
Back before "The Book of Mormon" said hello, "Altar Boyz" brought a sweet satirical touch to proselytization through pop music and the voices of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan (he's Mexican) and …
The double nature of the late composer/entertainer Peter Allen's life is hinted at in the title of "The Boy from Oz," the jukebox musical about Allen that earned Hugh Jackman a 2004 Tony in …
What happens when you have to do the same show, night after night, with someone you're starting to loathe? That's the premise behind Silent Theatre Company's clever - and surprisingly affect…
On the Spot Theatre Company misses the mark with "Eugene," Michael Brayndick's dutiful but dull adaptation of Honore Balzac's "Pere Goriot." Set in 1819 Paris, during the Bourbon Restoration…
Small word choices reveal universes in Robert Tenges' tense "Whatever," now in a world premiere at the Side Project under Adam Webster's direction. The title itself - that well-worn passive-…
Oak Park Festival Theatre closes out its summer season with Shakespeare's not-so-fine bromance, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," directed by Lavina Jadhwani.
For some of us, it's impossible to believe that the upheavals of the mid-1990s - the Rodney King riots, the O.J. Simpson trial - happened over 20 years ago. So Guillermo Reyes' "Men on the V…
The "green-ey'd monster" struts and frets against the green foliage in First Folio Theatre's annual outdoor Shakespeare production. But unlike "Othello," there's no Iago in "The Winter's Tal…
The decline of traditional industries in northern England in the late 20th century was undoubtedly bad for workers - but it proved to be fertile ground first for filmmakers and then for musi…
Long before "Jaws" (let alone "Sharknado") ever existed, a series of shark attacks off the New Jersey coast in 1916 rattled the nation. But as Dan Caffrey's "Matawan" suggests, there were lo…
In the pantheon of tear-duct-depleting buddy films, 1988's "Beaches," starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, is up there with "Brian's Song." But instead of the gridiron, the battlefield…