Often dark and frequently dissonant, Kurt Weill's music is as treacherous as it is haunting. Theo Ubique puts a very young cast through the German composer's paces. The result is not great, …
Amanda Peet's first foray into playwrighting was inspired by seeing Ruth Madoff, the wife of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, on 60 Minutes. It was a good inspiration " to explore the…
There is certainly passion behind Another Bone - it is all an extremely admirable effort, yet the show has a fatal flaw - the story is entirely nonsensical. Written by Chicago playwright Cat…
There's really nothing not to like about this production. Rest provides both a cathartic theatrical experience as well as much to think about and discuss afterwards. You'll love the story, c…
Season on the Line is not typical House Theatre fare. However, the show possesses the clear direction, cohesive storytelling, robustly talented cast and gorgeous production values that have …
What happens to the Michael Milligan's character in Mercy Strain is appalling - and relaying this story is critically important. The telling of it? That needs some fine-tuning. (read Catey …
Death, dying, aging and health care are dramatic topics that Anna Deavere aptly explores here, but no matter how enthralling each individual monologue culled from her many interviews is, the…
South African theater company Isango Ensemble offers an interpretation of the Mozart classic opera that is unlike any other. Music arrangers Pauline Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis orchestrate…
An import from our neighbor to the north, Evil Dead: The Musical is a blood-splattering, silly-ass confection based on the gag-inducing 80s film franchise. A huge hit for over a decade in T…
Often thought of as a slow-burn type of piece, director Michael Menendian wastes no time in getting the early tremors of the eruption vibrating amongst his electrifying cast. And when you're…
Very little goes wrong on the Strawdog stage, which is no small feat considering the considerable technical and thespian interconnectedness of the detailed set and complex scenes. It all cul…
From an opening pablum to an utterly unsatisfying denouement that includes an incredibly tedious science panel, Mnemonic is an unfocused mess with potentially interesting ideas scattered abo…
The Coward Written by Nick Jones Directed by Vance Smith at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont (map) thr…
True to its choose-your-own-adventure roots, this play becomes a different beast than it was at the beginning. The Plagiarists managed to surprise me alongside making me nostalgic for childh…
Playwright Chuck O'Connor has a good ear for dialogue, and Aaron Stephenson's sound design incorporating provides a sense of period authenticity. There's something appealing about a play tha…
Joe Forbrich's The Whaleship Essex ably straddles genres. It is at once a first-rate adventure story, a survivalist thriller and a meditation on depravity spawned by abject terror and the ab…
John Arthur Lewis' staging, which relies on Bill Gordon's dogged narrative to supply the missing scenes, gives full focus to the center-stage protagonists, whether they deserve them or not. …
As far as anyone knows, no one's ever mounted Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women in Chicago before. For anyone a little tired of Shakespeare and in need of some fresh Jacobean tragedy, th…
Richard III represents a tremendous undertaking for a fledgling theatre company, so their efforts deserve some applause. But even though Richard Traub's engaging portrayal of the main charac…
The comedy-drama Reasons to Be Happy revisits four characters from his Tony-nominated play *reasons to be pretty* three years later, and while it's not as robust a play as its predecessor, i…
The Right Brain Project once again stays true to its mission to "defy preconceived notions and challenge the contemporary theatre experience" in this unique production of Beckett's masterpie…
Based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Since I Suppose is a masterpiece in experiential story telling, taking individuals on the multimedia journey through downtown Chicago that brillia…
Given the cult fascination with the film Fight Club, there's bound to be some interest in a theatrical adaptation. Who is Tyler Durden? might do well to go further from its source material t…
With a little work, the script's weaknesses could be overcome, if the affection between the characters, and the characters behind the words were fleshed out and developed. This group has the…
Chaim Potok's 1972 novel, so far as I can tell, has never been produced as an audio book. This stage adaptation by Aaron Posner, at least as it's performed here, doesn't get much beyond the …