4,000 stories from Newcity Stage
Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock oratorio "Evita" sings a story that never tires in its retelling: the disenfranchised individual, working with their particular skill set and virtually on their ow…
RECOMMENDED Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Stephen Adly Guirgis got his break in 2000 with "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train," a play that in 2016 feels distressingly timeless. Part …
Currently receiving its world premiere at A Red Orchid, Ike Holter's "Sender" scrapes the bottom of the millennial barrel for inspiration. What it dredges up is grody and a shade despi…
Our memory can have a mind of its own. For example, our remembrance of things past sometimes involves things that never happened or"at the least"didn't really happen the way we "recall" them…
RECOMMENDED Emily Stein’s “Phantom Dance” is a reflection on how the ballet world always left her, a classically trained dancer, feeling "like a bit of a misfit intellectua…
RECOMMENDED Sarah Myers' "The Realm" is not a perfect play but it is a perfect fit for the tiny Side Project space. Myers’ imaginative but unfinished portrait of a dystopian future whe…
Monday “Sender” at A Red Orchid Theatre. Local playwright Ike Holter examines whether growing up is even worth it. Through May 29. For tickets and more information visit ar…
RECOMMENDED William Shakespeare was the son of a leatherworker. Billy Shakes slanged the lingo with diction and confabulations like swagger, invulnerable, assassination, dexterous, madcap, m…
Samuel D. Hunter has established himself as one of the great chroniclers of the heartland. He locates bountiful riches in both the endless stretches of untamed earth and splotches of modern …
By Loy Webb Dr. Charles Johnson is more than an author. He is a literary icon. His historical novel "Middle Passage," about the final voyage of an illegal American slave ship, has been ingra…
RECOMMENDED "How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients" is a strange organism. Despite the clear artifice, with design inspired by propaganda and all movement disciplined an…
As a cultural critique, much of the spark that made "The Misanthrope" work in the seventeenth century is extinguished. This is partly because Martin Crimp's decision to emigrate Moliere&#…
RECOMMENDED When we hear about a play being provocative we generally assume that any reactions it piques usually occur internally. Save for the occasional murmur of approval, the fourt…
"Jensen & Wit" is about a super cute lesbian couple who're trying to conceive and get married. Naturally there are obstacles such as outdated homophobic prejudices. To make things wor…
RECOMMENDED Hazel, that spunky maid with more heart than tact, was first introduced to the public as a single-panel cartoon in 1943. Immensely popular, the cartoon later became a sitcom s…
When you write and stage a play about famous people, you're taking a big gamble. Your audiences will not only expect the usual strong storytelling of any good drama but also demand authentic…
RECOMMENDED The quality that has solidified Tracy Letts’ reputation as a contemporary playwrighting master is his unwillingness to be put into a literary box. From his debut play ̶…
RECOMMENDED If you haven’t encountered the work of Felicia Holman, Aisha Josina Jean-Baptiste, Abra M. Johnson and Meida Teresa McNeal, collectively known as Honey Pot Performance, you…
Monday “Carlyle” at Goodman Theatre. Playwright Thomas Bradshaw takes aim at both sides of the political establishment. Through May 1. For tickets and more information visi…
RECOMMENDED What do I remember about high school? Traversing hallways between class and hearing gossip that would transform into a miasma of rumors about you. The friends you have aren't …
The central conflict of “Mosque Alert,” the opposition to a state-of-the-art mosque being built in Naperville, is timely: with the looming threat of a Trump presidency, hate s…
This adaptation by Jessica Wright Buha and Aileen McGroddy (who also directs) begins as a lecture on James Joyce's 1922 masterpiece with a professorial Christopher Donaldson setting the scen…
RECOMMENDED Percussive dance organization Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s all-free multicultural performance series returns for a second welcome year, touring the neighborhoods each …
RECOMMENDED The Museum of Contemporary Art presents “Historia de Amor (Love Story)” by the Chilean theater company Teatrocinema. The production is based on a graphic novel of …
RECOMMENDED Abe Koogler's "Kill Floor" is a thoroughly unappetizing play. I mean that in the best way possible. It emphasizes emotional distance to the point of inducing a kind of horizontal…
