4,000 stories from Newcity Stage
It is high time we put the expression "boys will be boys" to bed. Those still needing good reason to retire this persistent slogan of blatantly gendered rationalization need look…
RECOMMENDED There has perhaps never been an artist better capable of expressing the eternal contradictions of hope and oppression than Nina Simone. From the deceptive jaunt of "Mississippi G…
By David Witter Richard Cotovsky is known as "The Godfather of Storefront Theater." It’s a well-deserved title. For the last thirty years, the artistic director of the Mary-Arrchie The…
Much of Griffin Theatre Company's “London Wall” works quite well: a story of female connection in the male-dominated workspaces of the West End, a sentimental heart and the fiery…
RECOMMENDED Rajiv Joseph's 2008 play, splendidly revived by Shattered Globe Theatre, manages to make compelling theater out of origami, transforming the ancient Japanese art of paper-folding…
RECOMMENDED If you adore the satirical trivialities in Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” you’re sure to enjoy Shane Sakhrani’s nod to the master …
RECOMMENDED In its fifteenth and final festival, Collaboraction ensures that "Sketchbook" makes a lasting impression. The performances are separated into two programs: "Life" and "Death." Bo…
RECOMMENDED There are reasons why "Spring Awakening" is an eight-time Tony Award winner. The book and score are captivating and turn Frank Wedekind's 1891 play about youth, rebellion and sex…
RECOMMENDED Pearl Cleage's "What I Learned In Paris" is about revolution, but not the political kind you might imagine. Maynard Jackson has just won the historical 1973 election making him t…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a small town in America must be in possession of repressed women in want of entrepreneurial men to sweep them off their Hush Puppies-clad feet and…
RECOMMENDED "The Duchess of Malfi" is not a perfect play. The plot jolts, character motivations are incoherent, it is occasionally verbose when it should move like lightening and vice-versa.…
RECOMMENDED A good rule of thumb for one person plays: start with a joke. It reassures the audience that they are not in for a lot of solipsistic drivel. Being the drama critic at The Wall S…
RECOMMENDED Evan Linder's world premiere "Byhalia, Mississippi" (opening simultaneously in three additional cities) presents the titled town as an easy going, slow drawl kind of place whe…
RECOMMENDED Touching on a number of perennially sensitive subjects (welfare, incarceration, urban education) and drawing links between racism, misogyny and consumerism, Kirsten Greenidge's "…
"Out with the old, in with the new," is one of the many well-intentioned platitudes you hear frequently this time of year. Personally, I find that type of sharp-turn resolution a bit difficu…
By Sharon Hoyer Born on the West and South Sides in the eighties, footwork is a dance style that evolved out of juke and moves to a breakneck tempo of Chicago house music. Like the name sugg…
RECOMMENDED Sex sells and the more of it the better for the bottom line. This is as true in movies as it is for literature with books like "Fifty Shades of Grey" dominating the romance aisle…
By Michael Workman Among the most exciting dance performances taking place in this young 2016 season is a lineup of mature dance talent poised to challenge our culture of youth. In a worldÂ…
Melissa Thodos certainly had compelling material to work with when she conceived of Sono's Journey, which premiered at the Auditorium Theatre Saturday. Sono Osato was, by all reports, a danc…
The dead-child drama has become a genre unto itself. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, admittedly an odd thing to say about a category of theater focused on untimely death. Neverthe…
RECOMMENDED First there's the slow-burn, Ry Cooder-esque slide guitar. Then there's the invocation of the sun's ceaseless effrontery. All at once, everything turns the color of the devil him…
RECOMMENDED Currently in its twenty-ninth iteration, Pegasus Theatre's Young Playwrights Festival serves as an important bridge between the creative curiosity of adolescence and a healthy…
RECOMMENDED The trial run of a musical comedy on its way to Broadway is probably not the first place you'd expect to find an exploration of systematic disempowerment. Reasonably so, given…
By Mary Kroeck "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" was first performed by the Neo-Futurists in Chicago on December 2, 1988. The premise of the show was (and still is) to perform thirty …
RECOMMENDED Over a decade ago, former BBC Television hosts Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner condensed the Harry Potter universe into a five minute street show. A short time later, they e…
