RECOMMENDED Seven Grammys. Over 100 million albums sold worldwide. A true-life story that so many can relate to in its triumph and tragedy. That's the life of Emilio and Gloria Estefan and t…
RECOMMENDED Priests are common characters in American storytelling but they are rarely ever protagonists. They often have a part to play, it's just never in their own story. So it is refresh…
By Elle Metz Last year saw a surge of a certain type of film, the mid-life crisis, coming-home movie (see: "The Judge," "This is Where I Leave You," or “Are You Here” for example…
RECOMMENDED While many adolescents take their parents' values as a challenge, rarely do they grasp what's at stake for them. A child's success can completely reverse years of fatalistic cyni…
RECOMMENDED Irish playwright Conor McPherson is a master of dread. From "The Weir" to "The Seafarer" to "The Shining City" McPherson's plays have an impeccable knack for slowly turning up th…
RECOMMENDED "The America Play" presented by Oracle Theatre is not for the faint of heart. Actually, scratch heart and insert the word mind. Playwright Suzan Lori Parks demands of her audienc…
RECOMMENDED It's been nearly forty years since England's Royal Ballet visited Chicago, and its production of principal dancer (and budding author) Carlos Acosta's "Don Quixote" is being met …
Before we get into the meat of this review, I should make it clear that I love fantasy novels. I read George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series back in 2005 and I've read it two mor…
RECOMMENDED Any show buys itself some goodwill when it prominently features the Michael Jackson catalogue. The music of the King of Pop threads its way through Bixby Elliot's bluntly titled …
RECOMMENDED While appropriate, the term “layered” is a bit of an understatement when applied to the dance theater creations of Erica Mott. Meanings, ideas and historical referenc…
RECOMMENDED While watching Second City alum Ithimar Enriquez, I couldn't help but think of "Geri's Game," the Pixar short film wherein an elderly man plays an increasingly erratic and high s…
On paper, superheroes and stage musicals would seem like a natural fit. Both stories feature larger-than-life characters, bright shiny action and, more often than not, a syrupy core of since…
RECOMMENDED Playwright Brad Fraser examines the nature of true love through the tortured lens of fetishism, idolatry and narcissism in his spectacularly vivid play "Love and Human Remains." …
I have to hand it to Underscore Theatre Company; their world-premiere production of "Borderlands: Three Chords and the Truth" is about as ambitious as it is long. And at more than two…
Light Opera Works has launched it’s thirty-fifth season with a musical that has a great deal of staying power of its own. “The Fantasticks” has the honor of being the longe…
RECOMMENDED A playwright friend and I were recently discussing the problems we had with shows that were collections of short plays. While these shows are often promising in theory they usual…
By Loy Webb, When I was younger my two sisters and I shared a room. One of our many Saturday rituals was flipping through magazines to find pictures to decorate our walls. Most of the pictur…
RECOMMENDED Who knew the composer Gian Carlo Menotti was a serious, prophetic social critic? Not I. I remember watching his charming fantasy, "Amahl and the Night Visitors," on black-and-whi…
The trouble with theories is that they never quite measure up to reality. The trouble with people is that they never quite live up to the expectations set by themselves and others. This fund…
RECOMMENDED Early on in "Miracle!" queen of queens Crystal Pain (David Cerda) makes a point of welcoming all the straight people in the audience. "Once you get a couple of drinks in you then…
RECOMMENDED If winter plunged directly into summer and robbed us of a gentle rebirth, Court Theatre's very new production of "The Secret Garden" reawakens optimism in life, and the state of …
RECOMMENDED Back in 2007, the film "Once" struck a chord with anyone who'd ever witnessed a mysterious, brooding stranger leave it all on stage at a small town open mic night. Likely it reso…
RECOMMENDED It has been at least seven-hundred years since the Pied Piper first began playing his (or maybe her) flute. In all that time, I doubt there have been many more imaginative retell…
RECOMMENDED For better or worse there has been no shortage of plays about the plights of living in Chicago lately. Yet Collaboraction's revisitation of their original work about violence in …
RECOMMENDED In Regina Taylor's thrilling new play "stop. reset." aging businessman Alexander Ames (Eugene Lee) tells the story of his most precious possession"his family bible. This old tatt…