RECOMMENDED Magic is tricky (eh?). If it's not your genre of choice it could be difficult to summon the proper enthusiasm to enjoy yourself. This particular show opens with a montage demonst…
RECOMMENDED Last Wednesday night I found myself in a first-floor apartment on the far North Side of Chicago, standing in front of a sofa conversing with a young playwright talking about her …
RECOMMENDED Any short-play festival will have a number of mediocre plays, a couple of stellar works, and one or two duds. In the case of "Today We Escape," a twelve-play presentation based o…
RECOMMENDED They say nothing cures working-class misogyny, homophobia and general bigotry like a little strip tease. As it stands, those who attend Kokandy Productions' mounting of “Th…
By Sharon Hoyer Whether addressing climate crisis, as in the 2012 "Exit Disclaimer: Science and Fiction Ahead," the economic meltdown and Keynesian theory, as in the 2011 "Stupormarket," or …
RECOMMENDED After a one-year production hiatus, Chicago Dramatists returns with a compelling and important world premiere penned by Rohina Malik, "The Mecca Tales." Four American Muslim wome…
Opening night for pre-Broadway shows in Chicago can be fun. The excitement both real (will this be the next "The Producers" or "Kinky Boots"?) and manufactured (red carpets, Klieg lights and…
RECOMMENDED Pass through the ornate 1918 façade of the Chopin Theatre, bounce down a few generously carpeted stairs, and you'll find yourself in the gregarious Pregnant Buffalo Lounge. Ch…
RECOMMENDED A good alternative title for "finding gräfenberg" might be "man, it sucks to be a woman." Apart from the ubiquitous extra-narrative evidence (see: advertising in general, income…
The Iron Stag King RECOMMENDED If “Game of Thrones” took the Arthurian high fantasy genre and dragged it off its clean white pedestal down into the muck, then The House Theatre's…
Who hasn't spent a romantic day with someone that could be described as "magical?" But for Jenny (Kristen Johnson), the heroine of Shannon Pritchard's new play "Traces", the magic involved i…
Joy is clumsy. It's been known to cause shouting from rooftops and singing in the rain. Art is restrained. Even at its most chaotic"think Pollock and his fractals or Hendrix and his walls of…
RECOMMENDED There is value in works of art that confuse, especially in the theater. So many plays from all across history can be boiled down to little more than allegory, parable or argument…
Heat Wave/Cold Basement Dramatics RECOMMENDED A mention of the skin-ripping heat plague that either directly caused or contributed to 739 deaths in Chicago in the summer of 1995 still causes…
When I first sat down in the Athenaeum Theatre's third-floor studio, I noticed that Brian Browne's set design for "Picture Imperfect" includes a wall that obscures the view from much of the …
RECOMMENDED Chicago's Uptown neighborhood celebrates the long-delayed opening of a venue for burlesque, cabaret, music, magic and comedy. Located in a bunny warren under the refurbished Walt…
RECOMMENDED The name Gustavo Ramirez Sansano can bring pangs to those who were busy developing an addiction to his work at the helm of Luna Negra Dance Theater, both as artistic director"int…
RECOMMENDED Sitting in the audience waiting for Babes with Blades’ all-female production of "Titus Andronicus" to begin, I did what any audience member does and took in the set, design…
By Mary Kroeck In 2007, the Goodman Theatre gave August Wilson's "Radio Golf" its Chicago debut. With that, the theater did something historic. It became the first theater in the country to …
By Hugh Iglarsh Two great experiments mark the mid-century history of the University of Chicago. The one everybody knows about was the first sustained nuclear reaction, which occurred in a c…
"The Talky Bore" would be a more apt title for this 2002 play about the birth of psychoanalysis. British playwright Christopher Hampton never finds the dramatic marrow in the tale of Sabina …
RECOMMENDED Thodos Dance's winter concert at the Harris gathers short rep pieces from a half dozen Chicago-based choreographers, including a new work by founder Melissa Thodos. The program i…
The television series "Lost" followed people trapped on a tropical island. Primarily driven by character development, the series ran for six seasons. The Gift Theatre's World Premiere of Mat…
Tenor Brandon Jovanovich has played heroic tenor roles here and around the world but this month is revealing two other sides of himself: playing the role of Walter, a German diplomat and hus…
RECOMMENDED Steven Dietz's brilliant 2008 play, beautifully realized by American Blues Theater, is about the after-effects of 9/11, a catastrophe that produced not only terror and dea…