Mina - Reviewed by GWEN OREL

As a biographical play, Leslie Lee's "Mina" is confusing at best.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Things Are Going to Change, I Can Feel It - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

Immediate Medium's multimedia production uses pastiche to collide 1960s nostalgia with our current wartime situation.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

The Amoralists is a theatre company that claims not to be "concerned with the principals of right or wrong, good or bad," an attitude that could endanger the success of its productions. And …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Acts of Love - Reviewed by KARL LEVETT

While viewing Kathryn Chetkovich's domestic drama, one gets to wondering if domestic drama is still a viable theatrical genre.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Joy Luck Club - Reviewed by RON COHEN

The Pan Asian Rep production exudes the sense of a welcome visit with old friends.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Crime and Punishment - Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER MURRAY

Chicago's Writers' Theatre brings its rightfully celebrated 2003 production of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" to 59E59 Theaters as part of the GoChicago! Festival.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Things We Want - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

There may be an insightful, moving play in Jonathan Marc Sherman's "Things We Want," currently being presented by the New Group, but it's buried underneath too many literary conceits.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Usual Freak Show - Reviewed by A.J. MELL

While Jeffrey Essman's vignettes are reasonably smart and observant, he hasn't found the core of these characters - the elusive, living pulse that would convince us that these shadows are re…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Brothers Size - Reviewed by ANDY PROPST

Tarell Alvin McCraney's exciting new play bursts across the stage with blistering intensity and keen intelligence.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Turn of the Screw - Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER MURRAY

Ultimately, the precision of this production leaves little room for the inexplicable.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Humans Anonymous - Reviewed by MARC MILLER

A promising new playwright, an attractive cast, free beer, and a director to keep an eye on: Who could possibly complain?

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Body Parts - Reviewed by NANCY ELLEN SHORE

Ishmael Reed's provocative, highly topical, wildly funny new work will have well-informed, thinking audiences roaring.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Ohio State Murders - Reviewed by ANDY PROPST

This thoroughly satisfying revival of Adrienne Kennedy's gripping drama makes for a chilling theatrical experience.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Glorious Ones - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

Like a multicolored harlequin costume, "The Glorious Ones," the new musical from Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, is a patchwork affair. Some individual numbers shine brightly, but the show…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Steve Tyrell: Bacharach and Beyond - Reviewed by DAVID FINKLE

Tyrell has one of the major elements - perhaps the major element - that distinguished Bobby Short: joy.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Cry Havoc - Reviewed by PAUL MENARD

Tom Coash's play poetically links symbols with themes but ultimately falls victim to hard-to-believe dialogue and long speeches of undramatic philosophizing.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Runner Stumbles - Reviewed by RON COHEN

Milan Stitt's intense drama gets an intense revival under the aegis of the estimable Actors Company Theatre.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Rock 'n' Roll - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

Tom Stoppard's latest play is a a stunning theatrical portrait of a span of the 20th century that affectingly dramatizes how social forces affect the lives and loves of its characters.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Chaos Theories - Reviewed by GWEN OREL

"The Chaos Theories" by Alexander Dinelaris slides down the gullet as easily and as addictively as a fresh Frito. Sadly for the playwright and his company, this mélange of skits posin…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Hoodoo Love - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

Katori Hall's play is unsurprising in its attempts to explore dark subject matter. Hall loves language, and I enjoyed the sex and soul, but I was hoping to discover some new and untold story.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Lucy - Reviewed by RON COHEN

Anthropology and autism meet provocatively if not always successfully in "Lucy," a drama by Canadian playwright Damien Atkins.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Frankenstein - Reviewed by DAVID A. ROSENBERG

Slick and serious but only intermittently thrilling or moving, this Off-Broadway musical adaptation of "Frankenstein" tries to jam in just about everything from Mary Shelley's novel and wind…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Cyrano de Bergerac - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

It seems the British have America licked in the classics wars, at least in the star-vehicle division.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Wooster Group Hamlet Reviewed by LEONARD JACOBS

"The Wooster Group Hamlet," which reconstructs the the 1964 Broadway production of "Hamlet" starring Richard Burton, including a great deal of director John Gielgud's staging, is fascinating.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

12th Night of the Living Dead Reviewed by A.J. MELL

I suspect that Shakespeare might have enjoyed watching the appropriately named Impetuous Theater Group reconfigure his Candlemas confection into a Halloween-appropriate exercise in slapstick…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑