SPECTACULARLY CONFUSING You don't need me to tell you that J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has tapped into something deeply elemental for many people. Her stories about a young wizard an…
FROM CALLING CUES TO TAKING THEM Ruth Sternberg on her unexpected return to The Public" this time as an actor For nearly two decades, Ruth Sternberg was one of the steady, unseen engines of …
A SHTETL REBUILT IN THE ROUND Douglas Sills leads Signature's spare, deeply felt Fiddler on the Roof that puts Anatevka's communal heartbeat at the center The beauty of tradition, Tevye the …
HELL'S ON FIRE Hell's Kitchen, a jukebox musical featuring the music of R&B superstar Alicia Keys (with several new songs) and a book by Kristoffer Diaz, took Broadway by storm in 2024, …
TWO WOMEN, ONE MATCH" STRIKE CAREFULLY Jen Silverman's combustible roommate saga kicks off Desert Ensemble Theatre's last lap Jen Silverman's The Roommate is a stunning opener for Desert Ens…
CALLOUS CALLAS CASTS A CAPTIVATING CHARACTER Maria Callas (1923-1977) was unquestionably one of the finest opera singers of the twentieth century. The mix of her great talent with her being …
UNPLUGGED, UNFILTERED, AND UNMISSABLE A detonation of wit, soul, and Broadway voltage in this once-in-a-lifetime, one-night-only musical high-wire act The Wallis in Beverly Hills lays claim …
WHERE LONELINESS ECHOES AND CONSTELLATIONS ARE CALLING She gets up at dawn and is asleep by eight. She lives alone and doesn't like people. Nobody at the hospital (where she's worked for for…
CAN HORROR WORK ONSTAGE? PARANORMAL ACTIVITY MAKES ITS CASE I imagine most people's response to hearing that Paranormal Activity has been turned into a stage play is a raised eyebrow"doubt m…
When the topic of artistic nudity in film and theatre arises, reactions vary widely. Some perceive it as a meaningful creative decision, while others find it jarring or out of place. At its …
WOMEN ON THE VERGE Central Square Theater's lovely production of playwright David Auburn's (Proof) Summer, 1976 offers a story of two women who find an unexpected friendship at a tipping poi…
MURDER, MAYHEM, AND A MANUSCRIPT TO DIE FOR Sometimes uncontrollable forces work in your favor. How fortunate then for MadKap productions that on the opening night of their production of Ira…
GLAMOUR BEFORE THE FALL A pansexual Richard II struts through power, pleasure, and ruin in the 1980s In its current staging at the Astor Place Theatre, Red Bull Theater serves up a Richard I…
GO ON AND BITE INTO THIS DONUT" YOU'VE EARNED IT It must have been quite a shock to Tracy Letts fans when Superior Donuts premiered at Steppenwolf in 2008. Chicago Theatre's favorite adopted…
A Night with a Gentleman Thief: Pacific Opera Project's Delightful Fra Diavolo Daniel Auber's Fra Diavolo amassed over 900 performances at the Opéra Comique during the 19th century before b…
BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL INTO THE WHITE HOUSE This play-within-a-play probes power, mythology, and who gets to tell the story Making its West Coast premiere at Marin Theatre Company is Sally…
THE SANDWICHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD A wickedly funny historical fantasia delights even as it stares catastrophe in the face Roundabout Theatre Company's Archduke, which opened last night a…
THIS WAY TO THE AMERICAN DREAM" MIND THE TRAP DOORS Kafka's story still needs an ending, but Open Fist delivers a wildly inventive Amerika If you think America is in an existential crisis ri…
SHARP CAST, BLUNT SATIRE A Fierce Ensemble Fights for Meaning in Angry Fags Topher Payne's Angry Fags first made its appearance in 2015, in a world that was decidedly different from what it …
Bluebeard's Castle, A Medieval Musical Thriller by Russian director and playwright Sofia Streisand, making her U.S. debut at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, displays immense ambition that achi…
425 YEARS LATER, THE O.G. ROMCOM STILL CASTS A SPELL Writers Theatre in Glencoe, a charming North Shore Chicago suburb, has developed a reputation for impeccably produced theater of extremel…
FROM FRIDA TO FUNK, MATTERS OF THE HEART THRILLS When words fall short of capturing the fullness and depth of life's experience, there is dance"or more broadly, art itself. That truth was ma…
NO PLACE LIKE HOME" UNLESS MICHAEL FEINSTEIN TAKES YOU THERE Let's Get Away From It All proves the Great American Songbook is still first-class travel When Michael Feinstein opened his show …
Raymond Munro (photo by Stephen DiRado) TWO RAYS UNITE IN A JOURNEY OF STORY THEATRE Theatre, by its nature, is ephemeral. That is part of its allure, and part of what we love about it. It f…
A DELIGHTFUL LITTLE SCRIPT"FOR SHAW! Best known for Pygmalion (which was adapted into My Fair Lady), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw challenged people's views on social issues, inclu…