6,591 stories from Stage and Cinema
BEWITCHED, BOTHERED, AND BEWILDERED In a way shows that are pure spectacle " acrobat, dance, magic " must achieve a higher level of virtuosity to be successful than, say, theatrical plays. E…
HELL COMES TO THE GARMENT DISTRICT Melbourne-based Four Larks is performing their ghostly junkyard opera, Orpheus, in a secret space on the outskirts of the Fashion District. Workshopped at …
BLING BRINGS CLOSURE Now playing at Chicago's downtown Storefront Theatre, The Jewels, TUTA Theatre's world premiere adaptation of a story by Guy de Maupassant, is not to be confused with Th…
I CAN'T CAVE ENOUGH In 1917, Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins discovered Crystal Cave. Located in the same area as Mammoth Cave"the longest cave system known in the world"the site operat…
A FISHY MONSTROSITY What is it about the story of Jonah that has so captured the world's imagination? Is it the stupidity of a man trying to run away from God, as if that were even possible?…
A WITLESS TWILIGHT Noël Coward referred to his final play, A Song at Twilight, as his "swan song." The last installment of his Suite in Three Keys (a trio of plays set in the same hotel s…
LOVE, FAMILY AND ALIENATION One of the questions at the center of Terrence McNally's insightful and moving drama Mothers and Sons is, Why is it so difficult for a mother to love her son for …
A FAMOUS LITERARY FEUD MAKES GREAT DRAMA In 1980, in a television interview with Dick Cavett, novelist and literary critic Mary McCarthy made an especially biting comment about her longtime …
ABRACADABRA! In a welcome and overdue debut at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, this weekend Houston Ballet offered two performances only of their sumptuous three-act ballet Aladdin, an Arabian…
PROMETHEUS BOUND In a production as stately and reverent as its subject was startling and rebellious, Philip Hayes Dean has directed his own one-man-with-musical-accompanist play to a stands…
NOT EVEN GOD Hugh Whitemore’s 2001 play God Only Knows breaks some of the most basic rules of dramaturgy: a gun is introduced which does not go off; an argument is begun which is not f…
TENOR EVENTUALLY SINGS BUT NEEDS MORE NOTES Farce is difficult. You need to get your audience to suspend disbelief as mischief, mayhem and lots of slamming doors abound, and a series of unli…
SONDHEIM'S SWAN SONG? In one edifice"Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier"you find the beginning and possibly the end of Stephen Sondheim's stellar career. The Courtyard Stage is hosting…
THE HUMAN WHISPERER Most theatrical performances feel a little awkward at the beginning; even in good shows it usually takes the actors a few minutes to settle into their characters and to f…
AS YOU BIKE IT Growing up and accepting change and loss are very personal processes. Buzz22, whose mission is to stage “stories to explore the coming of age,” has been following …
FUR A GOOD TIME, CALL MASOCHISM ON PARADE David Ives' two-person fetish comedy, Venus in Fur, is a sexy crowd pleaser and an actors' tour de force exercise. The play casts a spel…
DEMOLITION DERBY Sometimes at the end of a play such as The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Killer Joe, I gaze upon the total destruction of the set and think, "I'm glad I don't have to clean th…
(SOCIAL) MEDIA MADNESS Gay playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (contributor to Glee and Big Love) may have stumbled with his over-the-top dark comedy Say You Love Satan–produced in Chica…
IT’S SAFE TO PUT YOURSELF IN HARMONY‘S WAY Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's high-energy, surprisingly melancholy new musical, Harmony, depicts the real-life story of the all-mal…
A LOT OF YOUTHFUL SPRING BUT LITTLE CHARACTER AWAKENING Given harsh themes including child abuse, rape, homosexuality, and suicide, one can easily see why Frank Wedekind’s original Ger…
NUDITY IS AS NUDITY DOES For the sake of argument ("arguendo"), let us consider g-strings as tools of oppression, and pasties as violations of our First Amendment rights. This was the perspe…
LIES ARE HARD TO LIMIT Are some lies lighter than others and thus lesser? Charles Van Doren will always be tainted for knowing the answers in advance in the 1959 Geritol quiz show scandal. S…
DANCING WINTER AWAY Erupting only through Sunday, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has devoted its spring series to four eclectic-to-dynamic works from 1989 to 2001 by Czech choreographer JiÅ�…
SLOWGIRL SIMMERS In cooking it is often necessary to heat a mixture slowly bringing it to a simmer and keeping it just below the boiling point, allowing all its savory sweetness to surface. …
THE FUTURE LOOKS BLIGHT While there are a few missteps in both playwriting and direction, ion theatre's presentation of two one-acts definitely held my attention. The only similarities betwe…
