GRIN AND SMILE AND LAUGH-ALOT Full disclosure: I am a big fan of Monty Python and have seen five productions of Monty Python’s Spamalot. On Broadway, in Vegas, two touring companie…
A LUKEWARM PRODUCTION OF A HOT SCRIPT This July, Pastime Theatre is ripping off their clothes and inviting audiences to join in on the fun. "Naked July: Art Stripped Down" is a theatre festi…
THIS ALMOST GREAT NIGHT Andrew Dolan, a working actor perhaps better known as a writer, had his second completed play produced first, in a Los Angeles world premiere: last season’s kno…
DOWNTOWN DINOSAURS The Off-Broadway Musical is an endangered species. The perfect storm of escalating real estate rents, union expectations, and production costs render producing commerc…
THE YODELING ROCKS, THE SHOW DOES NOT Before Adam Guettel was declared the next Sondheim by many for his beautiful, swelling Light in the Piazza score, he drew on the rich folk sounds of Ken…
WHO’LL SAVE THE PLOW HORSE? War Horse is almost critic-proof. It has been garnering all sorts of Best Play awards, but, in truth, there are all sorts of new, unrecognized categories fo…
LEARNING OF A DEATH PENALTY FOR ONE'S EXISTENCE Uganda has an alarming history when it comes to human rights violations, but recent developments against gay people are horrifying. In 2005, U…
THE SIZZLE’S A FIZZLE It is an uncontestable fact that every play August Wilson wrote justifies being looked at again and again. It has been fascinating to see how the moral, political…
MORE IS LESS THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS When making a show consisting of several short plays about the disabled, one must be concerned, it seems, with the possibility of the whole thing becom…
LET ME GO, LOVER I'll be the first to admit as a twenty-something that I don't know what it's like to feel like your sex life has passed you by " something I'm told that many couples expe…
FLUFF IS NOT ENOUGH Fluffy Bunnies in a Field of Daisies is precisely the type of title that peaks curiosity leading one to think that with such a clever and catchy name it has to be good. N…
FRESH NEW REVUE AT SECOND CITY Four of the six performers in the new Second City e.t.c. revue We're All in This Room Together never appeared on a Second City mainstage before. And this is on…
THREE'S COMPANY ON SHROOMS The concept of David Adjmi's flawed but entertaining new play 3C is an intriguing one: to take Three's Company, an iconic, milquetoast ABC sitcom (which starred Jo…
HERO NEEDS TO ZERO IN ON THE BOOK Hero, a brand new musical at the Marriott Theatre, has enough warmth and humor to provide a pleasant evening of light summer entertainment, but the work of …
RING IT ON! I hadn't read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring since junior high, and the movie, which is the first installment of Peter Jackson's gorgeous film trilogy The Lord of th…
YOU REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME The baby boomers were out in force at the Oriental Theatre Tuesday night, reveling in a Beatles nostalgia fest called Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles. The show is …
SALOMANIA BLENDS HISTORY WITH GREAT THEATER The year is 1918 and the world is fraught with an unimaginable war. Only a doctor or a pervert knows what a clitoris is. For anyone else during th…
THEATER NOIR: STYLE VS. SUBTEXT Supreme command of stagecraft is evident in every aspect of Somerled Charitable Foundation's production of Jim Henry's initially riveting but ultimately unsat…
WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE Somewhere around half-way through Guy Zimmerman's The Black Glass, a "Hollywood Fringe Festival premiere," my mind began to wander. Every opport…
GRIPPING PLAY EXPLORES THE TANGLED WEB BORN OF AN IDEALISTIC WAR Set primarily in Pakistan along the Afghan border, J.T. Rogers' Blood and Gifts begins in 1981, a critical point in the Cold …
MR. SANDMAN, BRING ME A NIGHTMARE There is something passing strange at the Oracle Theatre, and you won't want to miss it. In Oracle's The Sandman, dreams are not to be trusted, illusion and…
SOUTH OF SETTLING PROVIDES AN INTIMATE LOOK AT FAMILY LIFE The best part of the Emmy-winning television series Friday Night Lights isn't the football drama, but the amazing chemistry between…
SHANGHAIED It takes a rare courage to brave Chicago's Navy Pier during the summer. A combination of lines and advertisements threaten to ensnare you and your wallet with just a simple misste…
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL (HIS)TORY People all over the world never seem to tire of Elvis Presley, even if that means watching mediocre impersonators like the "Thai Elvis" at Palm’s Th…
TO SEASONED VIEWERS, THE FACE OFÂ CIRQUE DU SOLEIL COULD USE A LIFT The Cirque du Soleil production of Dralion should be the most fun for audiences unfamiliar with the Cirque's unique blen…