A GROUNDED SEAGULL In Chekhov's The Seagull, the young, angst-ridden writer Tréplev maintains that "What we need are new forms! We need new forms, and if we can’t have them, then we&#…
A NEGLECTED CLASSIC GONE AWRY The story of Antony and Cleopatra shares with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet those two indispensable elements of tragedy: love and death. While Romeo and …
A REVIVAL THAT'S WORTH THE PRICE The Price (1968), in a solid revival at the Raven Theatre, demonstrates Arthur Miller at the top of his game " writing intense, eloquent, densely textured dr…
THRILLING HOPELESSNESS Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured. – Jeremiah 42:11. In 1964,…
ACTS OF CONSCIENCE All theater is inherently political, in that a story is only as objective as its teller. But some plays go straight to the 24 hour news cycle definition of politics, a…
A STRANGE MIXTURE OF BELLY-LAUGH FARCE AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE The North Plan at Theater Wit is either a farce with dark political conspiracy overtones or a political conspiracy drama played …
RISE ABOVE THEATRE MOVEMENT HANDLES THE TRUTH Just three years after Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men (1989) was produced on Broadway, the play’s popularity was eclipsed by the film…
ALVIN AILEY " REMEMBER HIS NAME AIDS wreaked havoc on the theater world in all of its incarnations, and the crushing effects of its devastation remain with us today. So many ingenious cre…
FANGS FOR THE MAMMARIES Carson Kreitzer’s 2003 play Slither conforms to a certain category of American text: the women’s empowerment monologue extravaganza. Hallmarks of the …
ORIGINAL SIN In their fevered exploration of the seven deadly sins, Figure 8 playwright/co-director Phinneas Kiyomura and co-director Jerry Kernion seem hell bent on making sin seem as origi…
A LACK OF PHILOSOPHY Elina de Santos’ production of David Ives’ 2008 New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656 …
SUPER STRUCTURE The Cost of the Erection: The title of Jon Marans' new play sounds like one of those gay shows where comely actors get naked to pump up the box office. There is some veiled n…
THREE YEAR SWIM CLUB SWIMS UP STREAM Ever since mankind began telling tales, the "overcoming adversity" story has remained ever-popular. From cave wall pictures depicting a hunter's prowess …
A BLUEPRINT FOR ACTIVISM The Occupy Wall Street movement would do well to take a tip from the longest running show in Chicago, Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (TML). The event may tak…
IT'S THE SCRIPT THAT TAKES A FALL The main thing missing from Next Fall, Geoffrey Nauffts' play about a gay couple with disparate religious beliefs, is credibility. No matter how much the pl…
TO STAGE AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM Now in its 60th season, Musical Theatre West (MTW)Â is currently reviving Man of La Mancha with the astronomical performance of Davis Gaines as its driving for…
SECOND CITY GROWS UP Second City is expanding its cabaret empire in a new Chicago venue currently housing five shows. The operation carries the umbrella title of the UP Comedy Club, located …
3-D THEATRICALS MAKES QUITE A SOUND The 70MM, Panavision aerial shot of Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and entourage trekking over the border into Switzerland in The Sound of Music (1965…
THE ACTING FILLS YOU UP BUT THE ADAPTATION LEAVES YOU HUNGRY FOR LESS Elise Blackwell's slender 2003 novel Hunger tells the harrowing story of a group of Russian scientists trying to survive…
THEY'RE BA-A-A-A-A-CK Here’s the story: we are at the 1958 Springfield High School senior prom, and the entertainment isn't coming because the leader of The Crooning Crab Cakes g…
A DRESS THAT'S ALREADY OUT OF STYLE The two-character romantic play typically follows a set pattern. A man and a woman have just met. They are very different in lifestyles and initially they…
PLAYWRIGHT AWARENESS With three produced plays under her belt, Annie Baker is quickly becoming THE playwright to watch in the American Theatrical landscape. Her first play, Body Awareness (o…
THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD 18 year-old Jesus of Nazareth has heard some distressing news from his sucky carpenter of a father, so he bails Galilee with his whiny, Girl, Interrupted-like f…
A CRIMINAL SCRIPT OF AN EVIL STORY Lucy Prebble's play Enron tries to dramatize the Enron financial scandal, one which serves as a poster child for everything greedy and immoral and corrupt …
A TEPID DISCOURSE ON SEX AND RELIGION IN THE HEARTLAND Hesperia is the name of a small Midwestern town, home to a number of devout Christians. Young Claudia fled here from Los Angeles in spi…