Mary Zimmerman's production sings, though the gender politics creak. You can say this for director Mary Zimmerman's staging of Meredith Willson's multiple Tony w…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]In the title role, Will Lidke is a nova of charisma. It hasn't always been blindingly obvious that Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a riff on Plato's "Symposium." Bu…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]The theater company presented readings of three new one-acts by trans playwrights. You don't have to look further than this year's Tony Awards to see why we nee…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 03:09PM[SHARE]But all we've got is a murky early effort from Tony winner Jez Butterworth. Playwright Jez Butterworth won the 2019 Best Play Tony Award for The Ferryman, but it…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]Firebrand's production can't rise over the limits of the script. Michael John LaChiusa's musical Queen of the Mist contains a second-act song that critiques its …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]Hey! Ho! Don't go! John Ross Bowie's 90-minute drama purports to be about the creation of the Ramones' album End of the Century, but it's actually about a quarte…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]Playwright Lucy Kirkwood's devastated world is nightmarishly familiar. It's comforting to regard the premise of Lucy Kirkwood's eco-thriller with a smug sense of…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 12:00PM[SHARE]Until then, it relies too heavily on stale old jokes. Second City e.t.c.'s 43rd revue begins with the cast paddling through the audience in a faux water ballet. …
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]It's a reminder that while art can be silenced, it can never be extinguished. Near the end of the first act of Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band, the cast deliver…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]And not just because the main character's nose grows when he tells a lie. With their adaptation of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, Joseph Steakley and Ben Lobpries ha…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]Dutch Masters and The Undeniable Sound of Right Now ask how much has really changed in politics and music. Jackalope and Raven Theatres are firing up the waybac…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]"Am I the only Latinx sharing stories right now? Where are the rest of us?" After the rush of winning the 2013 Moth GrandSlam storytelling competition faded, Li…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]She ignores that some people don't have the luxury of civility. About midway through Julie Ganey's one-woman show, the author-star describes trying to make her T…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]This Abbey Theatre import is unexpectedly wonderful. So, two Irish actors walk into a bar. As does the entire audience.…
SOURCE: www.chicagoreader.com at 07:00AM[SHARE]In Victory Gardens' triumphant "Fun Home", Director Gary Griffin's ensemble will break your heart with their ability to embody the characters in Alison Bechdel's story, especially Rob Lindle…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:54PM[SHARE]Chicago Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is a fine production of a play that doesn't deserve the resources lavished on it. For all the prodigious talent on stage, Shrew remains an endorseme…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:33PM[SHARE]Between the distracting set design, the plot holes and the ultimately ineffective performances by the rest of the cast, The New Colony's world-premiere Punk is a weak endeavor. (review by Ca…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:12AM[SHARE]Million Dollar Quartet is irresistible. Set in 1956 during the only recording session when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins were all in the same room, the juke-bo…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 09:04PM[SHARE]For most of Northlight Theatre's The Legend of Georgia McBride, audiences are treated to a whacky, audience-pleasing comedy. The plot goes for guffaws by showing the whacky plight of a stra…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:06PM[SHARE]It doesn't matter if you don't know Rembrandt from Renoir, Manet from Monet. In its exploration of why art moves us " and moves us to take extraordinary measures to preserve it through eons …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:36PM[SHARE]Court Theatre's Five Guys Named Moe looks and sounds terrific. Set designer Courtney O'Neill has ingeniously turned the stage into the inside of a old time radio, and sound designer Victoria…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:18PM[SHARE]Despite some shortcomings, world-premiere Alias Grace is well worth seeing. The story of Grace Mark is powerful both as history and as a commentary on history. Rivendell Theatre hasn't captu…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:48PM[SHARE]Under Kevin Bellie's direction, Bullets Over Broadway does have moments of charm. But between these bright spots, the acting aesthetic is cartoons on hyperdrive " loud and garish enough to o…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:24PM[SHARE]There's a pall of suffocating dread woven through director Ivo Van Hove's galvanizing take on Arthur Miller's 1955 classic A View From the Bridge. Set in the 1950s, the story about immigrati…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:24PM[SHARE]Rock of Ages just might be the most shamelessly pandering musical since, oh, the late 1980s. It revels in boobie and poop jokes and stratospherically over-the-top characters. And it's that v…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:06PM[SHARE]The story of The Toad Knew " if there is one " is left to the audience to create within their own minds. The performers " a quintet starring creator James Thierrée " are a group of dancers/…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:36PM[SHARE]An engaging performer, Minita Gandhi plays over a dozen characters in what initially feels like a fairly predictable story of generational and cultural differences. But roughly two-thirds of…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:12PM[SHARE]The cast of Kokandy Productions' Little Fish, by Michael John LaChuisa, is capable enough, and they make beautiful music together. The show sinks, nonetheless, because it's both predictable …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:54AM[SHARE]There is so much impossible beauty in Cirque du Soleil's Luzia, that watching it almost hurts. Act for act, Luzia: A Waking Dream of Mexico - written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca with…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:32AM[SHARE]In all, Broadway in Chicago's An American in Paris is joyous, fascinating and moving. It is also an incredible showcase of just how much beauty an ensemble of extraordinary dancers are capab…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:18PM[SHARE]Playwright Taylor Mac has created a kitchen sink family drama whose disarray is actually anxiety-inducing. There's chaos and trouble and pain layered into the heaps of old laundry and bowls …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:54PM[SHARE]
