Thursday, April 18, 2013
“Don’t wanna be an American idiot!” I can commiserate. Since seeing the concert-like show"playing a brief and generally enjoyable touring engagement at the Cadillac Palace …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:54AM[SHARE]Monday, April 15, 2013
Playwright Samuel D. Hunter is enduring an impressive national swell in popularity. His "The Whale," now being given a Chicago premiere by Victory Gardens Theater, has been making the region…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:22PM[SHARE]Second City's Dalmatian-free one hundred first revue, "Let Them Eat Chaos," hits the hyperactivity of its titular chaos squarely on the head, but, for all its unneeded projections, “Ba…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:09PM[SHARE]Lionel Bart’s “Oliver” is always, first and foremost, about the kids. And when it comes to singing, dancing, mischief-making rapscallions, director Rachel Rockwell’s …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 11, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski "I'm a sock guy. I love socks," says Tarell Alvin McCraney, glancing down at my feet. I'm wearing striped socks with an alternating spectrum of pinks divided by thin lin…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:30AM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 9, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski The 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville has come and gone. It was the first Festival of Les Waters’ artistic directorshi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PM[SHARE]Monday, April 8, 2013
RECOMMENDED “Maria/Stuart” begins as a dark comedy. Screaming “Hep! Hep! Hep!,” a small red-vest-clad woman traveling in steel-straight lines and muttering menacingly…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:54PM[SHARE]Plays that center around a person's death are frequently written. What better way is there to showcase a contrast in characters' points of view than by giving them a mutual target to each ha…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:02PM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Court Theatre in Hyde Park has announced its 2013-2014 season (also its fifty-ninth), which notably features the Chicago premiere of 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner “Water By The Spoonful&#…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:40PM[SHARE]Monday, April 1, 2013
RECOMMENDED The Building Stage has done something unavoidably moving for its swan song. After eight years of producing in its West Loop venue, its final show, "Dawn, Quixote," addresses what…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:03PM[SHARE]The sixties is a decade rife with fictional opportunity. The example du jour on television is "Mad Men" with its cigarette-smoke clouds and ream upon ream of red velour, but the powder-keg d…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:02PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Much in the same way the cinema is using spectacular 3D films and the enormity of IMAX to rip potential patrons from the warm embrace of their plasma screen, legitimate theater is looking to…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:47PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 17, 2013
RECOMMENDED Wedging a rap into William Shakespeare’s plays is well-tread territory. Every so often, a hoodied Hamlet will hyperactively soliloquize the usual six speeches verbatim with…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:04PM[SHARE]Saturday, March 16, 2013
“Stones In His Pockets,” which opened last night at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, wants to fight against a prevailing American perception of Ireland as one big happy, pastoral fa…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:26PM[SHARE]By Johnny Oleksinski On January 28, @RobertFalls201Â tweets, "Day before rehearsal begin & completely panicked; haven't prepared enough, have no idea how to START & shouldn't someo…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:00PM[SHARE]Friday, March 15, 2013
Recall, if you will, the factors that distinguish Clark Kent from his alter-ego Superman. Yes, Clark gruffly rips open his button-down to reveal that iconic spandex “S,” but t…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:54PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Adding to its previously announced production of Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart" starring David Cromer and directed by Nick Bowling, TimeLine Theatre Company has added two more producti…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:47PM[SHARE]Writers' Theatre in Glencoe has announced their 2013-2014 season, including a classic play, two Midwest premieres, an American premiere and a world premiere. From September 3 to November 10,…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:24PM[SHARE]Monday, March 11, 2013
RECOMMENDED "I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me," said war-hero-turned-president Andrew Jackson, a man whose personal and political lives were both defined by tumult. His …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:57PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 10, 2013
By Johnny Oleksinski Just over a year has passed since "Hit The Wall" began an acclaimed and popular world premiere in the Steppenwolf Garage Rep. On opening night last February, after a sev…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:50PM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Prolific Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse’s body of work, while performed with great frequency in Europe, is rarely seen on American stages. I wouldn’t interpret that as qualitativ…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:44PM[SHARE]Last night on the “Colbert Report,” hunky actor James Franco told the host he’d be performing in a yet-to-be-announced Broadway revival of “Of Mice and Men.” Th…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:07PM[SHARE]By Johnny Oleksinski White planks. What I'm staring at with the mischievous grin of a shifty-eyed child is a field of neatly lined-up boards with both a silver shimmer and the scratched-at e…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 05:05AM[SHARE]By Johnny Oleksinski Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced a 2013-2014 season replete with world, national and local premieres, shying away from last year’s roster headlined by Bro…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00AM[SHARE]Monday, March 4, 2013
Victory Gardens Theater announces its 2013-14 Season: the Co-World Premiere of Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the World Premiere of Marcus Gardley's The Gospel of Lovi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:20PM[SHARE]She Kills Monsters/Buzz22 Chicago RECOMMENDED Buzz22 Chicago may be the least-known of the three storefront companies showcased in this year’s Garage Rep, but for sheer creativity, inn…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:00PM[SHARE]Friday, March 1, 2013
AMERICAN BLUES THEATER EXPANDS TO A FOUR-PLAY 2013-2014 SEASON, INCLUDING AWARD-WINNING WORLD AND CHICAGO PREMIERES, ANDTHE RETURN OF AN ANNUAL SOLD OUT HOLIDAY HIT Â The American Blues Th…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:28PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 28, 2013
RECOMMENDED The performance world struggles with fame in all its many mediums. Lady Gaga perceived the glamour of "The Fame" and the gnarling villainy of "The Fame Monster;" TV satire like R…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:22AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 27, 2013
RECOMMENDED When taken apart song-by-song, the musical catalogue of Black Ensemble Theater’s uplifting new show, "From Doo Wop To Hip Hop," is radically diverse in genre, era, rhythm, …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:13PM[SHARE]WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS AND DIRECTORS HEADLINE GOODMAN THEATRE'S 2013/2014 "DREAM" SEASON A BLUES-INFUSED NEW WORK AND A REVIVED MUSICAL CLASSIC BOOKEND THE LINE-UP OF WORLD PREMIERES, GOODMAN COM…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:02PM[SHARE]Monday, February 25, 2013
Crystal methamphetamine is the drug of the moment in fiction. On television, the meth-fueled "Breaking Bad" has won critical accolades for its dizzying calamities propelled by Bryan Cranston…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:55PM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
