What makes a life extraordinary? Is it the chance meetings with celebrities, surviving world war or is it all the love that surrounds us? ‘Lady in Denmark’ by Dael Orlandersmith makes its world premiere at Goodman Theatre under the direction of Victory Gardens’ Artistic Director, Chay Yew. Orlandersmith is known…
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Theatre in Review
I had high expectations for Cosmologies as I read the promotional material in preparation for attending the show’s opening at The Gift Theatre. The opening scene also gave me hope (briefly) as it was humorous and set the viewer up for the anticipated “existential absurdist comedy.” Instead the audience was…
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Theatre in Review
Hello, Dolly! starring Betty BuckleyOriental Theatre thru November 17, 2018 Tony Award winning superstar Betty Buckley is featured in the title role of this revival of the 1964 Broadway musical Hello, Dolly! based on Thornton Wilder's 1955 play The Matchmaker. For theatre enthusiast, it’s a familiar story…and it’s so nice…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 22 October 2018 02:54
Halloween was never so funny - 'The Golden Girls: Bea Afraid!'
Written by Ken Payne
Just in time for Halloween comes Hell in a Handbag’s The Golden Girls: Bea Afraid! The play’s name itself probably tips most off that audiences will be in for one helluva ride. Handbag found much success in the past couple of years creating their own hysterical episodes of The Golden…
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Theatre in Review
Monday, 22 October 2018 23:38
Review: 'Private Peaceful' at Greenhouse Theater Center
Written by Earl Cochran
It’s 1916 in Great Britain when this story opens as 17-year-old Private Tommo Peaceful (played by Shane O’Regan) attempts to stay up all night to try to remember everything. There is a sense of urgency throughout the 80-minute monologue as Tommo flashes from present to past as his watch ticks…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 21 October 2018 22:15
The Lonesome West - Dark Comedy From That Man Who Gave You Three Billboards Outside Billings
Written by Bill Esler
Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West brings us Coleman and Valene Connor, two brothers fighting continuously over issues large and small: which brand of potato chips is better, who of the two do girls find more attractive, and who really owns their house. As the play opens, Coleman (Robert Tobin), the…
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Theatre in Review
Sunday, 21 October 2018 00:02
Go! Go! Go to Idomeneo! - or - Thank the gods!
Written by William and Margaret Swain
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Lyric Opera of Chicago is opera as it should be, transcending all expectations. Don’t miss it! Indeed, we wonder why this uncommonly extraordinary performance did not open the Lyric Opera of Chicago season. Happily, after going dark for more than a week, forcing the…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Wednesday, 17 October 2018 04:54
Like an onion; SHREK THE MUSICAL has layers of fun for the whole family
Written by Kendall Royzen
The anti-fairytale is something everyone can get behind. Though there have many of these attempts over the years, Shrek is still the stand out, the one that broke the mold, the OG. Now everyone's favorite ogre is back in an hilarious stage spectacle, based on the Oscar-winning, smash-hit film. An…
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Theatre in Review
Wednesday, 17 October 2018 22:26
Review: Remy Bummpo's 'Frankenstein’ at Theater Wit
Written by John Accrocco
You may be wondering why four of the city’s most formidable houses are each mounting productions of ‘Frankenstein’ this season. You may be also asking yourself which, if any, to see. It appears that Lifeline, Remy Bumppo, Court Theatre and Lookingglass have all included unique adaptations of the sci-fi classic.…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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Tuesday, 16 October 2018 02:02
Strawdog has great idea with 'Masque Macabre', but...
Written by Vika Lvova
It’s that spooky time of year when we crave cheap candy and scary movies, and when deserted storefronts suddenly pop their doors open to sell Halloween costumes. Strawdog Theatre Company launches its 31st season with the world premiere of Masque Macabre, a Halloween-y show inspired by the works of Edgar…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Wednesday, 10 October 2018 18:50
When We Don't Know What To Do With Them, We Send Them Downstate
Written by Bill Esler
“Downstate” is a bit of a dog whistle for Chicagoland, suggesting a cultural distinction between urbanites in the north, and the vast agrarian expanses to the south – downstate - where trash goes, sewage flows, and where the state government builds prisons. The word becomes generalized in Downstate, a new…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Sunday, 14 October 2018 21:58
Waist not, want not - 'Waistwatchers the Musical' at Royal George Theatre
Written by Mariah Sulaiman
Forget about the lofty plans you had for the day, the goals you had set. Grab your girls, all your friends, your snacks, your drinks, and head over to Miss Cook’s Women’s Gym! WaistWatchers the Musical will have you and your friends laughing hysterically and cheering along with MC, Cheryl,…
Published in
Theatre in Review
Wednesday, 10 October 2018 05:51
Christian Gray Victoriously Brings Poe Alive in First Folio's "The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story"
Written by Ken Payne
The excitement begins as you walk up to the Mayslake Peabody Estate. It screams Poe, despite the fact that it was built around 1920, some 70 years after the great American writer’s death. Upon entering we are given a dance card. Two colors are distributed – blue and yellow. The…
Published in
Theatre in Review
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Spaceman: Into the Quiet Terror of the Void
Written by Ken PayneSpaceman, presented by [producingbody], touches down at The Edge Off-Broadway with a quiet, unnerving force, pulling audiences into the fragile headspace of an astronaut drifting far from home and even farther from certainty. Under Eric Slater’s beautifully calibrated direction, playwright… -
Inside a Real ‘Fire House’ You Are Immersed in Phantasmic Lives of Firefighters
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Raven Theatre announces the 2026-27 season
Written by Buzz Center StageRaven Theatre, under the director of Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Berry, announces its 44th season, to include Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop, directed by Mikael Burke in a co-production with About Face Theatre; Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, directed by Raven Executive Artistic Director Jonathan…
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