Chicago Theatre Review
Family, Faith and the Future
Miracle on South Division Street
For generations the Nowak family has called their neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, home. Clara is the matriarch and her three grown children, Ruth, Beverly and Jimmy, are her pride and joy. The old neighborhood has gone through many changes. Businesses have closed, buildings have been shuttered or even torn down. Many of the old residents have moved away, relocating to the suburbs. But despite all of this, one landmark still remains the same. Located outside the Nowak’s home, just steps away from the old barbershop, stands a very large statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Read MoreLet Down Your Hair
Rapornzel
Have you ever heard of a Panto or Pantomime? I’m not talking about a game of charades or a performance by French mime artist Marcel Marceau. A Panto is a very popular English theatrical tradition presented around the holidays. It’s a comedy with music, usually based upon a familiar fairy tale, and the humor is broad and extremely bawdy, especially for the adults. The Panto features cross-dressing: the Panto Dame is typically played by a man in drag and the Principal Boy is portrayed by a young woman in trousers. The show also incorporates plenty of audience participation. We’re often asked to sing along with the cast, and the show features lots of audience participation and call-outs. For example, theatergoers are directed to shout a racy greeting each time a certain characters appear on stage. We’re also instructed to “Boo” the villain whenever he or she shows up. A gay Fairy is greeted with mad cheering and applause and when any of the Good Guys join the story, the audience is commanded to whistle, shout and cheer.
Read MoreMore Befuddled Than Beguiled
Taming of the Shrew
Always reluctant to attend a production of what’s consider William Shakespeare’s most controversial play, I was intrigued to see how the highly respected Court Theatre would treat this comedy. Would I be befuddled or beguiled? TAMING OF THE SHREW is viewed as a problem play, especially since the Me Too Movement, because of its subject matter. For anyone not familiar with the play, Shakespeare’s comedy is about—indeed, seems to celebrate—misogyny. Baptista’s docile younger daughter, Bianca, isn’t allowed to marry until his more outspoken daughter, Katherina, finds a husband. But no one’s interested in Kate because she’s so strong-willed. The Bard focuses on male dominance over females, in is play, and how women need to be beaten down and brought to their knees. At the end of the play, after being “tamed” by Petruchio, Kate, the Shrew, instructs her female companions that a wife must be obedient to her husband. It’s a most irritating and painful monologue, to say the least.
Read MoreBlack Comedy Tonight
Black Comedy
Black Comedy, a farce by Peter Shaffer from 1965 and Theatre Above the Law’s new production, opens on a darkened stage. Brindsley and his fiancee have ‘borrowed’ the fancier furniture of a neighbor to impress an art collector. Just before the party is set to begin, a fuse blows plunging the characters into darkness, but bringing the stage lights up. While the audience can the see the actors, the characters can’t see anything and vice versa. When the characters restore the lights, the theater goes dark again. Add a parade of unexpected and unwelcome guests, and you have the recipe of a first rate farce.
Read MoreBigger and Better Than Ever!
A Christmas Carol
If you can believe it, this is the Goodman Theatre’s unbelievable 48th year presenting their popular, critically acclaimed production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. And the great news is that this year’s production is even bigger and better, than ever! Each year the Theatre surprises audiences with lots of exciting, new surprises that make their production feel fresh and even more extraordinary than the previous year. New cast members grace the stage and familiar actors seen in an unusual role tell the story. Technical tweaks in the scenery, new special effects and additional music and properties add a special freshness to the production. And each year, while Charles Dickens’ story and Tom Creamer’s script are both basically the same, the production is always a little different. And viva la difference!
Read MoreAll the World’s a Stage
As You Like It
Shakespeare’s sweet, pastoral comedy, thought to have been written around 1599, is one of his more frequently performed of his plays and an audience favorite among professional, regional and educational theaters, alike. It boasts a large cast of memorable characters, all of whom spend most of their time roaming through the forest and farming community and pining for love. The story has even been adapted for radio, film and the musical stage.
Read MoreHappy Holidays
White Christmas
We’ve already had an early snowfall in Chicagoland this Winter, but, at Aurora’s breathtaking Paramount Theatre, the snow is falling again on stage, night after night. The award-winning Theatre’s latest offering is a truly magical stage adaptation of the classic 1954 film holiday film. Audiences, both young and old, will be absolutely delighted and emotionally moved by Paramount’s sweet-sounding, visually stunning Christmas confection. This musical production glitters so brightly and sparkles with so much talent that it’s guaranteed to put the audience in the holiday mood.
Read MoreFabulous, Baby!
Sister Act
Dreaming of fame, fortune and phenomenal stardom is the attractive and audacious Deloris Van Cartier. The charismatic protagonist of this musical is a flamboyant Philadelphia nightclub singer. Deloris is hoping, as she auditions her hit, “Take Me to Heaven,” that her smarmy gangster boyfriend and discotheque director, Curtis Jackson, will make that happen. But when Deloris accidentally witnesses Curtis and his posse of thugs offing a guy who squealed on him, suddenly her life is in danger. Led by Deloris’ old high school buddy, the sweet-natured “Sweaty Eddie,” the Philly Police decide that the best place for Lady Fabulous to safely hide is in a convent. And thus this moving story of friendship, sisterhood and becoming “Fabulous, Baby!” begins.
Read MoreMusic, Menace and a Murder Myth
Amadeus
Sparked by rumors and stories surrounding the life and death of Austrian Classical composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, famed English playwright, Sir Peter Shaffer (EQUUS, BLACK COMEDY, LETTICE AND LOVAGE) wrote this historically-based murder mystery. Shaffer’s 1981, multiple Tony Award-winning wig-and-costume masterpiece was also adapted three years later into an impressive, Oscar-winning film. The play is narrated by Antonio Salieri, the 18th century court composer for Viennese Emperor, Joseph II. Within the first moments of the play, Salieri states that he’s not only responsible for poisoning Mozart, but that he’s riddled with guilt and has decided to take his own life. Come hell or high water, Salieri only wants to be remembered, if not for his artistry, then for his notoriety.
Read MoreA Privilege to Pee
Urinetown
Welcome to Urinetown. It’s not an actual place, as Officer Lockstock, our Narrator and political henchman enjoys telling us: it’s a metaphysical state of mind. He and Little Sally, a precocious street urchin, inform the audience that a twenty-year draught has led to a severe water shortage. This unnamed, dystopian city is now run by a corrupt municipal administration. It’s lorded over by the evil authoritarian, Caldwell B. Cladwell. This miserly money grubber has outlawed private toilets and is gleefully exploiting the poor for every penny. Each citizen is forced to pay an exorbitant fee, in order to use the communal toilets around town. Suddenly it becomes “A Privilege to Pee.”
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