November, 2017 | Chicago Theatre Review

Monthly Archives: November 2017

Blow Out Your Candles

Colin Douglas November 13, 2017 Comments Off

The Glass Menagerie – Jedlicka Performing Arts Center

Tennessee Williams’ self-entitled Memory Play launched his career as a respected playwright. It

Art Imitating Life

Colin Douglas November 11, 2017 Comments Off

Fade – Teatro Vista and Victory Gardens

Tanya Saracho, cofounder of Teatro Luna and a Victory Gardens ensemble playwright, maintains that her 2013 play isn’t about her own life. This, despite the fact

You’ve Gotta Have Friends

Colin Douglas November 11, 2017 Comments Off

Significant Other – About Face Theatre

Jordan is a young man, on the cusp of turning 30. As the play opens, he’s enjoying a mostly fulfilling social life as the Gay Best Friend of his three college pals, Kiki,

As History Repeats, Still We Stumble

Aaron_hunt November 7, 2017 Comments Off

Third Eye Ensemble – With Blood, With Ink

Third Eye Ensemble continues to highlight the spiritual journey of women with its current production of David Crozier’s operatic dramatization of the life of Juana Inés de la Cruz, a nun, scholar, poet, and champion of women’s rights well before our time, when women dare to hope, often hopelessly, that their humanity will be “protected.”

Go Into Your Dance!

Colin Douglas November 7, 2017 Comments Off

42nd Street – Drury Lane Oakbrook

There’s an old saying proclaiming that “everything old is new again.” Generally it implies that, if you wait long enough, yesterday’s ideas will come back into fashion again. But that’s

A Tree Without Roots

Colin Douglas November 7, 2017 Comments Off

Yasmina’s Necklace

Abdul Samee, or Sam, as he prefers to be called so as to be more accepted, is a product of several different cultures. Ali, his father, is an Iraqi immigrant; Sara, his extremely

49th Annual Jeff Awards

Colin Douglas November 7, 2017 Comments Off

Paramount Theatre and Court Theatre Take Top Honors

at the 49th Annual Jeff Awards

The Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook Terrace hosted a star-studded evening November 6, 2017. The mega event was the 49th Annual Equity Jeff Awards. It celebrated a splendid

You’re in the Band

Gayle November 7, 2017 Comments Off

School of Rock – Broadway in Chicago

In 2003, and for many years thereafter, “School of Rock,” starring Jack Black and a classroom of musically talented kids, was the most popular, highest grossing comedy film of all time (until “Pitch Perfect 2,” two years ago). The movie came to the attention of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Soon thereafter the iconic British composer acquired theatre rights and work began on Webber’s newest musical. Julian Fellowes, known for writing such popular television series as “Downton Abbey,” the script for the Oscar-winning film, “Gosford Park,” as well as the libretto for the theatrical musical “Mary Poppins,” was asked to adapt Mike White’s cinematic screenplay. Webber, best known for his soaring, romantic scores for such theatrical classics as “Phantom of the Opera” and “Evita,” returns here to his earlier roots, so prominent in rock musicals like “Jesus Christ Superstar.” This time around, Webber worked with his “Love Never Dies” lyricist, Glenn Slater (“Sister Act,” “The Little Mermaid”), developing a fleshed-out score for the theatrical treatment that also featured several of the rock songs from the film.

A JOB WELL DONE

Gayle November 7, 2017 Comments Off

J.B. – City Lit Theatre

Please allow me to step back in time for just a moment. We are heading back to the 5th century B.C. The main playwrights of the day include Euripides and Sophocles on the Greek Tragedy side. Aristophanes headed the Comedy side. These three men wrote over 240 plays. Each and every role was played by a man. The parts of women were played by younger men or boys.

Football and Phantoms

Colin Douglas November 4, 2017 Comments Off

Welcome to Jesus – American Theatre Company

Sound, shadows and sudden shocks of light spin a tension-filled tale that combines ghosts and

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Monthly Archives: November 2017

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