Monthly Archives: February 2022
Crowns and Pronouns
The Drag Seed – Hell in a Handbag
David Cerda, the gifted performer, prolific playwright and one of the treasures of Chicago Theatre, is known for mining every ounce of humor from his LGBTQ parodies of well-known TV and film classics. They include dozens of original productions, like “The Golden Girls” and “The Poseidon Adventure.” This time around, Chicago’s Countess of Camp brings back one of his most popular, vintage productions. Loosely adapted from the film classic,“The Bad Seed,” this is a gay version of the famous, b&w psychological horror-thriller film from the 1950’s. It tells the story of a seemingly perfect little girl who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get what she wants. But the big news is two-fold. Not only has the play been joyously revived, but following a run at Chicago’s Chopin Theatre, the production is Big Apple bound. The show will transfer, from March 31-April 10, to LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club, in New York City!
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A Happy Meal of Spicy Adult Humor
Don’t Dress for Dinner – BrightSide Theatre
Frantic running, doors slamming, horny men and hot women popping up in compromising costumes, positions and situations—this is the essence of French playwright Marc Camoletti’s hilarious and superbly-directed farce, now playing at BrightSide Theatre in Naperville. A 2012 comedy Broadway hit, written in 1987 as a sequel to his signature play, “Boeing-Boeing,” this farce continues the convoluted sexual escapades between Bernard, his wife Jacqueline and their best friend Robert.
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What It Means to Be Human
Come From Away – Broadway in Chicago
I want to sign up to Kiss the Cod so I can become an Islander! This won’t sound strange once you’ve seen this extraordinary, exhilarating and life-affirming musical, now playing for only two weeks in Chicago. First of all, this musical is not, as many have labeled it, about the 9/11 tragedy. It’s a transforming, uplifting, brilliantly written and performed show that’s inspired by the appalling events of that day. But “Come From Away” is a truly cathartic experience about the triumph of humanity over hatred. It’s an exhilarating, joyful, sometimes funny and often heartbreaking story that celebrates the goodness that lives within each of us. It shows what happens when people put aside their fears, prejudices and hostility to embrace what it means to be human.
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The Ultimate Renaissance Man
The Notebooks of Leonardo daVinci – Goodman Theatre
Anyone familiar with Leonardo da Vinci, knows that he possessed an insatiable curiosity and a limitless mind. He was a genius who pursued a never-ending quest for knowledge in a variety of interests, although he’s primarily remembered as one of the greatest artists the world has ever known. His voracious search for an understanding of everything spanned a lifetime—from 1452 to his death in 1519. During this time, Leonardo became known as a celebrated painter, sculptor, draftsman, engineer, architect, scientist, theorist and inventor.
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Another Helping of Fantasy and Fun
Teatro Zinzanni
Once again, the guests are arriving on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel, there to be greeted by a gathering of grinning faces, all of whom are there to happily guide your theatrical experience. If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship or the Renaissance Faire, you’ll have an idea of what awaits you. At the far end of the theatre lobby there’s a huge bar, where all manner of beverages await you. Then, with a fanfare, the enormous company of waitstaff announce that the 300+ seat European cabaret Spiegeltent (mirror tent) is open again, after closing for the pandemic, and ready for your entertainment and dining pleasure. And with that, you’re off and running for three hours of nonstop munching, merriment and mayhem.
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Waukesha Civic Theatre’s Silent Sky offers a veritable constellation of delights
Silent Sky – Waukesha Civic Theatre
Lauren Gunderson’s play Silent Sky is a dazzlingly lyrical dramatization of the life of early 20th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, chronicling her career-defining, gender-defying astronomical breakthroughs studying cephid pulses that created the standard by which distances are measured in space. Indeed, the play is necessarily obsessed by space, Gunderson’s script not only seizes on the scientific implications of exploring space and time, but uses the narrative fiber of her text to play with how space and time is perceived. Indeed, the play spans decades, charting Leavitt’s persistence in the face of institutional misogyny, familial setbacks, and even heartache.
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Duck and Cover or Fight Back?
This is Only a Test – Broken Nose Theatre
It’s come to this: almost everyone owns a gun now in this country, and school shootings are practically a daily occurrence. The result is lockdown drills being held in every educational institution that are as commonplace as tornado and fire drills. But playwright Eric Reyes Loo has taken these preventative exercises to another level in his world premiere drama. Inspired by a report he saw on MSNBC about how one high school was doing more than simply locking down, in response to the epidemic of shootings in this country, Loo saw a play in the students’ reactions to their training. The kids were skeptical at being instructed how to fight back. Their collective view of the program was that it was all fake and just like practicing for a school play.
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Out of the Closet
Sons of Hollywood – Windy City Playhouse
It’s fair to say that most audiences who attend this “Play With Music” will have never heard of movie star, Ramon Novarro. But playwrights Barry Ball and Carl Menninger have done their research. They’ve delved into the lives of both Navarro and his best friend, Billy Haines, then added in the character of co-star and mutual friend, Lucille LeSueur (who would later be known as Joan Crawford). They’ve spiced up their story up with enough fiction and fantasy to add a degree of dramatic cohesiveness and sufficient sexual titillation. The result is an entertaining full-length play set primarily in the world of silent films and the early talkies of the 1920’s and 30’s.
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Animosities Soon Drizzle Away
Outside Mullingar – Citadel Theatre
John Patrick Shanley (the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Moonstruck” and the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright of “Doubt”) has written a tightly constructed, charmingly romantic fable about four stubborn people and, ultimately, the power of love. Set in rural Ireland, the story, inspired by the playwright’s Irish cousins, revolves around two neighboring, elderly adults and their 40-something offspring. It’s about a farm, about the relationship between these two dwindling families and about how loneliness can be sent packing when love is invited into one’s life.
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Melancholy With a Few Laughs
Blues in the Night – Porchlight Music Theater
Because it’s the birthplace of the Blues and the longtime home of Jazz, this musical revue is, quite naturally, set in Southside Chicago, at a rundown hotel during the Great Depression. The show is the 1980, Tony-nominated creation of TV and film director, Sheldon Epps. Although there’s no dialogue to connect the songs, the musical selections seem to kind of blend into a sketchy story set in this Windy City boardinghouse. Never given actual names, the main characters are simply called The Lady from the Road, The Woman of the World and The Girl with a Date. Together with The Man in the Saloon and with frequent appearances by The Dancing Man (a character created especially for this production), the fragmented plot centers on the women’s relationships with the same repugnant Romeo.
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