Monthly Archives: February 2023
How Opposites Attract
Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle
Prolific British playwright Simon Stephens has written a number of excellent adaptations of other writers’ works, as well as several original plays. Often these works have perplexing and tantalizing titles. Stephen’s excellent, award-winning dramatic adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time,” is one such interesting title. In Griffin Theatre’s latest production we have a one-act play, curiously named for German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg. It’s a two-character drama, with some comic moments, that’s about how opposites attract.
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Falling Slowly
Once
As I was leaving last night’s press opening I kept thinking of how fortunate Chicagoans are that we have such an abundance of excellent theatres available to us. And the remarkable thing is they all seem to be presenting so many outstanding productions at this time. Chicago theatergoers are going to have a challenging time either choosing which shows to attend or trying to get to all of them before they close.
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A Higher Ground
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Stevie Wonder Experience
One afternoon, as a little boy growing up in Detroit, Michigan, my Grandpa and I were watching “American Bandstand” together. Suddenly I became aware of a young, new, extraordinarily talented young African-American kid who was unbelievable. His name was Little Stevie Wonder. He was around my age, lived somewhere near me, and was on national television singing “Fingertips, Parts 1 & 2,” and accompanying himself on his harmonica. All the while a studio full of joyful teenagers were dancing to his infectious music with wild abandon. But, in addition to being an astounding talent, Stevie Wonder also happened to be blind. I was completely in awe of this gifted young man, and never forgot him. From that moment I became a lifelong fan of Stevie Wonder.
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Les Misérables
Les Misérables is back, and I can’t believe I am saying this but it’s better than ever. Considered one of the greatest musicals it is based on a book by Victor Hugo, music by Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.
For anyone who has never seen this show, my boyfriend being one of the few, this is a show “unlike any that he has ever seen.” He immediately became a fan.
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Searching for Forgiveness
Right to Be Forgotten
When Derril Lark was seventeen years old, he made a mistake. Since then, he has done his best to make up for it and be a better person. Ten years later, he has moved on, but the internet has not. His mistake is still the first thing you find when googling his name. He knows what he did was wrong, but doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance? But how can that happen when the worst version of ourselves lives on, trapped in amber for everyone to see?
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A Beautiful Dream of Life
Ride the Cyclone
Being original has a lot going for it in the 21st century, since everything old, as they say, is new again. Nowadays a brand-new show that’s not a jukebox musical, a biographical retrospective about a famous singer featuring his entire songbook, or a musicalized retelling of a novel, movie or even another play, is a real cause for celebration. This wonderful 90-minute musical, that’s actually been around for 15 years, is as unique as it is both funny and heartbreaking. And, unless a theatergoer has seen this show in its American premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, or more recently at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage, it may be a new musical adventure for them.
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The King of Comedy
The Odd Couple
BrightSide Theatre continues their 11th season (or is it actually their 10th Season Again! due to the pandemic shutdown?) with an iconic comedy by popular playwright Neil Simon. The prolific scribe, who’s often been called The King of Comedy, is known for such hits as “Come Blow Your Horn,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Plaza Suite” and, from previous BrightSide seasons, “Promises, Promises,” “The Dinner Party” and “Rumors.” Set in New York City during a hot summer in the early 1960’s, “The Odd Couple” is a hilarious story about friends and the strength and imperfections of longtime friendships.
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The Incessant Dirt and Dust
Fen
When the audience enters the beautiful Court Theatre they will behold a startling sight. Collette Pollard’s naturalistic scenic and projection design for this production of Caryl Churchill’s play is a vast, terraced expanse covered with dry soil and pocked with a few dying plants and rocks. This wasteland is a metaphor that visually represents the parched, hopeless lives of the characters we’re about to meet in the land they call home. The darkness is occasionally broken as the shadows part through Keith Parham’s eerie, moody lighting; and Jeffrey Levin’s magnificent sound design hovers over the production like a wings of a giant predatory bird. The atmosphere is complete for this ghostly story.
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Filling the Silence With Poetry and Passion
Anna in the Tropics
On a steamy Summer day in Tampa, Florida, three women wait anxiously at the docks, searching for a ship to arrive. This vessel will carry Juan Julian to them, their handsome, new, much-anticipated lector. He will replace the previous lector, who died several weeks ago. The lector’s job is to read novels aloud to the employees of this small, family-owned Cuban cigar manufacturing company, while they work. Juan’s mellifluous voice will transport the immigrant laborers, who are mostly female, to a far more interesting and romantic world than their own. Reading from his books fills the silence with poetry and passion, and alleviates the monotony of the hand-rolling, sorting and packaging cigars. As some of the workers push for modernization and change, it soon becomes clear that not everyone at the factory likes having the lector around.
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Black Lives Matter
Boulevard of Bold Dreams
The evening of February 29, 1940 heralded the beginning of a new era in filmmaking. History was about to be made as Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win the coveted Academy Award for her supporting role in the blockbuster motion picture, “Gone With the Wind.” But, in the playwright’s compelling fictional portrayal of this monumental evening, there are at least three Black Americans at Hollywood’s Ambassador Hotel who are harboring a pocketful of wishes and and lifelong aspirations.
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