A Feast For the Eye, Ear and Soul

A Christmas Carol

They say that everything old is new again. That phrase wandered through my head as I enjoyed the opening night of the Goodman Theatre’s 46th annual production of “A Christmas Carol.” The story hasn’t changed, the script is basically the same, some of the actors in this large cast are new but many have returned, a few in different roles. But gifted director Jessica Thebus has tweaked it and made some wonderfully inspired changes and additions to the play that transforms the holiday classic into a fresh, new story. Reimagined, this presentation truly earns the title of A Bonafide Chicago Holiday Tradition.

A Sprinkling of Snow and Magic

The Snow Queen

As Christmas approaches once again there’s a chill in the air and the snow’s beginning to fall. At the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, there’s also a generous sprinkling of magic. Winter heralds a change and the arrival of a new holiday season. Hans Christian Andersen’s enchanted fairy tale, adapted and given a modern feel by Kristin Brandt & Rick Lombardo, boasts songs from almost every genre of music. They’re written by Haddon Kime and Rick Lombardo, with lyrics by Kirsten Brandt, Haddon Kime, and Rick Lombardo. Family audiences and upper grade school age children will lose themselves in this story about two devoted friends, a cold and vain Queen and a shattered magic mirror. It’s a tale filled with a colorful array of memorable supporting characters, including an evil troll, a tough robber girl and her mother, a ditzy witch, a helpful reindeer, a goofy raven, a kind prince and princess and a talking Reindeer.

Cindy Lou Who Returns

Who’s Holiday!

Yes, it’s true: Cindy Lou Who has returned once again to Theater Wit for another bawdy holiday season. Matthew Lombardo’s one-woman comedy about the young, juvenile heroine of the Dr. Seuss classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, has returned to the Windy City. This unauthorized sequel to the beloved children’s holiday morality tale stars the story’s winsome youngster, Cindy Lou Who. Of course, she’s all grown up now and is a forlorn, 40-year-old lush. Oh, she still speaks in those cute, singsong rhyming couplets that everyone will recognize from the Dr. Seuss books. But now Cindy Lou swears like a sailor, drinks nonstop, smokes a great deal and enjoys a hit or two off her bong. 

Sleeping with Beauty

PrideArts is opening the holiday season with a queer pantomime by Tom Whalley, who wrote last year’s pantomime production, Jack Off the Beanstalk. For those unfamiliar with pantomime, it’s a very British form of theater, ordinarily aimed at children, full of songs and stock characters and a lot of audience participation in the form of call and response to the actors. PrideArts reimagines the format, and the story of Sleeping Beauty, for decidedly adult audiences.

A Sweet Christmas Story

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas

Back in 1977, during the holiday season, a sparkling, brand new television special aired that was directed by Jim Henson. It was a sweet Christmas story called “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas,” based upon the popular children’s book by Russell Hoban. The story was a takeoff of O. Henry’s classic short story, “The Gift of the Magi,” in which a loving young, but impoverished, married couple each make sacrifices in order to buy a treasured gift for their spouses. But the irony of their sacrifices is discovered when each opens his or her gift on Christmas morning. For Emmet and his widowed Ma, the sacrifices each makes deeply affects their livelihood.

A Timeless Treasure

She Loves Me

Citadel Theatre is presenting a musical masterpiece for their holiday offering. “She Loves Me” is a tuneful timeless treasure that has been called the perfect musical comedy. And audiences flocking to this intimate theatre in Lake Forest are in complete agreement, as evidenced by the standing ovation. With the talented cast, director and artistic staff supporting their work, this is a perfect production of a perfect show!

Dollywood

No Trip to Tennessee is complete without at least a day stop at Dollywood. In my opinion this is the perfect park for so many reasons.

For starters those who do not want to drive, you can park your car at Patriot Park and there is a trolley that takes you right up to the door. And it just keeps getting better from there.

Pure Imagination

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Prepare to have your eyes popped and your mind blown when you attend the new holiday production at the Paramount Theatre. But first, a little history about this show. In 2013, Sam Mendes directed the original London production that, despite lukewarm reviews, managed to run for three-and-a-half years in the West End. When the much-anticipated production transferred to Broadway four years later it had been completely reworked. The production had a new director, choreographer, set design and now adult actors played all the kids except for Charlie. Also, in a wise decision, four of the songs from the much-loved motion picture were included in the score of the stage version.

Polish Your Glass Slippers

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Well, I have to confess from the get-go that gifted and talented, Jeff Award-nominated director Amber Mak has made me fall in love with this musical, all over again. After seeing it on Broadway I wasn’t a fan. I was so disappointed at how respected playwright Douglas Carter Beane’s changed his new book for this charming Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. He totally reversed the tone of this beloved fairy tale. Beane’s revisions took a sweet, romantic story about a young girl finding her prince and injected it with a soapbox of causes. Cinderella and her friends spent much of the musical conversing about the need for social reform, environmental changes, equality and personal choice and freedom for women. Certainly, all of these themes should be explored, but not in a favorite fairy tale. There’s a time and place for everything. This once much-adored musical turned into a platform for changes in American society. To put it bluntly: the musical had lost its magic.   

Every Family Has Its Ups and Downs

The Lion in Winter

James Goldman’s twelfth century historic comic-drama depicts a life-and-death struggle between King Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine and their three resentful sons. But fear not: this isn’t Shakespeare. Goldman’s play is purposely anachronistic, making it feel completely contemporary. The playwright penned his play to seem like a dark, contemporary-sounding drawing room comedy about, you know, a typical family struggling for absolute power. After one of the many knockdown drag out fights, Queen Eleanor quips, “Well, what family doesn’t have its ups and downs?” You might imagine a production that’s similar to Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” but with a few more characters and performed in Medieval drag.