Author: Colin Douglas
Simply the Best
A Taste of Soul
This Autumn, Black Ensemble Theater is serving up a sumptuous Spread of Soul for the discerning audience’s musical dining pleasure. The production, written and directed by talented Daryl D. Brooks, cleverly presents a banquet of bang-on hit songs as an African-African themed cooking show. It copies the format of every much-loved how-to-do-it program on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. It’s definitely a recipe for success.
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The Man in the Chair
The Drowsy Chaperone
The house lights dim leaving the audience waiting in the dark for something to happen. Suddenly a man’s voice breaks the silence. The unnamed man confides that his personal prayer at every musical he attends, while sitting in a theatre before the lights go up, is that the show be short and that the actors stay out of the aisles. This audience laughs knowingly because they’ve undoubtedly been at a play where the fourth wall is broken and theatergoers become asked to clap, sing along or even come up on the stage. The feeling is, “Hey, I paid YOU to entertain ME!”
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Let the Good Times Roll!
Blues For an Alabama Sky
Welcome to the Harlem Renaissance. The bootleg champagne is flowing and the good times are rolling. It’s 1930 and Pearl Cleage’s exuberant and deeply moving play is sometimes funny and peppered with blues and jazzy music. But the play also provides a clear look at the lives of five very different individuals while tackling some serious social issues. Ms. Cleage’s drama celebrates the art, music, dreams and deep friendships forged within the urban African-American community during the Depression. Somewhere offstage are the shadows of luminaries like Langston Hughes, Margaret Sanger, Josephine Baker. But onstage we’re treated to four amiable and attractive New Yorkers whose lives are about to change, thanks to the blues brought on by a newcomer from Alabama.
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A Soul in Torment
A View From the Bridge
Shattered Globe Theatre is known, and relied upon for, their consistently excellent productions. Their current presentation of “A View From the Bridge,” one of Arthur Miller’s finest, most gut-wrenching dramas, is as rewarding an evening in the theater as you’re ever going to find.
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Birthdays Are Like Boomerangs
Revolution
Someone once wrote that best friends are like soulmates. They stick by your side, no matter what. And that’s what playwright Bret Neveu celebrates in his world premiere that’s named for the hair salon where two of the three characters are employed. In fact Puff, the newly-appointed manager of Revolution Hair Cuts, has decided to commemorate her 26th birthday in an unusual location: the alley behind the mall where she works. She agrees to share the day with her best friend and co-worker, Jame. The Rain Forest Cafe looms just 300 feet away and serves up some provocative drinks, perfect for a special occasion. But their hard-earned paychecks can go a lot further and provide a greater blowout on the loading dock of Revolution.
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A Thriller Chiller
The Mousetrap
The model for every theatrical thriller ever written, “The Mousetrap,” Agatha Christie’s famous murder mystery, is still playing 71 years later in London. The play has the distinction of being the longest-running of the modern era. With well over 29,000 performances to its credit, Ms. Christie’s crime drama is an especial favorite with regional and educational theatres. The Guinness Book of World Records calls Dame Agatha Christie the best-selling crime novelist of all time, but in 1930 she began a second career as a successful playwright. From over 20 scripts, which include “Ten Little Indians” (or its original title “And Then There Were None”), and “Witness for the Prosecution,” it’s “The Mousetrap” that still remains Christie’s most popular theatrical work.
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A Work in Progress
Baked! The Musical
A real cause for celebration, the magnificent and unique Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre has opened its 26th season of musicals and concert productions. Fred Anzevino’s crowd-pleasing, critically lauded venue, always recognized for its high quality entertainment presented in an intimate setting, is beginning the year with a Season of Sondheim. But before those three sublime Stephen Sondheim musicals take to the stage, Theo is doing something else it does that makes Anzevino’s theatre so special. They’re giving a pair of fledgling writer/composers an opportunity to fully stage their new musical.
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A Welcome Return
Hamilton
From its stellar 2015 Off-Broadway opening, to its epic, jaw-dropping Broadway opening later that same year, this exhilarating, inspirational, sung and rapped musical is still going strong today, eight years later. In a welcome return to Chicago, this mega hit, which earned unprecedented popularity (especially among younger audiences) and unheard of critical acclaim, is back in the Windy City through the end of 2023—perhaps even longer if this return visit proves to be popular.
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A Life of Comforting Traditions and Rituals
Birthday Candles
Dramatic literature is full of plays and musicals whose theme is life affirming. We’re advised to stop and smell the roses, to always appreciate that earth is too wonderful for anybody to realize and to realize that life is a banquet but most people are starving to death. In playwright Noah Haidle’s beautifully poetic new play, which opened on Broadway last year and starred Debra Messing, we follow the life of a woman named Ernestine. She lives in Michigan but longs for travel and adventure. In Northlight’s radiant production this character is in the hands of one of Chicago’s most gifted and popular actresses, Kate Fry. It’s a performance, indeed an entire production, that should definitely not be missed. It’s that exquisite.
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Don’t Feed the Plant!
Little Shop of Horrors
I naively thought that there wasn’t anyone, certainly any theatergoer in the area, who hadn’t seen this unusual, uniquely enjoyable play. However, as I listened to comments from my fellow audience members around me, I found I was wrong. Having seen this curious comic rock horror musical so many times that I know all the lines and lyrics, I found myself envying those who were experiencing this weirdly wonderful show for the first time, here at the Paramount Theatre.
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