News & Reviews Category
A Smash Triumph for Music Theater Works
Legends of the 50s and 60s: Greatest Hits – Music Theater Works
The joint is jumpin’ and rockin’ and rollin’ up in Skokie because a new era is about to begin. Maybe it’s because, after well over a year, this was (to my knowledge) the first live production in the Chicago area. Maybe it’s the fact that this entertaining pop musical revue features so many wonderful hit songs that spark youthful memories for the majority of the audience. Or maybe because this is simply a superbly talented cast performing their hearts out in a beautifully sung and professionally staged production. In any case, we heartily welcome back live theatre and exciting performances, as exemplified by this fantastic celebration of the past!
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We Are Out There! – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
Next year Chicago Shakespeare gets lost in space, as they present a live production of an original, sci-fi musical. Based loosely upon the classic B-horror film of the 1950’s, “It Came From Outer Space,” this hilarious 45-minute prologue offers a taste of what we can expect from this world premiere musical comedy about extraterrestrial life arriving on earth. It’s a delightful sampler, professionally produced and absolutely tantalizing. After viewing this preview, audiences will be standing in line to see the full production in 2022!
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An Inherently Evil Act
Ohio State Murders – Goodman Theatre
A well-known author, Suzanne Alexander is revisiting the university she attended between 1949 and 1952. As one of the few African-American students during that turbulent time, Sue found campus life to be a lonely existence. She was forced into living a quiet, segregated, almost isolated life at Ohio State. Despite her appetite for reading classic literature and a gift for excellent writing, acknowledged by her English professor, Suzanne finds that declaring English as her major is met with derision and scorn.
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What Was Old Is New Again
The New Classics (A Virtual Broadway Cabaret) – Lyric Opera
Those of us who have been attending live theatre in Chicago long enough to remember The Civic Theatre, which was attached to the Lyric Opera House of Chicago such that they were both part of the same edifice, still quietly mourn the loss of that famous, intimate space through gritted teeth. We all understand that Lyric Opera needed more room backstage if they were going to retain their status as one of the greatest opera companies in the world, and as the world of stage production allowed for larger and more complex sets, there was simply not enough room to keep all the flying horses and swan boats behind the scenes. So, Lyric bought the smaller house, virtually gutted it, (a bit of the proscenium remains, a stark remembrance of one of Chicago’s most renown playhouses), and now the giant dragon-puppets have somewhere to graze between flights. We “get it.” We “understand.” And we grind our teeth.
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A Tour-de-force of Illusion
The Magic Parlor — Palmer House
Until it’s safe for the historic Palmer House Hilton Hotel to reopen its doors again, and it’s safe to return to live performances, Master Magician Dennis Watkins will be performing his shows live on Zoom. His appreciative audiences come from every age group and from all over the world. Each performance is slightly different because of the makeup of his audience and the choices and manipulations created by his interactive viewers. And that’s what makes this viral production so unusual and spectacular: Mr. Watkins has only so much control over his magic show; it’s primarily how each audience member reacts to his tour-de-force of illusion that makes each show so unique and memorable.
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The Guest That Wouldn’t Leave
Jeffrey — Pride Arts
Before there was Covid-19 there was the AIDS epidemic. The virus infected thousands of gay men and women and decimated homosexual communities all over the world. However, there will be those watching this staged reading who weren’t even born until after this particular plague had been brought under control. Most young people won’t understand the full horror of this disease. The complications from AIDS sickened and eventually took the lives of so many innocent victims. But, without having lived through this era, some younger audiences won’t appreciate the bleak existence that a gay man tiptoed through, between 1981 and the mid-to-late 1990’s.
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Best Friends Forever
W.o.W – Theatre Above the Law
W.o.W. is the story of a pair of best friends at three different points in their lives: young teenagers getting ready for a party, young adults facing their first grown up decisions, and adults dealing with their consequences. The common thread is that each point the play finds them, they are all hiding out in a bathroom. The setting makes a certain about of sense. It is both obviously very private, but a place anyone who has gossiped with a friend at the mirror knows, a place where you can be open and vulnerable, too.
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A Hand Reaching Out in the Darkness
The Sound Inside – Goodman Theatre
Just as a cool glass of water slakes our thirst on a hot summer day, the Goodman Theatre has returned, quenching a need that audiences may have forgotten was missing. One of Chicago’s best-loved theatres has returned with a polished, new, live production. And it’s not simply a streamed version of an old presentation: it’s all-new and first-rate. In the premiere of Goodman’s series of live, televised productions, we have three great, new scripts brought to life in fully-produced, live-acted presentations. After more than a year, audiences are finally going to be able to replenish their souls and intellects with another superior Goodman production.
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Slam Dunk the Junk
Goods – Artemisia Theatre
In the not-so-distant future, the world that playwright Lauren Ferebee paints is a pretty dismal place. Climate change and pollution have grown out of control. There’s practically no land left on earth because the oceans have flooded most of the coastal cities, air temperatures are unpredictable and the planet is overrun with trash and litter. Refugee arrivals are still a problem and there doesn’t seem to be any solution. It’s 2100 and Marla and Sam, two interplanetary astronaut employees, are returning from their latest mission. They’re garbage collectors, whose job it is to slam dunk the junk from earth and deposit it somewhere in outer space.
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Gay Youth and Conservative Religion
Southern Baptist Sissies – PrideArts
Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic continues to put a damper on everyone’s lives, forcing people to stay safe inside their homes, instead of going out for any reason. But smart, creative theatres have found a way to keep presenting their work to interested audiences. Chicago’s PrideArts, for example, has been offering a series of staged play readings as one-night-only viral productions. By special permission, I attended the final dress rehearsal, in order to review this viral production before the actual performance. Joe Hudson, who appeared in Bailiwick Repertory’s 2002 fully-staged production, directs this live Zoom presentation, featuring a cast of eight very talented actors.
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