Reviews Category
If You Can’t Love Yourself
Zac Efron
As Gay Pride Month spins toward into its final weeks of celebration, with the Pride Parade on Halsted just around the corner, an exciting, highly entertaining and enlightening new play is captivating audiences in Old Town. In the inaugural production of this brand new theatre company, audiences are treated to a fab look at the gay experience, as lived by two very likable Asian-American men. Co-written by David Rhee and actor Wai Yim, this absolutely hilarious, often deeply moving original 90-minute comic/drama provides a profound, empathetic look at what it means to be a minority in America.
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Those Gifted Girl Groups
Beehive: The 60’s Musical
For so many audience members, especially those who identify as “Baby Boomers” (like me), Marriott’s scintillating Summer show is a musical montage that promises to bring back a flood of fond memories. Do you remember “The Name Game” and “My Boyfriend’s Back”? If you grew up in the 1960’s, the Golden Age of those gifted musical Girl Groups, you most certainly do! This revue is the soundtrack of your lives, my friends. For younger audiences, this magical musical will offer a historical retrospective of an important decade. Featured in this one-act wonder are many of the catchy pop and rock & roll songs that we sang along with and set our feet dancin’ in the streets.
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Unexpected Humor
Little Bear Ridge Road
Ethan, Sarah’s adult nephew, unexpectedly shows up at her door one night in rural Idaho. Their reunion is uncomfortable, for reasons the audience will soon learn. Due to complications from many years as a meth addict, and possibly due to issues created from contracting Covid, the young man’s father has recently passed away. Ethan has driven from the Northwest coast to settle his father’s estate and, perhaps, reconnect with his estranged Aunt Sarah, his dad’s sister. The two, as Ethan acknowledges, are the last remaining members of Fernsby family, and they both have some unfinished business with which to attend.
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Button!!!
Corduroy
A cuddly little Teddy Bear wearing green bib-top overalls has two goals in his department store world of toys: to find a friend to take him home and to find a Button!!! And that’s the entire plot of Don Freeman’s 1968 picture book. The story’s always been so popular that this picture book’s never gone out of print and libraries can’t keep it on their shelves. It’s rated by the National Education Association among the Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children. The author followed his book with four sequels, but the original story remains the most popular.
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Stand Up
The Salon
Based upon the playwright’s sister’s real-life experience running a beauty parlor on Chicago’s South Side, there’s a fictitious Salon called Bernadette’s. We’re told that it opened its doors back in 1974 by a sincere, empathetic woman who wanted to offer African-American men and women a safe place to spend an hour or two with good people. Bernadette’s not only became a place to get a shave, a trim or have your hair styled by professionals, but it turned into a sanctuary, a place to Stand Up and be seen and heard. Senior stylist Mama T, and her staff that includes Monique, Johnny and MJ, played music, sang along and danced and shared news and gossip with each other. There was a definite community feel to the Salon.
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Night Waltz
A Little Night Music
Set in Sweden around the turn of the century, this lushly romantic musical is a multigenerational celebration of Amour, sometimes as folly, but mostly as a powerful life force. After the Liebeslieder Quintet opens the show and sets the mood with a gently swaying “Night Waltz,” this operatic Greek Chorus” often returns to comment musically on the characters. The five gifted artists who comprise this chorale include Peter Ruger, Mizha Lee Overn, Michael Penick (also cast as Frid, Madame Armfeldt’s caregiver), Madison Kaufman (who later plays the Egerman’s saucy maid, Petra), and the exquisitely talented Tessa Newman (who steps out of the Quintet to portray Desiree’s precocious young daughter, Fredrika). Throughout the next two-and-a-half hours, this magnificent musical eavesdrops on the loves, disappointments and tangled web of affairs enjoyed by the various star-crossed individuals.
Read MoreTINA: The Tina Turner Musical
Exploding with energy and electrifying sound, TINA: The Tina Turner Musical is a show like no other. The musical follows the life and incredible comeback of Turner, starting with her modest early years in Tennessee and her journey to becoming one of the world’s most known names in the Rock’n’Roll music scene and music history itself. The show takes an in-depth look into Tina’s life, from her young years as Anna-Mae Bullock singing in New Orleans’ nightclubs, to how she met and started singing alongside Ike Turner, and her tumultuous career and marriage while with him, to how she finally overcame her struggles and became her own artist and person.
Born in 1939 in Tennessee, Tina Turner was and is still known as the “Queen of Rock’n’Roll”. While she originally started by singing in church choir, she later met her future husband Ike Turner and began singing alongside him in his band, The Kings of Rhythm, between the years of 1956-1976. This period of her life was difficult, as she struggled with domestic abuse and began to have children all while touring and making music. Following a split from Ike and an almost fatal overdose, Tina reemerged into the music industry with what is known as one of the best comebacks of all time. Her hit song “What’s Love Got to Do with It” became Turner’s first and only Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 song and won her a Grammy award. Turner would continue on to be the recipient of 12 Grammy Awards and one of the most best-selling artists of all time. In an era of music that was full of big name stars and hot performances, Tina Turner’s shows sold more tickets than any other solo artists in history, a staggering and incredible feat that goes to show how beloved she was by the world.
The show itself takes you along on this journey, accompanied by some of Turner’s biggest hits (“We Don’t Need Another Hero”, “Private Dancer”, “Better Be Good to Me”) and invigorating performances by the incredibly talented cast, headed by Zurin Villaneuva (Turner). From the incredible stage design, costumes, dazzling light and booming sound, this production is one-of-a-kind. As each era in Turner’s life develops, the outfits and confidence grow larger and more captivating. The performances from Villanueva (Turner), Deon Releford-Lee (Ike Turner), Dylan S. Wallach (Roger Davies), Roz White (Zelma) and Symphony King/Brianna Cameron (young Anna-Mae) went above and beyond.
Even if you don’t know much about Turner, her music, or anything about her career, this is a very interesting look into her as a person, beyond just the famous name. If you are a Tina Turner fan, old or new, be sure to stick around after the final bows as the cast returns for a megamix of Turner’s hits with all of the glitz and glitter of a real-life Tina performance.
Highly Recommended
Reviewed by Emilie Giardina
This production is running June 11th-16th at Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, WI. Overture Center is located at 201 State St., Madison, WI, 53703. The production is approx. 2 hours and 45 minutes, including one intermission.
Tickets can be purchased through their website or by calling the box office at 608-258-4141.
A Way to Be Good Again
The Kite Runner
Amir is a young man riddled with guilt. Back when he was a child, Amir’s lifelong companion, his devoted servant and best friend Hassan, became the victim of a horrific tragic assault. But Amir simply cowered in the shadows, standing by and watching, doing nothing to defend his friend nor anything to assist Hassan afterwards. He has never told anyone about the brutal attack and Amir’s guilt over his cowardice has forever haunted him. But one day he receives a mysterious phone call asking Amir to return to the Middle East, telling him, “There is a way to be good again.”
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Everything’s Alright
Jesus Christ Superstar
Guitarist extraordinaire Paul Compton takes the spotlight centerstage, captivating the audience with the ominous opening chords of the show’s overture that sets the mood and fills the entire theatre with sound. This glorious rock-opera score, led by Phil Videckis’ accomplished onstage band, is heavy on electric guitar, keyboard, bass, brass, reeds and percussion. It’s a lush and layered new sound for the Meiley-Swallow Hall stage that may surprise the faithful BrightSide Theatre fans. Theatergoers who are unfamiliar with this musical will soon realize that they’re in for an edgy, very modern retelling of Christ’s final days on earth. However, the fans of this show will thrill to the promise of a rock musical that broke new ground, back in 1971. Because in BrightSide Theatre’s stellar new production, truly “Everything’s Alright.”
Read MoreA Trivial Comedy for Serious People
The Importance of Being Earnest
June is busting out all over. In celebration of Gay Pride Month there’s so much fun and so many colorful activities bursting out all over Chicago. Not to take a back seat to the festivities, Strawdog Theatre is flying their own Freak Flag with a fresh and frolicking new production of Oscar Wilde’s final play, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Wilde subtitled his witty work, “a trivial comedy for serious people.”
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