Reviews Category
Neighboring on Disturbed
Right Now.
For those of you who remember their dreams, you’ve probably had some unsettling dream experiences where you’re talking to, say, your sister, and suddenly, without warning or volition, you realize that she has actually been, all along, an old boss or your high school gym teacher.
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A Ghost Story
Household Spirits
Just in time for Halloween, Theater Wit is presenting a ghost story that’s being advertised as a dark comedy. It’s not. Oh, there’s a ghost, a creepy, life-sized rag doll who mysteriously speaks, and a dysfunctional family of folks who collectively have enough problems to fill three plays. And that, in addition to being well over two-and-a-half hours long, is the biggest problem with Mia McCullough’s latest play. The script is overstuffed with so many topics, issues, ideas and themes that it’s difficult for the audience to fully grasp all of them. But a comedy this isn’t, although there are a few witty lines, unexpected situations and humorous side-eyed glances that provoke a chuckle, now and then. This play is a sad drama about a group of related people, each coping with different difficulties and trying to deal with grief.
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A Romantic Fairy Tale in Tartan
Brigadoon
As the lights dim, the haunting skirl of bagpipes fill the air of Music Theater Works’ magical, magnificent Fall production. A brief blissful and beautiful overture suddenly transports us to the Highlands of Scotland. Performed by musical director Michael McBride’s incredibly talented 8-member offstage orchestra, this symphonic sampler is followed a gorgeous a cappella Prelude, sung by an ethereal chorus that both charms and sets the scene for the romantic fairy tale in tartan that’s about to unfold.
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In Praise of Women
A Little Night Music
Hi ho, the Glamorous Life! It’s here! BrightSide Theatre’s 12th year, collectively entitled A Season of Passion, opens with a bang. Well, perhaps not exactly a bang, but definitely an explosion of glorious music and delightful storytelling, all presented by a cast, orchestra and team of creative artists bursting with talent. Superb and sumptuous, BrightSide’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s glorious, Tony Award-winning musical is absolutely magical.
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Puttin’ On the Ritz
Young Frankenstein
Mercury Theater Chicago closes its 2023 season with an explosion of talent, music and comedy. With each new production, Artistic Director Christopher Chase Carter has upped the ante at his theater and presented some of the Windy City’s finest talent. The productions have ranged from the motivational “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill;” to the touching and educational “Big River;” and the always highly entertaining, such as “Clue.” This demonically driving production of “Young Frankenstein” is one of Mercury Theater’s finest, to date. To quote Irving Berlin catchy classic that highlights this production, L. Walter Stearns’ cast and artistic team most definitely pulls out all the stops and are truly “Puttin’ On the Ritz.”
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A Man of Parts
Frankenstein
The Joffrey Ballet adaptation of Mary Shelley’s landmark novel Frankenstein, now in its Chicago premiere at the Lyric Opera, should not come as a surprise to anyone, given that this ballet received its world premiere at London’s Royal Opera House back in 2016. Still, it’s a little startling to contemplate the notion that anyone could have ever concocted such an esoteric production and managed to pull it off successfully. Even after seeing it, I was still left wondering whether it ever even did make sense or could make sense to produce a ballet about the mad ambition of an inadvertent monster maker.
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The Life and Loves of Louis Armstrong
A Wonderful World
Satchmo, Satch, Dipper, Pops and the Caucasian mispronunciation of his name,“Lewie,” are some of the most recognized nicknames belonging to the incomparable Louis Armstrong. In this sweeping biographical musical of “The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player,” as he was also called, book writer Aurin Squire had the formidable task of culling through mountains of information to create this production. At almost three hours, Squire’s episodic story begins poetically, with a spotlight on Armstrong’s trumpet downstage center, and four women on multiple levels, seeming to appear from the heavens, singing one of the musician’s most familiar hit songs.
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The More Things Change
What the Constitution Means to Me
The Copley Theatre is Paramount’s smaller, more intimate venue. Each season they present a series of plays and musicals that are more modest in cast size and scenic requirements than its larger parent company, just across the street. But the intimacy of this theatre works beautifully to its advantage, especially with a play like this. The familiar theme that “the more things change, the more they stay the same” hits every audience member with its contemporary immediacy. Paramount, in short, has another huge hit on its hands.
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A Gruesome Sight
Night Watch
With the exciting world of 1972 Manhattan at her doorstep, wealthy, pampered Elaine Wheeler seems only to be obsessed with the view outside her living room window. Elaine and her husband John Wheeler live in a luxurious townhouse, directly across from another large, but abandoned, building that’s in a state of disrepair. The old house appears to be deserted; however, one night Elaine notices a light shining through one of the windows, revealing a gruesome sight. The curtains have been drawn aside exposing the gory murder of a middle-aged man, sitting lifelessly in a wing chair. His throat has been slit.
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Cheers and Jeers
Lucha Teotl
If you were walking past the Owen venue of the Goodman Theatre last night, you might’ve been surprised, even shocked, to hear the cheers and jeers, applauding and booing, coming from inside. Generally one only hears polite clapping and, sometimes, laughter during a play. But then this isn’t your typical Goodman Theatre production. This new play, co-written and directed by Christopher Llewyn Ramirez and Jeff Colangelo, borders on what we might call performance art.
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