Renegades on the Run

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon

A very funny, quirky, offbeat and totally unique musical comedy is playing at Lookingglass Theatre and it’s an absolute winner! With an unusual story and script, plus an original Country/Western score, both written by Artistic Associate, Matthew C. Yee (“Treasure Island,” “Moby Dick,” at Lookingglass Theatre) I can guarantee that theatergoers will not only laugh their faces off, but also delight in discovering a completely new theatrical experience.

Telling the Audience What It Wants to Hear

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon is an ambitious evening of multi-genre theatre that semi-successfully combines a tall tale about two recently married, bumbling, small-time Chinese-American robbers with figurative and literal brain freeze; a somewhat serious and well-intentioned narrative about human trafficking; expertly timed rapid-fire comic dialogue; honky tonk musical interludes played by a live, onstage C&W combo; and pandering and patronizing messages about the stereotypes faced by Asian-Americans.  If you can manage to overlook that last element — and you should — you’ll have a great time at this world-premiere Lookinglass Theatre production in the theatre’s beautiful Water Tower venue.  

A Classic Returns to the Lyric

West Side Story

The Lyric Opera of Chicago is reviving West Side Story, last staged by them in 2019 at the Civic Opera House. I’m going to spoil the rest of the review by simply stating you should definitely get a ticket before the show closes on June 25th.

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon

Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon is the story of two Asian American self-styled “renegades.” Bucking the high expectations of their families, they met at a dive bar a week ago and decided to get married. Now they need an equally impromptu honeymoon, starting with knocking over a gas station to get the money for one. Comic hijinks, of course, ensue.

Sex, Silliness and Star Wars

 The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody, now playing at the Logan Theatre, is a sparkling example of an evening’s entertainment that is much better than it needs to be.  

On the Right Track

Pippin

A disoriented young man wanders onto the stage to a bed. He appears glassy-eyed and looks quite bewildered. Suddenly, from out of the mattress leaps the Leading Player, a supernatural-like sorcerous, colorfully decked out in black, red and silver. This mysterious, magical being encourages the youth, with a large bottle of pills in hand, to “Join us, leave your fields to flower; join us, leave your cheese to sour; Come and waste an hour or two.” Where, exactly is she luring this befuddled boy, and why? Is she tempting him with options for living or seducing him with a drug-induced escape from life through suicide?

Here She Is Boys, Here’s Rose

Gypsy

Everyone wants approval and attention, to be noticed, to be liked. In the eyes of many people, becoming successful is equated with being loved. This is the universal theme that propels this classic show that playwright Arthur Laurents subtitled, “A Musical Fable.” While on the surface, this is a show business saga. It’s a success story that’s set in the world of theater, particularly in Vaudeville and Burlesque of the 20’s and 30’s. The story is also a twist on the Hans Christian Andersen tale of “The Ugly Duckling,” where a homely, awkward young bird grows up to become a beautiful, graceful swan. But because everybody, regardless of gender, age or occupation, harbors the need to be noticed, praised and loved, “Gypsy” is a fable for every one of us.

The Odd Couple

Shaw vs. Tunney

When a reporter went to interview the famous up-and-coming prizefighter, Gene Tunney, he noticed that his modest mountain cabin was filled with—of all things—books! The writer asked the pugilist what he was reading and he replied, The Way of All Flesh, by Samuel Butler. Why? Because Tunney had found it for 50 cents at a thrift shop and it had contained a preface by his favorite author and playwright, George Bernard Shaw. 

You Know, You Simply Want to Shout!

The Real Housewives of Motown

Like so many audience members at the Press Opening, I grew up on the Motown Sound. A native of Detroit, the soundtrack of my youth and teenage years were the songs of the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Little Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops and The Temptations, among so many others. Hit tunes, like “Dancing in the Street,” “Stop in the Name of Love,” “My Girl,” “Tracks of My Tears,” and “Fingertips” kept me rocking and rolling, while they blasted out of the tiny speaker of my transistor radio. 

Dance with the Devil

The Crucible

Though it was written to skewer the McCarthy era red scares of 1950s, Arthur Miller’s classic The Crucible is a timeless show. Set in Salem in 1692, the show uses the historical Salem Witch Trials to explore paranoia and suspicion, and the cost of holding to your principles. A group of teenage girls accuse a handful, then eventually hundreds of Salem residents of witchcraft, leading to hundreds of arrests and eventually, almost two dozen executions. Neighbors turn against each other as they begin to grapple with the reality that it may be safer to accuse their neighbor before he can accuse them.