Reviews Category
A New Seasonal Kitchen & Steakhouse
Amy Morton’s Stolp Island Social
Tucked next to The Paramount Theater, this wonderful, spacious new addition to the Aurora culinary scene offers something for everyone. There are full-bodied adult beverages, delicious lunch and dinner options and scrumptious, diet-busting desserts. The restaurant is open Wednesdays and Thursdays at 4:30; Fridays and Saturdays at 5:00; Sundays at 11:00. On the days when there’s a matinee at the Paramount, the restaurant be open on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:30.
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Nothin’ But a Good Time
Rock of Ages – Paramount Theatre
It’s official! “Here I Go Again,” and you can quote me, but this spirited, hilarious, high-powered jukebox musical, the finale to Paramount’s 10th season of Broadway shows, is “Nothin’ But a Good Time.” The incomparable Amber Mak has exuberantly directed and jubilantly co-choreographed this energetic and enjoyable production (assisted by Sara Reinecke, Annie Jo Fischer and Charlie Ward). It’s a musical that cleverly masquerades as a nostalgic, over-the-top heavy metal rock concert. The production is basically another boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back-again story. But, set on LA’s Sunset Strip during the mid-80’s, the best part of the show is that it strings together no less than 28 favorite musical classics from that era.
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Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Love
Moulin Rouge! The Musical – Broadway in Chicago
Once upon a time there was an American in Paris, searching for truth, beauty, freedom and love. He was a young, aspiring composer named Christian, and he was trying to find himself. It was a special time, during the Belle Epoch era, at the turn of the century. He looked up and suddenly, gleaming in the night of the Montmartre Quarter, like a Red Mill, there appeared the Moulin Rouge. In this cabaret, filled with talented, but boldly brassy performers, Harold Zidler, the club’s flamboyant emcee, promises the audience a place “where all your dreams come true.” Then, there she was, arriving on a swing high above the stage: the Sparkling Diamond of the Moulin Rouge, the beautiful and talented Satine.
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Infused With Spectacle and Wonder
The Sound of Music – Marriott Theatre
On the heels of the Marriott’s highly recommended production of “West Side Story,” eight-time Jeff Award-winner, Nick Bowling returns to guide and lend his creative touch to a new production of what has become Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most popular musical. This beloved family story is magnificently realized and brilliantly performed in a way that makes Marriott’s imaginative production feel fresh and new. It fills the arena stage with glorious music and honest, three-dimensional performances, as well as some spectacular sights and sounds. This fictionalized biographical story will no doubt be familiar to audiences due to the popularity of the beloved 1965 film. But the splendor found in the movie’s sweeping Austrian vistas and Julie Andrews’ dazzling portrayal of Maria von Trapp are fully matched here in this live, heartfelt production.
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I Just Wanna Dance With You!
The Prom – Broadway in Chicago
So much praise needs to be heaped upon this glitzy, glittery, relatively new Broadway show that’ll put a huge smile on every audience member’s face within the first few moments; then, except during a couple of genuinely heartfelt scenes that evoke a few tears, keep that smile growing into full, laugh-out-loud joy for the entire production. This show is all that and a gardenia corsage! It’s so incredibly jubilant and upbeat. It’s a musical filled with memorable, toe-tapping songs and eye-popping choreography, all executed by a gifted cast of triple threats who seem so real and personable that you’d just like to take them home with you. As the finale says, “It’s Time to Dance!”
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Her-story Is About to Be Over-throne
Six, The Musical – Broadway in Chicago
Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. Sound familiar? this is the rhyme taught to history students to help them remember the fate of each of Henry VIII’s six wives. It also happens to be the opening lyrics of “Ex-Wives,” the haunting musical number that launches this exciting, eye-popping theatrical spectacle. It’s sung by the six bodacious babes whose greatest claim to fame is that they were all married at one time to Britain’s notorious Henry VIII. But the ladies want to be known for more than that.
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Next Year…Jerusalem
In Every Generation – Victory Gardens Theatre
In Ali Viterbi’s new play, now having its world premiere at Victory Gardens, the close-knit Jewish Levi-Katz family are gathered together to celebrate their Passover Seder. The time is the present, and this evening there are three generations at the dining room table: grandparents, Davide and Paola; their divorced daughter, Valeria; and her two daughters, Yael (nicknamed Yaya), and Devorah (called simply Dev), her adopted Chinese-American sibling.
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Something Wonderful
The King and I – Drury Lane
Love flows across the Drury Lane stage, thanks to Alan Paul’s wise and sensitive direction. Like most every show presented at this venue, Mr. Paul’s “The King and I” feels at once grand, and yet intimate and personal. Every detail, every moment of growing affection, often spiced with unexpected humor and brimming with a vibrant humanity, simply radiates with honest emotion. This mismatched couple’s journey from courteous respect to genuine caring ultimately develops into a restrained Victorian expression of love, all thanks to Mr. Paul’s caring and empathetic direction.
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Real or Imagined
Molly Sweeney – Irish Theatre of Chicago
Set in the fictional village of Ballybeg, Ireland, Brian Friel’s story of a blind, young woman’s journey to regain her sight, and the two men who most influence her life, is a tale of how this miraculous surgery ultimately fails. Friel’s theme that seeing is not the same as understanding infuses each moment of this drama. Offering the titular character the possibility of restoring her vision is rationalized with the question, “What does she have to lose?” Well, the audience gradually learns the answer to this query, as the characters discover that things may not actually be as they appear.
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A Romantic Atmosphere
She Loves Me – Blank Theatre Company
At Mr. Maraczek’s perfume shop in Budapest, longtime clerk Georg Nowak and new hiree Amalia Balash are constantly butting heads. Whenever they aren’t finding fault with each other, they’re trying to one up each other selling skin creams and potions to the housewives of Budapest. Little do they know that they are each other’s secret pen pals, connected through a ‘lonely hearts club.’ If the story of business rivals unknowingly falling in love via correspondence rings a bell, it’s because the Hungarian play that this musical is based on also formed the basis for the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan comedy “You’ve Got Mail,” among a few other movies. It’s an old story, and one often told to be sure, but that’s part of its charm. Everyone in the audience and everyone on stage except the leading couple know exactly how this story ends from the moment the curtain goes up. The pleasure is watching the leads catch up with the rest of us.
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