Reviews Category
A Passion to Make Music
Verboten – House Theatre
Back in 1982, a group of talented Evanston tweens, who shared a close friendship and a mutual love for creating music, formed their own punk rock band. For the most part, the four youngsters just enjoyed writing songs and playing them in their basement for each other. But then things changed. Suddenly they were performing at a bar. It was the Cubby Bar on Clark Street near Wrigley Field, and it was, for this Evanston band of preteens, the Big Time. They continued playing together for a while, but after they were asked to perform on a Chicago children’s TV show called “Kidding Around,” the band broke up.
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Awakening Ghosts From the Past
The Leopard Play, or Sad Songs for Lost Boys – Steep Theatre
A gay, young man is summoned home to El Paso for the memorial service his Dad is giving for his brother, the Son’s beloved Uncle Max. Once again finding himself captive in the stifling Texas border town where he grew up releases a floodgate of past memories. The death of the young man’s Uncle is shady and definitely mysterious. When Dad, his Older Brother and his Other Uncles are questioned by the Son, hoping to learn how his dear Uncle died, the men try to bury the truth, saying Uncle Max died of a heart attack. However, when the truth is finally unearthed, the devastating horror of the event leaves both the young man and the audience shocked to the core.
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Slapstick and Silliness Aplenty
Short Shakespeare! The Comedy of Errors – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
Already William Shakespeare’s shortest of his plays, this 75-minute adaptation by David H. Bell is a streamlined version of the Bard’s most farcical and fanciful plays. The play, especially in this Short Shakespeare production, offers an excellent introduction to the Bard of Stratford Upon Avon for young audiences. Historically, this play may be one of Shakespeare’s first, with the first performance dating back to 1594. Although scholars have remarked that the comedy shows very little thematic depth, everyone agrees that the play demonstrates Shakespeare’s mastery of action, character and stagecraft. It appeals to lovers of low comedy, with slapstick and silliness aplenty.
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The Road Not Taken
If/Then – Brown Paper Box
If one had the chance for a do-over, to go back in his life and relive a significant moment all over again, the outcome would undoubtedly be quite different. The rest of his entire existence would be changed. This is the fascinating premise of this musical, in which Elizabeth, an urban city planner, meets two friends in a New York City park. Lucas, a bisexual buddy from her college days, suggests that she should reclaim her nickname from college, Beth. Her new friend Kate, a lesbian kindergarten teacher, tells Elizabeth that the name, Liz, suits her much better. In that moment the story breaks in two. While Beth leaves with Lucas to join him at a protest against a development in Brooklyn, Liz stays with Kate to enjoy a park musician where she chances to meet Josh, a young doctor returning home from his Army tour of duty. Throughout the musical, Elizabeth’s life unfolds as two tales, depicting the if…and the then…two sides of the events of her life.
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Wonderful Escapist Entertainment
The Mousetrap – Court Theatre
The Granddaddy of all theatrical chillers, Agatha Christie’s most famous murder mystery is still playing 68 years later in London’s West End. It has the distinction of being the longest running modern play. With well over 30,000 performances to its credit, Ms. Christie’s crime drama is a favorite with regional and educational theatres alike. The Guinness Book of World Records calls Dame Agatha Christie the best-selling crime novelist of all time, but in 1930 she began a second career as a successful playwright. From over a dozen scripts, which include “Ten Little Indians” (or its original title “And Then There Were None”) and “Witness for the Prosecution,” it’s “The Mousetrap” that remains Agatha Christie’s most popular theatrical work.
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You’re The One That I Want
Grease – Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre
The Marriott Theatre’s 2020 season of American musical classics opens with Jim Jacobs’ and Warren Casey’s much-produced, tuneful, nostalgic satire of Chicago high school life during the 1950’s. And unless you’ve been living under a rock you know that it was turned into the highest grossing movie musical of all time, starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, in addition to becoming an international staple for both amateur and professional theatre groups, alike. But there are some very good reasons for making the drive up to Lincolnshire, where Grease is still the word.
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One Small Girl
Once on This Island – Broadway in Chicago
In this gorgeous National Tour, as in the Circle in the Square Broadway revival, it’s all about telling the story. Two-time Tony Award nominated director Michael Arden gets it right, even before the first notes of music. A joyfully improvised prologue unfolds by the Storytellers, and is especially played to the onstage audience, seated upstage among Dane Laffrey’s extraordinarily detailed two-story set. This magical 1990 one-act musical, with a Tony nominated book, music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (“Ragtime,” “Anastasia”), is a heartwarming fable set on a sun-drenched island, the Jewel of the French Antilles.
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Mystery, Tension and Strong Characters
The Tasters – Rivendell Theatre
First seen last year as part of Victory Gardens’ 2019 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, Meghan Brown’s dark, sometimes humorous dystopian drama is being given a fully staged production at Rivendell. The story has a definite feeling of familiarity. Its tense, frightening plot must’ve been inspired by the current leaders of our country and their oppressive, authoritarian administration. Meghan Brown’s play and the five characters who tell her story may remind theatergoers of such powerful novels as 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale.
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Fitting For Our Time
Top Girls – Remy Bumppo Theatre
If given the opportunity to ask any famous person from history to a dinner party, who would you invite? Well, to celebrate her big promotion at the Top Girls Employment Agency, Marlene has chosen an extremely interesting, eclectic group of strong, independent women, particularly considering the varied locales and time periods from which they come. Invited to Marlene’s soiree are the mythical Pope Joan, who was alleged to have achieved her position dressed as a man during the Middle Ages; the 19th century Scottish author and international explorer, Isabella Bird; Chaucer’s fictional Patient Griselda, from his Canterbury Tales; a 13th century Japanese concubine to the Emperor, Lady Nijo; and Dull Gret, the Flemish peasant woman who invaded hell with a brigade of women warriors, depicted in artist Peter Brueghel’s painting, Dulle Griet.
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Black Lives Matter
Sheepdog – Shattered Globe Theatre
Playwright Kevin Artigue writes for television and film, but his scintillating 90-minute one-act play may make Mr. Artigue a household name. The drama had its much-praised world premiere at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, and it’s currently being given a powerful production by Shattered Globe Theatre at Theater Wit. The playwright’s created a gut-wrenching two-hander that seems to be ripped from today’s headlines. The drama is both arresting and thought-provoking, a play that moved some theatergoers to respond audibly to what they were experiencing. The play is undoubtedly bound to stimulate lots of post-production conversation among audiences.
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