Reviews Category
Tradition!
Fiddler on the Roof – Broadway in Chicago
This is the evening in the theatre that we most definitely need right now. Given the current climate of this nation, it’s a much-desired story of family, faith and folks making the best of what life throws at them. It’s about life and love and, of course, time-honored traditions. The theatergoer who thinks he knows this show and has already seen “Fiddler…,” one of the world’s best-loved musicals, will be in for a big, pleasant surprise. Settled in Chicago for the next three weeks, this Tony Award-nominated show’s National Tour is a fresh, new staging of this musical classic. So, make no mistake: this is no old chestnut, but a revival that’s as fresh and exciting as the day it was written.
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The Strength of Surrender
Thompson Street Opera Company and Pride Films & Plays – When Adonis Calls
An important contributor to Chicago’s deliciously rambunctiously storefront opera scene, Thompson Street Opera, which focuses on the works of living composers, has given Chicago an important production of When Adonis Calls. A tight, yet leisurely, ninety minutes of opera that leaps from the score of composer Clint Borzoni set to the sexy, philosophical meanderings of “The Naked Poet” Gavin Geoffrey Dillard as curated and shaped by director/choreographer/librettist wunderkind John De Los Santos, the piece is scored for two baritones, two male dancers, a string quartet, and percussion, a heady and distinctive bouquet that the creators use to full benefit.
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An LGBTQ Holiday Tradition for All
Barney the Elf – Pride Films and Plays
There seems to be an increase in holiday plays and musicals that feature an elf as the main character. First, we have the snarky, darkly humorous “Santaland Diaries.” Then there’s the big, splashy, tuneful “Elf, the Musical,” about Buddy, the Elf. “Rudolph the Red Nosed (and Red Hosed) Reindeer” both feature an elf in a main role. But another play with music, that’s become a Chicago holiday tradition, has another elfin North Pole citizen as its leading man.
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Liberté. Égalité. Sororité?
The Revolutionists – Strawdog Theatre
The Revolutionists is a fictionalized account of four women from the French Revolution: Olympe de Gouges, a real playwright, Charlotte Corday, the woman famous for assassinating Jean-Paul Marat, Marianne Angelle, a fictional amalgamation of the women who fought for freedom in Haiti against the hypocrisy of the French Revolution (which claimed freedom for all men… except the ones who maintained the lucrative sugar plantations) and, of course, Marie Antoinette, the ill-fated former Queen of France. The play imagines de Gouges facing a wicked case of writer’s block as the other three come to her for help with their stories. Madame de Gouges wants the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen to include women. Corday wants to stop the bloody pen of Marat and is looking for the final words she will speak as she faces the guillotine for her forthcoming crime. Angelle wants help spreading the story of the injustice crushing her people in Haiti. Marie Antoinette just wants to be the center of attention for as long as possible. The four women’s stories intersect and overlap as they all attempt to survive the revolution while pushing it where they want it to go.
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Letters from Home
The Holiday Radio Show of 1943 – Three Cat Productions
Holiday shows have a more difficult job than you might think. They have to appeal to everyone at once and find a way to present songs and stories most people know even if they don’t know they know them. The Holiday Radio Show of 1943, performed in the cozy confines of the Berger Park Coach House, finds a charming way to do that.
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The Grandaddy of Holiday Stories
A Christmas Carol–at the Goodman Theatre
The Grandaddy of Holiday Stories
And, as it has been for the past 40 years, this show is everything. It’s what Christmas is all about, and we are so lucky to have it back in Chicago for another holiday season.
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Something Old, Something New…
Familiar – Steppenwolf Theater
Danai Gurira’s most recent play, Familiar, gets its Chicago premiere at the Steppenwolf Theater this month.
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Confronting the Past, Dreaming of the Future
HeLa – Sideshow Theater Company
HeLa, a new play by J. Nicole Brooks, produced by the Sideshow Theater Company premiered at the Greenhouse Theater Center this weekend. The play weaves together three stories.
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Loving in Illyria
Twelfth Night–at Writers Theatre
Loving in Illyria
There’s a lot of loving going on in the exotic fictionalized, coastal Kingdom of Illyria.
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