Chicago Theatre Review
Serving Up Food and Farce
A Recipe For Disaster – Windy City Playhouse
Windy City Playhouse, Chicago’s preeminent theatre company for immersive dramas and comedies, is back at the table, so to speak. Playwrights Carl Menninger and Amy Rubenstein join forces with Chicago top chef, Rick Bayless, the master chef behind the Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, to create this new comedy that serves up food and farce at a frantic pace. The result, directed by David H. Bell with the same momentum as “Noises Off,” is a side-splitting, savory treat that’s a real feast for all the senses, particularly the sense of humor.
Read MoreThe Wait Is Finally Over
Together At Last – Second City
As with every theatre that has been shuttered for 18 months due to the pandemic, the wait is finally over! That much-loved Chicago comedy club, Second City has reopened with its 109th main stage revue. This original, brand-new, two-hour evening of short skits (including intermission) and songs is as topical and timely as we’ve come to expect from this company. The show is clever, funny and fast-paced. It’s crammed full of adult humor and profanity, making it appropriate for audiences over 18 years of age. It addresses such contemporary topics as, of course, COVID-19, the effects of the pandemic on everyone, vaccine mandates, the reluctance by some to getting vaccinated and President Biden and his policies. There’s also parodies about air travel and wearing masks (like everyone in the audience), social media, parent and child relationships, a rowdy Florida school board meeting, a contentious divorce and many, many other topics from today’s news.
Read MoreOnce Upon a Time
Grimm – Theatre Above the Law
Reimagining and recombining fairy tales is a mode of story telling probably only slightly less ancient than the fairy tales themselves. I imagine there is more than one fairy tale I know by heart but have never actual heard or seen in its original format, having just pieced it together from its adaptations. Theatre Above the Law’s new show Grimm, picks a few darker or lesser known of Grimms’ fairy tales, just in time for Halloween.
Read MoreStarting Over
This Wide Night – Shattered Globe Theatre and Interrobang Theatre Project
Georgette Verdin, Interrobang Theatre Project’s talented Artistic Director, deftly collaborates with Shattered Globe Theatre to tell a gorgeous, heartbreaking story that feels perfect for our times. Seldom do either of these theatre companies disappoint, and this production, their re-entrance into the much-awaited world of live theatre in Chicago, is as strong as ever. At first, Chloe Moss’ one-act drama doesn’t seem to be about very much. But as the scenes wash over you, the audience finds itself plunging headfirst into this two-hander, discovering that it’s actually about a number of topics. In particular, this is a story about starting over and about our universal need for one another.
Read MoreMemories Lost and Found
4000 Days – PrideArts
Michael lies in a hospital bed while his mother sits in a chair next to him. Carol protectively keeps an eye on her son, continually checking for a sign that he’s finally waking up from a coma. Micheal’s suffering from a blood clot on the brain, and it’s been three long weeks since he was conscious. Naturally Carol’s worried, although she appears sedate and self-assured. Michael’s loving partner, Paul, stops in, as usual, on his lunch break from work. He hopes to find Michael’s condition has improved. But the tension in the room between Carol and Paul is so thick you could cut it with a knife; and when Michael’s mother finally deigns to speak to her son’s partner, the conversation drips with venom.
Read MoreA Prophetic Musical Production
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog – Black Button Eyes Productions
Back in a more innocent time, about thirteen years ago, Covid-19 hadn’t reared its ugly head. We weren’t yet imprisoned in our homes for safety’s sake or masked for protection from a pandemic when we had to go out. After theatres shut their doors in March of 2020, live productions ceased to be. Only plays, musicals and concerts that could be streamed online were safe for presentation. Entertainment and enlightenment for an arts-hungry public was limited, but still possible.
Read MoreComing Into the Light
Songs for a New World – Theo Ubique
Most theatres share a commonality, now that we’re finally coming out of the pandemic and presenting live shows. We are seeing more modest, smaller cast productions, typically a musical revue or a one-person show of some kind, that creates an immediate feeling of intimacy between the audience and the performers. At Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, this style of show is their specialty, as one can tell from the company’s name. Also, no one in Chicagoland produces a more polished show than Artistic Director Fred Anzevino. This visionary Director and multi-Jeff Award winner is once again collaborating with his gifted, award-winning Musical Director and pianist, Jeremy Ramey. And once again the duo have brought magic to their audiences. Joining these two gentlemen, Theo Ubique newcomer Jamal Howard brings his own talent as Associate Director and Choreographer, to help guide this polished, professional production toward perfection. The result is a 90-minute show, with intermission, that sparkles with a welcoming glow as, after almost two years, we can finally return to live performances.
Read MoreIt’s All In The Timing
The Elixir of Love – Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera follows a season opener which can speak directly to our times with a bel canto comedy that sends us on a vacation to 1950s Italy. You won’t need your passport, you don’t have to keep abreast of the latest travel restrictions, and as far as clothing goes, a lot of us could raid the trunks in the attic and make use of the colorful and saucy fashions worn during that comparatively breezy time by our parents and grandparents. (Some of us could just reach in the back of our own closets and pull out clothing the style of which we were certain would come back eventually.) Despite a score that bubbles with charm, Donizetti’s, The Elixir of Love suffers from unfair expectation. If we consider it a steppingstone away from the opera buffa toward Donizetti’s more serious work (which paved the way for Verdi), here we find less pants-splitting, more completely human characters, and music that is less pyrotechnical but more honest to the larger purpose.
Read MoreMusic As Memory
American Mariachi – Goodman Theatre
As is often the case, this warm and wonderful play by Jose Cruz Gonzalez has its roots in his own, true life experiences. Mariachi music was the soundtrack of this playwright’s life. After discovering that Mariachi was taught in the music department of Cal State, where Gonzalez was an instructor, he began to take lessons. This lively art form is a huge part of the Mexican culture and is heard played at every important moment in one’s life: baptisms, birthdays, quinceaneras, marriage ceremonies and even funerals. It’s been generally thought of as a male-dominated musical form, with the history and skill being handed down, from father to son. But that was all soon to change.
Read MoreThe Full Monty wants to bear it all but sometimes struggles to give up the goods
The Full Monty – Skylight Music Theatre
Funny and oftentimes cheeky, the musical blends a narrative about class, gender, sexuality, and sex with songs about maleness, feminism, suicide, and…Michael Jordan? And for the most part, it works. With a solid cast led by Dan DeLuca and competent direction from director-choreographer James Gray, The Full Monty only occasionally falls victim to the relative lightweight fluff and flagging pacing of Terrance McNally’s book. Songs from David Yazbek, while similarly lightweight are at least fun enough to keep toes tapping, even if they don’t stick with you for very long after.
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