Saturday, December 8, 2012
A HOLIDAY CHESTNUTCRACKER The Joffrey Ballet is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its holiday production of The Nutcracker, which means audiences have enjoyed an evening of grace, beauty, …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:53PMThursday, November 29, 2012
IT’S STILL WONDERFUL In just a few seasons, It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play has ascended to the top of the Christmas tree of essential local holiday entertainments. A show that…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:55PMMonday, November 19, 2012
HOGWARTS AND ALL The Harry Potter parody called Potted Potter is the joint creation of a couple of Englishmen named Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner (Dan and Jeff on the stage). The duo …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:53PMANYTHING BUT DEAD James Joyce is not usually considered a source of Christmas cheer, but the great Irish author did write one Christmas piece of sorts, a short story called The Dead that app…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:25PMSunday, November 18, 2012
WORTH THE FARE Hellcab opened in Chicago in 1992 for a 12-performance run and the immediate audience buzz had the show playing for the rest of the decade. Now it is is back at the Profiles T…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:25PMTuesday, November 13, 2012
NOT IN THE CARDS Northlight audiences should cut the theater’s revival of The Odd Couple some slack. The production took a major hit when co-star George Wendt was forced to drop out of the…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:35AMWednesday, October 24, 2012
A FELLOWSHIP IN THE RING The Opponent is a play about the gritty world of small time boxing. Brett Neveu’s world premiere two-hander at A Red Orchid Theatre explores the relationship betwe…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:16PMFriday, October 19, 2012
A POWERFUL WASTELAND AT TIMELINE Wasteland is a two-character play but the audience only sees one in this drama about two American soldiers held as prisoners during the Vietnam War, now rece…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:40PMTuesday, October 16, 2012
SMOKIN’ When Smokey Joe’s Café opened on Broadway in 1995, the critics were only mildly impressed and suggested that this revue of rock “n” roll songs composed by Jerry Leiber and M…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:32AMFriday, October 12, 2012
NOT AS BLOODY AS THE TITLE IMPLIES Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is an audacious rock musical tracing the life and times of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States. The show is…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:12PMWednesday, September 26, 2012
NOTHING EQUIVOCAL ABOUT IT In Bill Cain’s entertaining, stimulating Equivocation, William Shakespeare (spelled Shagspeare in the play) doesn’t radiate awe-inspiring genius. Instead, he�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:25AMTuesday, September 25, 2012
NEITHER WILLIAMS OR THE GOODMAN AT THEIR BEST Sweet Bird of Youth is not top drawer Tennessee Williams. The play has some of Williams’ lyricism and humor, and at least one sharply etch…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:28PMMonday, September 24, 2012
INTO THE WOODY American folksinger/composer/political activist Woody Guthrie lived during the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the turbulent wartime and postwar years of the 1940’s. I…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:15PMGOOD PEOPLE; GREAT PLAY; AMAZING PRODUCTION David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People is a wonderful play receiving a terrific production at the Steppenwolf Theatre and headed by a magnificent pe…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:11PMThursday, September 20, 2012
THIS ISN’T GREAT THEATER, BUT IT’S TERRIFIC NOSTALGIA The American novelist Peter De Vries once wrote that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. Maybe he would have modified his …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:03PMWednesday, September 19, 2012
THE DANE’S THE THING The oft-produced Hamlet demands countless choices by a director and Michael Halberstam has met all the challenges; instead of overloading the evening with grandiose di…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:58PMFriday, September 14, 2012
ENTERTAINING, BUT WITHOUT THE COMIC SIZZLE In 2009, Xanadu opened in downtown Chicago that turned out to be one of the delights of the season. It was a silly musical, but hip, satirical, …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:26PMThursday, September 13, 2012
YOU BETTER CATCH THIS BEFORE IT REALLY IS THE LAST SESSION Mike Nussbaum is probably weary of hearing himself called the Grand Old Man of Chicagoland Theater and a local treasure, like Wrigl…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:30AMIT’S ALL GREEK TO MEE Charles Mee’s plays are audacious, imaginative, weird, sometimes funny, and more often than not, powerful and thought provoking; they are not for all tastes, bu…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMFriday, September 7, 2012
UNRESOLVED USE OF STORY James Still’s 80-minute play, Illegal Use of Hands, set in an old rural-American home, opens in the middle of a late-October night; an old man is reading in an armc…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:52PMSaturday, September 1, 2012
MORE THAN JUST VARIATIONS ON A THEME 33 Variations starts out with a character asking the question, “Why did the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven write 33 variations on a trivial…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMFriday, August 31, 2012
THE CAST IS GREAT, BUT THE BOOK AND THE STAGING ARE NOT SO DREAMY Dreamgirls is based on the rise of the Supremes, America’s premiere girl singing group of the 1960’s. The musical opened…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMMonday, August 27, 2012
A DINNER IN REAL TIME Richard Nelson’s Sweet and Sad at the Profiles Main Stage has six characters gather around a dining table for 95 minutes of uninterrupted talk on a Sunday afternoon d…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:30AMThursday, August 23, 2012
A HEARTBREAKING, FUNNY, AND COMPASSIONATE TALE FROM A PLAYWRIGHT WHO IS SORELY MISSED The audience never sees Marvin, the title character in Marvin’s Room. He’s an old man ravaged by can…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:46PMMonday, August 13, 2012
IT’S A PLEASURE TO BE IN HARMS’ WAY It’s been quite a year for veteran Chicagoland actor James Harms; after receiving critical acclaim nationally for his performance in The Iceman Come…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:41PMTRASHY FUN Audience expectations need to be adjusted for a show like The Great American Trailer Park Musical. The title lets patrons know what they are in for: The topic will be trailer tras…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:57PMThursday, August 9, 2012
THE THEATER WAS HOME TO THE LUNTS, BUT THIS WAS THEIR HOME FROM THE THEATER From the 1920’s through the 1950’s, the husband and wife team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the First …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:18PMTHE SKY PARTS FOR THE ROYALS There are few regional theater pleasures more delectable than attending the outdoor American Players Theatre on a balmy afternoon or evening. The theater, about …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:16PMMonday, July 23, 2012
CAMPY BUT ARTISTIC Take a handful of world class circus acts, add a bit of cabaret and burlesque, and you have La Soiree, the entirely enjoyable show in town for two weeks at the Riverfront …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:51PMThursday, July 19, 2012
REEFER MADNESS IS SUCH A HIGH THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE STONED TO ENJOY IT In 1936, a church group sponsored a motion picture aimed at warning young people about the dangers of marijuana. …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:20PMMonday, July 16, 2012
A SHOW WHICH PLANTS ITSELF IN YOUR MEMORY Back in 1985, Bill Pullinsi staged a satirical musical called Little Shop of Horrors at his Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Summit that was one of t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:24PM 
