Monday, 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 06:24PMSunday, July 15, 2012
THE STEPS TO SUCCESS They say that timing is everything. Timing certainly is everything in The 39 Steps, the English spy spoof that occupies a delightful, often amazing, and even suspenseful…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:42PMSaturday, July 14, 2012
NOTHING BEASTLY ABOUT IT The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is presenting the best musical production of the summer, but audiences will have to see it in the daytime. The production is Disney�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:54AMWednesday, July 11, 2012
OEDIPUS REX POTENTLY UPDATED TO THE BARRIO Oedipus El Rey is Luis Alfaro’s vision of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex seen through the prism of modern Latino life, specifically gang culture as i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:48PMTuesday, July 10, 2012
TRACY LETTS ADAPTS THREE SISTERS FOR STEPPENWOLF Tracy Letts calls his version of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters an adaptation, but other than some changes in language it’s still the grea…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:50AMMonday, July 9, 2012
MAGIC ALL AROUND Death and Harry Houdini was the House Theatre’s first production back in 2001 and it’s been something of a meal ticket for the company over the years. The production pla…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:39PMFriday, June 29, 2012
FRESH NEW REVUE AT SECOND CITY Four of the six performers in the new Second City e.t.c. revue We’re All in This Room Together never appeared on a Second City mainstage before. And this is …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:14PMThursday, June 28, 2012
HERO NEEDS TO ZERO IN ON THE BOOK Hero, a brand new musical at the Marriott Theatre, has enough warmth and humor to provide a pleasant evening of light summer entertainment, but the work of …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:53PMWednesday, June 27, 2012
YOU REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME The baby boomers were out in force at the Oriental Theatre Tuesday night, reveling in a Beatles nostalgia fest called Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles. The show is …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:54PMThursday, June 21, 2012
TO SEASONED VIEWERS, THE FACE OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL COULD USE A LIFT The Cirque du Soleil production of Dralion should be the most fun for audiences unfamiliar with the Cirque’s unique blen…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:51PMFriday, June 15, 2012
LITTLE-KNOWN CHICAGO DISASTER BECOMES TOWERING MUSICAL Eastland: A New Musical is the Lookingglass Theatre’s stunning meditation on one of the most terrible disasters in Chicago history: O…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:16PMABBA-DABBA-DO Delivered by an exuberant and attractive cast of young singers and dancers, Dancing Queen is an all-singing-all-dancing, high-energy nostalgia show that tries to churn its audi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:23PMWednesday, June 13, 2012
THESE MUPPETS ARE NOT FOR PUBLIC TELEVISION There is something disconcerting about watching an R-rated Muppets show. After all, for decades the Muppets television shows and movies have been …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:18PMMonday, June 4, 2012
THE LIBRETTO NEVER REALLY WORKS, BUT THIS PRODUCTION SURE DOES Camelot is a good musical that should be better. After all, it was composed by the team of Lerner and Loewe, of My Fair Lady i…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:58PMSaturday, June 2, 2012
GO FOR THE PERFORMANCE, NOT THE SCRIPT Like most one-actor plays, the new show at the Writers’ Theatre is more satisfying as a performing showcase than as a drama. The play carries the tan…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:51AMFriday, June 1, 2012
BAD COP GOOD COP The cynical title My Kind of Town acknowledges the pop song that celebrates Chicago but also a likely culture of police brutality. This is the work of investigative journali…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:35PMMonday, May 21, 2012
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE STORY? The tortured elements in the life of the great rhythm and blues artist Marvin Gaye would be fascinating fodder for a powerfully tragic stage play. Ei…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:46PMAN INCREDIBLY BRIGHT LIGHT The Light in the Piazza opened on March 12 at Theo Ubique and has now been extended into midsummer, and counting. It’s gathered a sheaf of rave reviews and the t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:29PMFriday, May 11, 2012
A SMALL LITTLE CREATES HUGE RESULTS For its scintillating revival of A Little Night Music, the Writers’ Theatre has condensed the Stephen Sondheim classic into a chamber musical. The actio…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:06PMWednesday, May 9, 2012
THE ICEMAN HATH ARRIVED Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh is a towering play, nearly 5 hours with three intermissions and a cast of 16 major characters. Yet its theme can be summarize…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:55PMTuesday, May 8, 2012
RENT GETS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE, EVEN AS THE INTRINSIC PROBLEMS REMAIN As soon as David Cromer was announced as the director, the revival of Rent became one of the buzz productions of the seas…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:21PMWednesday, May 2, 2012
MAKE A FELINE FOR THEATER WIT At the beginning of Tigers Be Still at Theater Wit, 24-year old Sherry takes a microphone and announces to the audience, karaoke style, “This is the story of …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:37PMTuesday, May 1, 2012
A PRODUCTION TO TAKE PRIDE IN All of Jane Austen’s novels are built on the same premise. A woman meets and marries an eligible man after a series of usually comic difficulties. But Austen …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:52PMSaturday, April 28, 2012
THE ACTING IS DARK AND DEEP BUT THE SCRIPT GETS LOST IN THE FOREST In a Forest, Dark and Deep may not be top drawer Neil LaBute, but it does provide a showcase for two of the area’s best p…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:15AMWednesday, April 25, 2012
THE LONG MARCH E. L. Doctorow’s The March was a fine Civil War novel and likely would make an excellent motion picture, but as a play it has problems. The ambitious adaptation at the Stepp…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:19PMA PRODUCTION THAT IS THE VERY MODEL The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan can be an acquired taste for modern audiences. The plots are inane and the satire, so cutting in Victorian days, …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:26AMMonday, April 23, 2012
A PERFECTLY COIFFED HAIRSPRAY A successful revival of Hairspray demands pinpoint casting in two roles. Tracy Turnblad, the show’s central character must be short, exceedingly stocky, look …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:12PMThursday, April 19, 2012
SECOND CITY KNOWS EXACTLY WHO THEY ARE Second City calls its 100th mainstage revue Who Do We Think We Are? The question is rhetorical. For more than half a century, Second City has been the …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:09PMMonday, April 16, 2012
A LITTLE OUTDATED, ANGELS IS STILL MANNA FROM HEAVEN In 1994, Tony Kushner’s two-part Angels in America plays – Millennium Approaches and Perestroika – opened locally at the Royal Geor…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:12PMI SAY YOU WANT THIS REVOLUTION After the Revolution is a chewy new play about family dynamics and the difficulty of making moral judgments, especially after the fact. For audiences thirsting…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:50PMSunday, April 15, 2012
THE IDEA WORKS BETTER THAN THE ACTUAL PRESENTATION Jackie Sibblies Drury’s new play could have the longest title in the history of the theater: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:32AM 
