IT’LL LEAVE YOU DAZED AND CIRQUE-FUSED Neil Goldberg has a fine formula for his fantastic franchise. His eleven Cirque Dreams spectaculars feature ever-changing processions of dazzling…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:30PMGET YOUR FULL For the sake of the butterfly we love the cocoon. The Fully Monty, a musical version by David Yazbek and Terrence McNally, is industriously inspired by the popular 1997 film a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:22PMGROUP DYNAMICS SURGE AT HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO Four world premieres, especially crafted by in-house choreographers for the skills and needs of their company colleagues, display a tales…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:33AMTHE PLAY ABOUT THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG GOES WRONG The title is brutally honest — and you can’t say you weren’t warned. In the style of Monty Python and Michael Frayn’s self-dest…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:33PMTAKING ANOTHER CRACK: AN UPDATE ON MARIE AND THE GREAT IMPRESARIO No matter how many times you see it, you will ALWAYS be amazed by the gorgeous Nutcracker that Christopher Wheeldon imagin…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:07PMSTRIDENTLY SILLY, THEN SUDDENLY SERIOUS The title Familiar alludes to family—and, when loved ones squabble over who they are and where they come from, this title questions just what is�…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:19PMFROM CANCER TO THE COSMOS, OR TO HELA AND BACK There’s cold fusion and then there’s hot fusion–the theatrical kind. In the world-premiere HeLa, an awesome co-production by Sidesho…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:21AMA PERFECT TEN OUT OF TIN, OR YOURS, MIME, AND OURS This “soldier” is well worth saluting: There’s an enchanting Christmas Pantomime on Michigan Avenue — Lookingglass Theatre Comp…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:49PMINGE’S NOISY DESPERATION Mission accomplished: Eclipse Theatre Company characteristically concludes its season with a play that wears a big heart on an open sleeve. The troupe, which culti…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:38PMHOT IOLANTA, OR LOVE REALLY IS BLIND A glorious 126-year-old discovery just happened again. First performed at Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater in 1892 (on a double-bill with The Nutc…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:18PMBITTER END The gulf is clear from the start. Joe Schermoly’s set consists of interconnected boxes that create shelves which suggest two apartments separated by a crosswalk. It’s an apt d…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:29PMA SHOW TO END ANY THEATER DROUGHT It’s a “big sky” story with a ton of heart, this other musical created by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, composer and lyricist of The Fantasticks a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:31PMWHEN REALISM IS NOT ENOUGH, SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN DENMARK It’s strange that an enterprise as lavishly bounteous as Goodman Theatre should seem to shrink itself: Currently it’s hosting t…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:45PMA CELEBRATION OF DIVAS Three years ago, Black Ensemble Theater’s associate director Daryl D. Brooks created a kinetic tribute called Men of Soul. The revue embraced solid singers whose he…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:11PMA COLOSSAL CIRCUS CARAVAN FROM COLOMBIA Three rings do not make a circus, any more than “two boards and a passion” make a play. Sometimes all you need is fifteen performers for for sixty…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:46PMLA DIVINA EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU After she prematurely destroyed her once “smoky,” soaring voice, the “prima donna assoluta” — Greek soprano Maria Callas — decided that …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:58PMIT ONLY TAKES A MUSICAL To start with, let’s agree to never say “Goodbye, Dolly.” Thornton Wilder’s genius for the common touch isn’t just a golden legacy in Our Town or The Ski…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:23PMTRENCH STAGEFARE It’s a small-scale marvel, a feat to treasure: In only 80 minutes director/adaptor Simon Reade and performer Shane O’Regan do total justice to Private Peaceful, Michael…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:58PMLET HER ENTERTAIN YOU! Some people say Gypsy: A Musical Fable is the greatest Broadway musical ever written. And some people are probably right. It isn’t just a stirring story of an …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:50PMMARY SHELLEY’S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FRANKENSTEIN’S TRICK IS OUR TREAT Creating a Halloween story for all seasons in a novel that launched a terror genre, Mary Wollstonecraft Shel…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:27PMTHIS TURKEY IS SO SCARY, YOU HAVE TO KEEP REPEATING TO YOURSELF, “IT’S ONLY A PLAY… IT’S ONLY A PLAY…” There’s a glaring contradiction in It’s Only a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:02PMTHE HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR AS FLOWER CHILD Some shows stay young by never growing up: Stephen Schwartz’ silly-stupid 1972 musical is the (im)perfect example of a musical that’s saved by its …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:29PMFLYIN’ HIGH: THE HEARTLAND SOLIDARITY OF SODBUSTING SISTERS For a while it must have seemed like a black Eden. Founded in 1877, Nicodemus, Kansas was a Reconstruction success story fou…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:42PMCRUMBS IS A RICH MEAL Much like Lorraine Hansberry and Tennessee Williams, Lynn Nottage is a memory-monger. She sees truth in small stuff that looms larger later. And as with Arthur Miller o…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:34PMBACK FROM OVER THE RAINBOW Please don’t take my word for it. See, hear and cherish for yourselves Angela Ingersoll’s wonderful reclamation of the great Judy Garland — the look, voi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:11PMMORE LIKE A SILVER TICKET Saccharinity, like speed, can kill: The guilty pleasure of loving chocolate can, it seems, cover a multitude of sins. Harnessing “pure imagination” as well as a…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:49PMCHILD MOLESTERS GET A PLAY Some underdogs seem deeply deserving — which makes sympathy for devils a tricky proposition. Pulitzer-winning Bruce Norris has never shied away from upsettin…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:57PMTHE BELLE OF COAL YARD ALLEY LEAVES YOU GWYNNING FROM EAR TO EAR When you’re mistress to a monarch, your perch is precarious. Envy supplants praise as, moving from “rags to royalty,” y…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:59PMA RETROACTIVE RECKONING IN 12 SONGS His seventh coming is a gift worth opening. It’s been 13 years since Obie-winner David Cale has appeared on the Goodman Theatre stage. That’s where he…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:21PMARMS HAS LEGS George Bernard Shaw was not amused when his serious-minded “pleasant play” Arms and the Man, produced in 1894, was diminished into the 1908 operetta The Chocolate Soldier. …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:57PMFORGET STICKS AND STONES: WORDS WILL ALWAYS HURT YOU Who says words can’t kill? In BigMouth, flawlessly intoning English, Walloon, French, and German (with captions), Belgian solo perfo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:52PM
