Tuesday, October 29, 2013
RECOMMENDED Kudos to newborn Linchpin Theatre for making its debut with Shakespeare’s “King John,” a play that is about as popular these days as its protagonist. The Victorians loved t…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:30PMFriday, October 25, 2013
Co-creators Marc Lewallen and Brad Younts (who also share writing and directing duty) have somehow tapped into the collective desire for all things zombie with this slapdash musical comedy s…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:00AMRECOMMENDED Appearing in 1954 as the debut novel of British author William Golding, “Lord of the Flies” struck a deep chord in the post-World War II era with its chilling Cold War realit…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:15AMThursday, October 24, 2013
RECOMMENDED Let’s start with this: I’m not one to make sweeping statements, but “Audience Annihilated Part Two: Gold Star Sticker,” in all its brief but intense fifteen-minute glory,…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:00PMWednesday, October 23, 2013
RECOMMENDED The Neo-Futurists are at it again with their cunning “The Sovereign Statement”—a play wrapped within a spoof tucked within a mimicry of a democratic procedural proc…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PMAfter more than thirty years, Lyric Opera is finally presenting a new production of “Madama Butterfly.” Well, new to Chicago, anyway: a production that current Lyric general director Ant…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMMonday, October 21, 2013
RECOMMENDED The Chicago Mammal’s “ALL GIRL FRANKENSTEIN” is more akin to sculpture, film, dance, performance art or poetry than strictly narrative-based theater. But, as a Rorsch…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00PMRECOMMENDED The question before us is compulsion, or to put it another way, obsession. Everyone knows that to accomplish something great, such as creating great art with its attendant elevat…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:30AMFriday, October 18, 2013
The revised version of Mitch Vermeersch’s “Heist Play” (first staged in 2009) is an ambitious attempt to fold twenty-first-century hipster angst into the shadowy embrace of pos…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:42AMThursday, October 17, 2013
By Robert Eric Shoemaker Four interviews, side by side, began with similar sentiments about the state of theater in Chicago; four interviews with theater artists collaborating on the Mammals…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMFriday, October 11, 2013
Can a man and woman be attracted to one another, have a life-transforming friendship that betters both of them without consummating their relationship? That is the question that “Once” a…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:45AMThursday, October 10, 2013
RECOMMENDED “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine,” begins Jane Austen’s mock-gothic novel, “Northanger Abbey.” C…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PMFirst off, this play (in its world premiere production here) is extremely timely: a story about “coming out” that asks if an entire life is a lie if one can’t embrace his or her sexual…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:30PMRECOMMENDED If you don’t already know the storied history of Curtis Mayfield—known to some as “the black Bob Dylan” (or was Dylan the white Curtis Mayfield?)—you will by the end of…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMWednesday, October 9, 2013
RECOMMENDED In a year that celebrates the 200th anniversaries of Wagner and Verdi, how fitting that Lyric Opera should open its season with a work that manages to pay tribute to both. There …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMTuesday, October 8, 2013
By Hugh Iglarsh Seen from below, from the viewpoint of the victimized and marginalized, the city takes on a permanent twilight glow, as bright promise meets dark, hard realities. This is the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMMonday, October 7, 2013
Everything about this world-premiere adaptation of French author Marguerite Duras’ novel of the same name is surreal. Scenes fade in and out with dreamlike transitions and overlap. Daniel …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMFriday, October 4, 2013
“How do we tell that story and, like, tell the truth?” one hip young ensemble member asks another in the unwieldy (and unwieldily titled) “Unwilling and Hostile Instruments: 100 Years …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMThursday, October 3, 2013
RECOMMENDED Talk about high-concept. If you can’t gather what this show is about based on the title… what kind of a dumb schmuck are you? Based on the popular website OldJewsTellingJ…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMWednesday, October 2, 2013
RECOMMENDED According to country singer Charlie Daniels, when the Devil went down to Georgia he was looking for a soul to steal. In Marco Ramirez’ supernatural-themed rock-comedy, when the…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:47PM‘Tis the season for gothic tales and Grey Ghost Theatre obliges with Evan Chung’s original adaptation of “The Book of Spectres.” These ancient tales were original…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:42PMWednesday, September 25, 2013
RECOMMENDED As a sketch towards the end of this gentle send-up of Chicago makes clear (with a self-referential punchline), Second City has been making audiences laugh (and casting directors …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:39PMMonday, September 23, 2013
RECOMMENDED Giants walk the earth. We tend not to notice. Until they fall. The explosion in communications technology that occurred in the twentieth century created a truly unprecedented new…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:16PMThursday, September 12, 2013
RECOMMENDED “That’s Weird, Grandma…” You know you’ve heard the phrase, though just what it connotes has always remained a tad unclear. (Sometimes it’s…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:57AMTuesday, September 10, 2013
RECOMMENDED As they’ve opted to open with a brief narrative recap (“Once upon a time, all the folk were free…”), it’s clear that writers Nathan Allen and Chris Matthews are well aw…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:47PMMonday, September 9, 2013
RECOMMENDED “I love Hollywood. Of course I do…” declares Nora Dunn’s opening character, a gregarious eighty-seven-year-old Hollywood type discussing her behind-the-scenes involvement…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:24PMRECOMMENDED “Sweet Child of Mine” is a short, entertaining theatrical piece by Bron Batten and her parents Jim and Linda Batten. It mixes the boundaries of live performance, “home vide…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:20PMFriday, September 6, 2013
RECOMMENDED In 1979, Hank Williams Jr. released the song “Family Tradition” in which he demands of the listener: “Stop and think it over / put yourself in my position. If I get stoned …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:27PMBy Joshua C. Robinson In the 1860s, George Pullman, a pioneering businessman, created a new position on trains that carried with it an embroiled dichotomy: the Pullman Porter. Pullman only h…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMWednesday, September 4, 2013
Say you’re a musical actor. And say your brother happens to be one as well. Say that both of you are actually really good at this whole musical acting thing. Now, suppose that you want to …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:14PMThe Plagiarists current production of “King Ubu” is an updated version of “Ubu Roi,” Alfred Jarry’s revolutionary social satire and the godfather of all ensuing…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:07PM 
