Saturday, April 8, 2017
With Goodman Theatre's Destiny of Desire, playwright Karen Zacarias might have invented a new theatrical genre. The unabashedly histrionic production is part Greek tragedy, part frantic sex …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 09:06PMSaturday, April 1, 2017
Court Theatre's The Hard Problem, by Tom Stoppard, is sleek, smart and beguiling. Director Charles Newell’s sharp and luminous cast keeps you engaged both intellectually and emotionally, e…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:31PMWednesday, March 22, 2017
The real stars of Circus 1903 are not humans. The show’s signature is its life-sized puppet elephants, created by designer Melvyn Millar. But while the elephants are wonderful, Circus 1903…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:06PMMonday, March 20, 2017
At 90 minutes, Steppenwolf's Straight White Men, written and directed by Young Jean Lee, zips by at the pace of an expertly timed sitcom, but plumbs depths worthy of a dissertation. By expos…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:06AMSunday, March 19, 2017
Boho Theatre’s budget may be small compared to the well-oiled musical theater machines found elsewhere in Chicago, but make no mistake, their production of Urinetown packs a mighty punch. …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:54PMFriday, March 17, 2017
Director Marti Maraden does as well as anyone could with Love’s Labor’s Lost, a production that looks gorgeous on stage, but the script itself is lacking. If nothing else, the productio…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:54PMThursday, March 16, 2017
It’s clear from Sweeney Todd's opening number that Director Jim Corti understands both the scope of the show, and how to make it work within the soaring spaces of the Paramount. Several ba…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:36AMTuesday, March 14, 2017
For the national tour of John Cameron Mitchell's Hedway and the Angry Inch, the production has been gussied up and deeply commercialized. That it still works in terms of both potent storytel…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:24AMSaturday, March 11, 2017
Devised by the London-based Theatre de Complicite and conceived by Simon McBurney, A Disappearing Number is at once a mathematical mystery thriller, a romance, and a tragedy rooted in histor…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:42PMFriday, March 10, 2017
In Kander and Ebb's "The Scottsboro Boys," powerfully presented by Porchlight Music Theatre, the juxtaposition of the antic shenanigans and the tragic story they’re telling creates the sen…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:32PMFriday, March 3, 2017
There’s an important, provocative and entertaining story buried within Marcus Gardley’s A Wonder in My Soul. The world premiere drama is filled with joy, strength and fascinating charact…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:32AMMonday, February 27, 2017
Teatro Vista's world premiere by Ike Holter's never comes out and identifies just who the real wolf is, and that is to the play’scredit. It could be any of us. And that’s what helps make…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:03AMFriday, February 24, 2017
The Illusionists is terrific escapist entertainment. Each of the magicians showcased have their own gimmick, look and shtick. Over the course of two hours or so, they provide a range of illu…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:24AMThursday, February 23, 2017
Director Karen Kessler has shaped a vividly realized world with Jennifer Haley's haunting, futuristic thriller The Nether. The production is at once an escape from the real, and a vivid comm…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 03:36PMWednesday, February 22, 2017
Swarthy pirates, saucy wenches and ridiculously coiffed villains - all-in-all there’s much to applaud in Captain Blood. David Rice’s adaptation of Rafael Sabatini’s 1922 adventure nove…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:48AMTuesday, February 21, 2017
At times funny, at others disturbing and increasingly intriguing the deeper you get into the two-hour production, Windy City Playhouse's Bootycandy sneaks up on you, drawing you into the cha…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:24PMTuesday, January 31, 2017
Pearle Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky offers pretty much everything you could want in a drama - thrilling story, unforgettable character and mesmerizing dialogue. The emotional spectrum i…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 09:18PMSunday, January 29, 2017
If you look hard enough, there are glimmers of potential buried in Meg Miroshnik’s Depression-era drama of teenage girls trying to escape an oppressive world by teaming up to play basketba…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:48PMThursday, January 26, 2017
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is an unapologetic campfest of fabulous drag-queen proportions, and an homage to 70's disco music. Though Honey West does a star turn in this produciton, Pris…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:12PMMonday, January 23, 2017
Winter is coming - we all reach the point where there is far more behind us than ahead. Rivendell Theatre's Winter, by Julie Jensen, exploring one woman's personal winter as she comes to gri…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:54PMWednesday, January 18, 2017
Lucas Hnath’s latest drama, The Christians, is packed with the sort of provocative questions that fuel all-night philosophical discussions. As a debate, Steppenwolf's production has merit.…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:12PMMonday, January 16, 2017
Part of Greenhouse Theater's Solo Celebration! series, Her America, by Brett Neveu, has a troubling premise regarding women's choices. That being said, Kate Buddeke is an actor of fierce ab…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:06AMSaturday, January 14, 2017
Despite a winning roster of country favorites and powerful, talented voices to serve them up, Honky Tonk Angels is all but done in by the barrage of clichés that creator Ted Swindley has mu…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:12PMThursday, January 12, 2017
There’s power in the image of women working together to ensure each other’s survival, all the while refusing to be categorized in terms of traditional gender norms. Unfortunately, that p…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:33PMFriday, December 16, 2016
Playwright Simon Stephens never explicitly mentions autism in the drama inspired by Mark Haddon’s novel. But as this alternately funny, wrenching, riveting, and ultimately inspiring story …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 03:48PMTuesday, December 6, 2016
Mitchell Fain is putting his pointy-toed, jingle-belled foot down. Instead of yet another foray into Sedarisland, Fain is offering up his own take on Christmas. Theater Wit's This Way Outta …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:18PMFriday, December 2, 2016
In Sophocles' Electra at Court Theatre, Director Seret Scott makes all of the over-the-top grandeur and affectation work. The talented cast goes huge, creating a beautiful exploration into t…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:06PMSaturday, November 26, 2016
Sometimes loud, sometimes garish, and never especially subtle, The Hypocrites' world premiere Cinderella at the Theater of the Potatoes is a confection of an operetta. Throughout, it makes j…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:02PMMonday, November 21, 2016
At first, Erika Sheffer's world premiere The Fundamentals seems as if it will be a razor-sharp parody/expose of the grimy inner workings of an outwardly gleaming luxury hotel. But the drama,…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:42PMSunday, November 20, 2016
Victory Garden's Roz and Ray, by Karen Hartman, is both sobering and upsetting. It is also commands your attention. Hartman has captured a world of Big Pharma injustice in the two-person dra…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:24PMFriday, November 18, 2016
With Northlight Theatre's Miss Bennet-Christmas at Pemberley, playwrights Margot Melcon and Lauren Gunderson craft a sparkling, witty, feel-good world premiere rom-com that is also a sharp, …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:12PM 
