Monday, July 30, 2018
With Flying Elephant Productions' Defacing Michael Jackson, playwright Aurin Squire has a terrific, multifaceted story on his hands - a group of kids in middle-of-nowhere 1980s Florida form …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:32PMSunday, July 29, 2018
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins thrives on keeping an audience on their toes. He pulled it off successfully in Goodman Theatre's Gloria, with a shocking plot twist at the end of the play�…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:12PMMonday, July 16, 2018
Hell in Handbag Production's The Golden Girls--The Lost Episodes, Volume 2 is an incredibly entertaining evening for fans of a different Fab Four - Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia. Three o…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:12PMThursday, July 5, 2018
Tilikum, an allegory of slavery with the best of intentions. has a unique setting and an even more unique way of telling its story, incorporating dance, percussion and one heck of a projecti…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:24PMFriday, June 29, 2018
The View UpStairs, a musical about the last night of the UpStairs Lounge that, before an arsonist set the gay bar ablaze (killing 32 people in the process), premiered off-Broadway in Februar…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:36PMWednesday, June 27, 2018
The Laramie Project is one of AstonRep’s strongest productions to date, and well-placed during Pride Month: a sober reminder of a defining moment in queer history, a sad reminder of what m…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:42PMMonday, June 25, 2018
Neil Gaiman is a phenomenon for a reason - his stories contain a flawless blend of the fantastical and the deeply human. His book Neverwhere, adapted for the stage by Rebert Kauzlaric, is n…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:48PMThursday, April 26, 2018
Memphis is inspired by the life of Dewey Phillips, the first radio DJ to play Elvis Presley’s music (and rock 'n roll music in general). While Memphis is not a direct biography of Phillips…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:18PMTuesday, April 24, 2018
L’Imitation of Life, which premiered in 2013 before this year’s remount, is one of Hell in a Handbag’s stronger parodies. Though it will mainly appeal to an older audience due to its s…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 03:54PMSunday, April 22, 2018
Some plays hit you right where you live. The Cake is about, well, a wedding cake, but it’s also about the pull between two worlds - the home you make as an adult, and the place you were bo…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:24PMMonday, April 16, 2018
Based on the 1980 movie, the musical 9 to 5 opened on Broadway in 2009, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. Sadly, the musical has an uneven score and an inconsistent, shallow book, and d…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:42PMSaturday, April 7, 2018
Performed at the Windy City Café, the production is meticulously staged by director Christopher Pazdernik and features gorgeous acoustic musical direction courtesy of Jon Schneidman, who pl…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:00AMSunday, March 25, 2018
With its US premiere, Akvavit Theatre's Bad Girls-The Stylists is absurdly funny and strangely empowering. Michael Evans’ translation of Astrid Saalbach’s script is delightfully weird, r…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:50PMIt’s difficult to make a play based solely on a popular stock photo image turned Internet meme. That’s exactly what Theater Wit's Women Laughing Alone With Salad tries, and fails, to do.…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:52PMFriday, March 23, 2018
Mary Stuart is thoughtfully executed from beginning to end, hitting it out of the park on all counts. The gowns are eye candy, the cast gifted and the production team thorough. Reimagined by…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:55PMMonday, March 19, 2018
Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina has been adapted many times over the years for stage and screen, and Jessica Wright Buha’s world premiere adaptation for Lifeline Theatre effectively captures t…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:17PMThursday, March 15, 2018
It’s helpful to know Gilda Radner’s body of work, particularly on SNL, before watching Bunny Bunny. That said, Chicago is a perfect city for this play, with its legacy of comedy and the …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:52PMWednesday, March 14, 2018
Lookingglass Theatre's world-premiere by ensemble member Kevin Douglas, is a sharp, darkly funny 95-minute roller coaster, expertly directed by ensemble member David Schwimmer and beautifull…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:45PMTuesday, March 13, 2018
Developed over two years with Broken Nose Theatre, Playwright Michael Allen Harris’ newest work is a thoughtful, funny and a tragic meditation on a multi-generational African-American quee…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:56PMThursday, March 8, 2018
The Neo-Futurists have an incredibly distinctive style: either you like it or you don’t. Either way, there is no other company in Chicago like them. If you like theater history and stage c…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:38PMThursday, March 1, 2018
Creatively staged as an immersive experience where the audience is seated on the edges of different rooms and patio, Southern Gothic, by Leslie Liautaud, is a fascinating glimpse inside the …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:35PMFriday, February 16, 2018
Bertolt Brecht’s series of vignettes following different characters as Germany approaches World War II is uncomfortable, sad and downright scary. It’s also important and essential viewin…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:58PMFriday, February 2, 2018
With the national tour of Stephen Karam’s The Humans, there's a amazing melding of Karam's script, Mantello’s direction and the excellent production team and cast accurately portraying t…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:21PMWednesday, January 31, 2018
We’re Gonna Be Okay, written by playwright Basil Kreimendahl, explores America's fear and paranoia of nuclear war in the early 1960's through the eyes of two neighboring families who decid…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:05PMThursday, January 25, 2018
There's a lot to love in Arthur Miller's All My Sons. Both Johanna McKenzie Miller and Abby Pierce give nuanced performances as neighborhood women, and John Judd expertly guides us through J…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:37PMWednesday, January 24, 2018
Playwright Anna Ziegler began Boy as a direct homage to David Reimer, who in1967 at 18-month-old, was left with damaged genitals due to a circumcision accident. Desperate, his parents turned…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:27PMMonday, January 22, 2018
What does loyalty mean? How far does it go? And what if your loyalty (or lack of) affects your livelihood and the ability to support your family? Award-winning playwright Lee Blessing tackle…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:53PMFriday, December 22, 2017
Playwright and poet Aziza Barnes wrote BLKS as a self-portrait of herself and her best friends in her early 20s. Full of laugh-out-loud moments as well as dark humor and quiet poignancy, BLK…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:12PMTuesday, December 19, 2017
*Potted* means condensed. *Potter,* at least in this case, means Harry Potter, a child wizard and the center of seven books that propelled J.K. Rowling from broke schoolteacher to wealthy me…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:54PMTuesday, December 12, 2017
Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Red Velvet chronicles Ira Aldridge’s groundbreaking but ill-timed two-day run as Othello at Covent Garden in 1833, the first African-American actor to star on…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:24PMSaturday, December 9, 2017
When Tracy Letts' newest play, The Minutes, is good, it’s very, very good, and that’s the case for the play’s first 90-95 minutes. As a small-town transplant myself, I can verify the h…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:18AM 
