How you feel about They’re Playing Our Song will depend on how you feel about Neil Simon and the 1970s. Simon wrote the 1970s-set script, Marvin Hamlisch the music. Luckily, Brown Paper Bo…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:36PMThanks to excellent direction and choreography from one of Chicago’s best, Rachel Rockwell, as well as stunning production values and a great cast, this flashy production at Navy Pier will…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:48AMIn a nutshell, the musical Triassic Parq is *Jurassic Park* from the perspective of the dinosaurs who eventually escape their quarters and turn a dream theme park into a disaster. What ensu…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 09:42PMSteep Theatre's Lela & Co. is a difficult but vital watch. The title character presents her life story through the eyes of the men in her life as compared with what she actually experie…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:54PMEclipse Theatre's mission of *one playwright one season* allows the audience to delve into a specific playwright's body of work. With the world premiere of Megastasis, playwright Kia Corthro…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:36AMStep into a lonely Amsterdam bar in 1959. What will you find? If you are the team behind Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Losers of the Night, the answer is: an openhearted bartender, two winsome s…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:36PMThe Bridges of Madison County is well worth the jaunt outside of Chicago. The story is simple, the direction stellar, the music hauntingly beautiful and the actors stunning. Bridges is an in…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:04PMNow in its sixth season of presenting free Shakespeare in Chicago parks, Midsommer Flight both keeps Hamlet simple and dives into the complexities of mental illness, violence and the consequ…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:18AMDouglas Carter Beane’s The Nance, a play exploring the gay-stereotypes used in 1930's New York vaudeville, premiered on Broadway in 2013 starring Nathan Lane – an actor who himself has p…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:36PMChicago Tap Theatre first staged Changes, its sci-fi tap tribute to David Bowie, 11 years ago in the company’s infancy, and re-staged it 5 years later. Despite *Changes* being their most r…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 03:32PMAkvavit Theatre's Hitler on the Roof creates a stunning mural of physical theater where the action is darkly beautiful and the stage picture constantly changing. Taking place in a basement p…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 08:06PMBeautifully adapted by Jeff Award-winner Robert Kauzlaric, Her Majesty’s Will, based on the novel by David Blixt, imagines Shakespeare’s early years as a swashbuckling adventure full of …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:54PMWith Strawdog Theatre's The Night Season, playwright and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s creates a fable of a dysfunctional Irish family and the English actor who finds himself smack in …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:12AMJohnny 10 Beers’ Daughter, brought to us by Something Marvelous, profiles individuals in war zones – in this case a father and daughter – but instead of intelligent and unpredictable, …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 12:42AMThoughtfully penned, directed and acted, AstonRep Theatre’s Time Stands Still features a complex female lead, whose actions affect those around her in realistic and surprising ways. Highly…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:06PMTheresa Rebeck’s Seminar feels like a wannabe literary adaptation of “The Paper Chase." Instead of the law students, however, Seminar protaganists are wannabe novelists, living in New Yo…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:36PMLa Havana Madrid clearly is a labor of love for Sandra Delgado and Teatro Vista, but is never self-indulgent. Rather, it’s a much-needed history lesson for some, a relatable reflection for…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:24AMIf phenomenal songs and excellent performances were enough to save a show, Underscore Theatre's world premiere My Name Is Annie King would have a higher rating from me. Unfortunately, the cu…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:36PMDirector Michael Pogue is clearly emotionally invested, but overwhelmed starting with Kia Corthron's heavy, meaningful play. It’s unfortunate, because Eclipse Theatre's Force Continuum con…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 03:54AMIn To America is a stark, complex and emotional reminder of what truly makes America great, with stories ranging from heartbreaking to funny and everything in between: scrappy street urchins…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:24PMOver the course of 85 minutes, I was totally immersed in the action - when the characters jumped, I jumped. I gasped when a knock on the door signaled a turning point in their collective fat…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 02:02AMSideshow Theatre's truth and reconciliation isn’t perfect, but it is incredibly ambitious. On the whole it succeeds, exploring the nuance and humanity behind conflicts small and large. Wit…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:36PMAlways teeming with enthusiastic and grateful fans, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a belated Christmas gift to Chicago. Dancers who defy gravity, choreographers who make thoughtful an…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 11:32PMShakespeare’s Henry V is one of the more beloved history plays, and Babes With Blades seeks to give the script a modern twist with an all-female cast and realistic stage violence, as Direc…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:36PMChicago playwright Barbara Lhota's world premiere Phantom Pain could have been a nuanced portrayal of friendship, race and privilege, but instead is unfortunately a thin one-dimensional ploy…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:03PMGentle doesn’t appear to have much of a point, nor does it dig especially deep into its antihero’s psyche. Thankfully, the material is elevated through stellar production values and firs…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 04:03PMDespite trying to hard at times, Writer-Performer Cathy Schenkelberg is charismatic and winning, and the audience roots for her the entire fast-paced 80 minutes. Squeeze My Cans offers a rar…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 01:18AM"... the cast is phenomenal: a well-oiled machine who work together beautifully while also standing out in their own right...they are gorgeous to watch. Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble’s main…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 07:42PMCircle Theatre’s provocative and stunning Venus in Fur and its themes of domination, submission and performance are still with me in the days after the premiere. What could have been disas…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 05:54PMWith a bloated running time of three hours, Mike Bartlett’s "Earthquakes in London" tries to present a gripping saga of family and natural phenomena. Instead, it’s dull, overly long and …
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 10:42PMThis world premiere play, based on one family's Holocaust story – equal parts frustrating, satisfying and full of unanswered questions – has compelling, inspiring roots and is beautifull…
SOURCE: Chicago Theater Beat at 06:06PM