Friday, April 25, 2014
RECOMMENDED From the very beginning of Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” you know there’s a train coming, but you can’t get off the track. All you can do is watch as the tr…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00PMRECOMMENDED Having spent time in the mid-1880s dipped in some sort of madness reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Hatter, August Strindberg dug himself out of his personal rabbit hole and conti…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMWednesday, April 23, 2014
By Aaron Hunt In her autobiography, “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,” Maria von Trapp wrote of her confusion when the Mother Abbess of Nonnberg Abbey encouraged her to forsake her…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMMonday, April 21, 2014
Route 66 Theatre Company introduced itself to the Chicago and national scene with total transparency, both in name and in mission statement, undertaking to introduce, develop, produce and �…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:00PMWednesday, April 16, 2014
RECOMMENDED Flashing lights, club music, alcoholic beverages, a coat rack, wristbands and people mingling seem more like traits of a party than a play. However, this is what audience members…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PMBy Hugh Iglarsh “What are the hallmarks of American culture that are also typical of ADD? The fast pace. The sound bite. The bottom line. Short takes, quick cuts … High stimulation. Rest…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMSunday, April 13, 2014
RECOMMENDED Artistic Director Ann Filmer (who serves as director for “Pinkolandia”) and the 16th Street Theater stay in stride in this multi-layered, culturally-significant, fict…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:00PMFriday, April 11, 2014
It’s been one of those days for Jamie (Brett Schneider), the shaky protagonist of Next Theatre’s “The Great God Pan.” First, he discovers that his live-in girlfriend Paige (Kristina …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PMTuesday, April 8, 2014
RECOMMENDED A topical family drama that reaches its true heights in its comic moments, The Fine Print’s production of Erik Gernand’s “A Place In The Woods” is unassuming and refreshi…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:00PMMonday, April 7, 2014
RECOMMENDED “God’s Work” isn’t a theater piece that unfolds linearly, but more of a concept constructed from moods and feelings, with scenes often tying together or melting into each…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 11:00AMSunday, April 6, 2014
RECOMMENDED This gal’s got some real balls. Is that too blue for you? Sorry, I just couldn’t resist such a nice opening. Oh, she’s got one of those too. Lest you think I’m being too …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMFriday, April 4, 2014
The early spring evening turned ominously autumnal as I approached the holy stone building that houses City Lit Theater. Unfortunately nothing nearly as spooky transpired inside, during City…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMThursday, April 3, 2014
Superhero origin stories are interesting beasts. We know precisely where the story will end up (a hero is born!) before it even begins. What matters in this subgenre (if that’s what it can…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 09:00AMTuesday, April 1, 2014
RECOMMENDED That old axiom about the strength of family ties is given a careful re-examination in Melissa Ross’ “Thinner Than Water.” Relentless from the start, the play begins with th…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PMRECOMMENDED The musical or operetta or opera or lyric theater phoneme (depending upon whom you speak with and how empty the champagne bottle) “Candide” was birthed by Voltaire, and enjoy…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMRECOMMENDED Vicki Quade, creator of “Put the Nuns in Charge” and co-writer of “Late Nite Catechism,” has put together an interactive show filled with Catholic humor. Our Lady of Go…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:00AMMonday, March 31, 2014
Guy De Maupassant’s short story on the jewels of one Monsieur Lantin succeeds largely on its thrifty pacing and its economy of detail. By the time you’ve settled into the notion of Lanti…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 01:00PMSunday, March 30, 2014
RECOMMENDED Though you can almost always count on Second City revues to deliver plenty of laughs, thematic consistency isn’t quite as reliable. “Depraved New World” – the 102nd r…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:00PMSaturday, March 29, 2014
RECOMMENDED Stephen Sondheim has both refined and blurred the sloppy genre that is our current understanding of lyric theater. With patter mimicking actual speech, the blazing speed of varia…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:30PMFriday, March 28, 2014
By Raymond Rehayem “I like to leave a play behind,” says playwright David Ives. “This play feels very old to me. It’s like four plays ago already.” The play in question is IvesR…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMWednesday, March 26, 2014
RECOMMENDED Adults with kids: “Dinosaur Zoo” is an interactive puppet show about dinosaurs in the same way that a Hummer Limousine is a car. It’s really fun, it’s bigger th…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:30PMMonday, March 24, 2014
RECOMMENDED If the best way to determine the success of a children’s play is by the quiet smiling faces of its audience, then Lifeline Theatre’s performance of “Lyle Finds His Mother�…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PMRECOMMENDED Yes, yet another production of Shakespeare’s anarcho-pagan comedy that dares to ask the question: Is there anything less romantic than patriarchy, religion and capitalism – i…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 08:00AMSaturday, March 22, 2014
RECOMMENDED In “Road Show,” now playing at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Stephen Sondheim and John Wiedman compress the story of minor American legends Wilson and Addison Mizner into a pe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 04:00PMWednesday, March 19, 2014
RECOMMENDED When does “innocence” evaporate? When does “inheritance” jump the financial ledger and land onto the behavioral spreadsheet? And how much weight can we grant the still-ge…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:00PMRECOMMENDED “The Killing of Michael X” is that rare piece of art; a complex, genre-evasive production that keeps the viewer off balance for almost its entirety before ultimately deliveri…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:00PMTuesday, March 18, 2014
RECOMMENDED Theater, like music, enlightens, opens eyes and can connect partakers viscerally to seemingly disparate segments of the population: people who aren’t “them,” exotic “othe…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 06:30PMRECOMMENDED Chapatti, an unleavened flatbread, is a staple of South Asian cuisine. Chapatti is also the name bestowed upon the beloved dog of Dan (John Mahoney), the male half of the two-han…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 10:00AMMonday, March 17, 2014
The teen besties of “Ghost Bike” face a fearsome transition: Ora (Aurora Adachi-Winter) is bound for college out of state, while her pal Eddie (Ricky Staffieri) is remaining in the town …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 12:00PMBy Raymond Rehayem Back in the cathode ray days of my pre-HD childhood, when my father bemoaned my obscure taste in comic books (“What are the X-Men? Why can’t you like something popular…
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 07:00AMSaturday, March 15, 2014
“Ithaka” begins with a walk-on appearance by Odysseus (Andrew Saenz), bemoaning the ten years it took him to get home from the smoking ruins of Troy, thanks to the ill will of the gods. …
SOURCE: Newcity Stage at 03:00PM 
