C.J. Fernandes

A HOLIDAY MYSTERY WITH VICTORIAN MISCHIEF ON ITS MIND Chesterton by way of Conan Doyle, wrapped in Wodehouse-style tomfoolery Arthur Conan Doyle wrote only one Christmas-themed Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle — coincidentally, the first Holmes story I ever read — which was adapted into a charming play by Michael Menendian…

A THRILLER THAT OUTLASTS ITS TWIST Even when we know what’s coming, the tension holds Let’s talk about the cojones required to mount a production of Gaslight nowadays. Even if we assume — a tall order, that assumption — that most of the audience has not seen, or does not know, the plot of George…

THE OG CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY The Goodman puts the chills back in the chestnuts ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ In some ways, it is remarkable that Goodman Theatre’s annual production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has persisted as a theatrical tradition during the holidays. Theatre is expensive as a…

NO GROWN-UPS ALLOWED — SORT OF CCT’s Beatrix Potter party charms kids, critics, and everyone in between ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ “Channel your inner three-year-old, not your adult,” was the advice given to me as I settled into my seat at Chicago Children’s Theatre. To which my immediate unspoken…

TOAD-ALLY DELIGHTFUL Ribbiting from start to finish, this Year goes by in a flash. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series has delighted generations of young readers for decades, beginning in 1970. In 2000, his daughter Andrea Lobel (a well-regarded theatrical scenic designer in her own…

THERE IS NO TAMING THIS PRICKLY AND INVIGORATING SHREW ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ I won’t deny it: I squealed in excitement when I received the invitation to review Court Theatre’s new production of The Taming of the Shrew. Not because it’s one of Shakespeare’s best (it isn’t), or even…

THE OTHER CHRISTMAS CAROL A clever, moving tale of a ghost searching for grace ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Boy does it suck to be Jacob Marley. You die a lonely death, are doomed to perdition, and come back as a tortured ghost laden with chains to warn your former…

A WIG-PULLING, EYE-SCRATCHING BAUBLE OF HOLIDAY CHEER ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ When The Real Housewives of Orange County premiered on Bravo in 2006, I doubt anyone could have predicted the “reality” television juggernaut it would become. Over the next nineteen years the franchise has launched ten series, and assorted…

COARSE, HAIRY FUN ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The Christmas pantomime, or “panto”, as it is colloquially called, is a longstanding English holiday theatre entertainment that’s never made much inroads outside the Commonwealth, more’s the pity. Drawing on the commedia dell’arte tradition, they’re usually based on fairy tales and incorporate…

MURDER, MAYHEM, AND A MANUSCRIPT TO DIE FOR Sometimes uncontrollable forces work in your favor. How fortunate then for MadKap productions that on the opening night of their production of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, Chicago was plunged with little warning into its first winter storm of the season, with sub-zero temperatures, gale-force winds, and heavy snow….

GO ON AND BITE INTO THIS DONUT– YOU’VE EARNED IT It must have been quite a shock to Tracy Letts fans when Superior Donuts premiered at Steppenwolf in 2008. Chicago Theatre’s favorite adopted son had been coming off a streak of intense, gripping dramas, with his most recent one, August, Osage County, cleaning up at…

SHARP CAST, BLUNT SATIRE A Fierce Ensemble Fights for Meaning in Angry Fags Topher Payne’s Angry Fags first made its appearance in 2015, in a world that was decidedly different from what it is now, and Ghostlight Ensemble’s new production at the Lifeline Theatre in Rogers Park is timely. There have been some changes made…

425 YEARS LATER, THE O.G. ROMCOM STILL CASTS A SPELL Writers Theatre in Glencoe, a charming North Shore Chicago suburb, has developed a reputation for impeccably produced theater of extremely high quality. Their newest production, a Midwest premiere of the musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It by Laurie Woolery and Tony-winner Shaina Taub…

THIS HOUSE STANDS ON FAITH AND FURY Invictus Theatre’s The House That Will Not Stand blazes with wit, grief, and grace Following the smashing success of its production of Angels in America, Invictus Theatre Co. notches up another triumph with Marcus Gardley’s Obie-winner, The House That Will Not Stand. In this (very) loose adaptation of…

TOWERING TALENT ELEVATES A MUSICAL AS SCHIZOPHRENIC AS JEKYLL & HYDE THEMSELVES Next up for Halloween, and my second gothic horror in as many days, is Kokandy Productions’ presentation of the musical, Jekyll & Hyde, first produced in 1990 with music by Frank Wildhorn, book by Leslie Bricusse, and lyrics by Wildhorn, Bricusse, and Steve…

A Bite Out of Minimalism: Timothy Griffin’s imaginative adaptation turns Stoker’s most chilling chapter into a voyage of dread, myth, and mind In 1897, Bram Stoker published a gothic horror novel called Dracula and in doing so introduced to the world a character that has fascinated and terrified humanity for over a hundred years and…